hidden disabilities Archives - Johnson Scholarship Foundation

JSF Director Bea Awoniyi Reflects on Partnership with ND Alliance

March 25, 2025/in Bea Awoniyi, Neurodiversity Alliance, News

This article was originally published on the website of The Neurodiversity Alliance, our grantee partner. It is shared here with permission.

ND Alliance Board Spotlight: Bea Awoniyi

Bea Awoniyi. Photo by Matt Stamey/Santa Fe College.

Over the past 40 years, I have been deeply committed to ensuring that young people feel supported and empowered as they navigate their educational journeys. As the Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs at Santa Fe College, I aim to show up every day for students in various meaningful ways. That is one of the reasons I became involved with The Neurodiversity Alliance as a Board Director—I want to continue my advocating and support for students with diverse learning needs, ensuring they have the agency, resources, accommodations, and community they deserve.

A year ago, as a Board Member of the Johnson Scholarship Foundation and The Neurodiversity Alliance, I witnessed a meaningful milestone—the Foundation’s decision to provide a game-changing grant to support the ND Alliance. This partnership grew from a shared commitment to creating inclusive environments where all students, including neurodivergent individuals, can thrive and prepare for bright futures.

The ND Alliance’s innovative work in building a strong support network for neurodivergent students stood out at a time when more neurodiverse students were embracing their identity in postsecondary environments; something I see every day with my work in higher education in general and at Santa Fe College in particular. The ND Alliance’s creative programs address real challenges this community faces. What resonated most was the organization’s focus on helping young people develop agency, foster belonging, and embrace their unique strengths. We know belonging is key to success for neurodiverse students in postsecondary education.

Thanks to the Johnson Scholarship Foundation’s grant, the past year has seen impressive progress. The funding supported the expansion of the ND Alliance Portal—a vibrant space for students to connect, share experiences, and access resources. It also powered new workshops on college retention strategies and career readiness through Campus Clubs while maintaining the original Eye to Eye Mentoring program, which the Foundation first funded back in 2007. Their Student Ambassadors speak nationwide, sharing their stories and experiences, and many more are now student leaders. We invite you to read about each of these programs here. Please inquire for more information if you’d like to bring programming to your school and students!

As someone fortunate to serve on both boards, I couldn’t be more proud of what we’ve achieved together. The progress of The Neurodiversity Alliance shows the incredible resilience and brilliance of neurodivergent students when given the right support. The Johnson Scholarship Foundation remains dedicated to championing educational equity and inclusion through its mission to help people prepare for and obtain a college degree.

Looking ahead, I’m excited to see how this partnership continues to grow, leaving a lasting legacy of empowerment and opportunity for neurodivergent students.

Landmark College Student Excels in Education

May 24, 2024/in Landmark College, News

This article was originally published in the Johnson Scholarship Foundation’s 2023 annual report about Landmark College, a grantee partner of the foundation. Click here to read more content from the annual report.

Sam Mayo, a person with autism, had a significant speech impediment as a young boy. As he got older, school became more of a challenge. By junior high, he had been labeled a troublemaker.

“His communication skills made it difficult for people to understand him,” his mother Stephanie Mayo said. “He would zone out but then come back, and Sam didn’t want to raise his ideas or questions. One teacher thought he was an incredible kid, but everyone else came down on him. That was heartbreaking.”

Stephanie knew her son’s education was at stake, so she enrolled him in a homeschool resource center in their hometown of Lexington, South Carolina. When it was time to think about Sam’s future, Stephanie had to face a new challenge. She learned about Landmark College’s dual enrollment program from her sister, who taught science at the homeschool center.

In 2022, the Mayos visited Landmark College to learn about the online dual enrollment program, which JSF helps fund through a matching grant. Located in Putney, Vermont, the college provides highly accessible learning approaches to individuals who learn differently.

“I looked all over. Many schools had a department for kids who learn differently—but these kids don’t have a neon sign,” said Stephanie, explaining that not every student learns the same way. “As soon as we got on campus, I knew what Landmark was about. It was an easy decision.”

“He was excited and also a bit apprehensive about dual enrollment, college-level education,” she wrote in an email. “[Landmark went] out of their way to make him feel heard, accepted, and understood.”

Just two weeks after Sam started taking classes, his attitude toward schoolwork changed. That fall, Stephanie learned about the Johnson Scholarship.

“We knew the tuition cost—we were looking at the yearly tab thinking, ‘Oh, help!’” she recalled. “The scholarship covered nearly all of the costs, and gave Sam the opportunity to get to know Landmark’s style and prepare for an actual college experience.”

“As soon as we got on campus, I knew what Landmark was about. It was an easy decision.”

Sam is currently a freshman* at Landmark, where he says he’s glad to be near other students with autism. Sending a child to college is a big change for any parent. Still, Stephanie says she feels safe knowing her son is at Landmark.

“For the first time in his life, [Sam] is interested in his own education and pushing himself,” she said. “We are so proud of him, and I tell him that all the time.”

Sam Mayo was a freshman at the time this article was written.

University of South Florida Student Uses Love of Reading to Impact Others

December 17, 2023/in News, University of South Florida

This article was written by Johnson Scholar Elaine Feaster, a student at the University of South Florida. It is shared here with permission.

A person stands by an outdoor lending library shaped like a small house on a pole and a box of children's books.

Elaine poses with a Little Lending Library at the University Area Community Park, where she donated books as part of her Girl Scout Gold Award.

My name is Elaine Feaster and I’m a recipient of the Johnson Scholarship Foundation, which will help me pursue my academic and career goals. In August, I started at the University of South Florida in the College of Education. I’m so excited to officially begin working toward my profession in education—as I believe that the education of children is the foundation of our society.

I’m studying to be a secondary social science teacher with my goal to get a PhD to eventually teach at the university level. I have always had a passion for helping others, as demonstrated through my over 475 service volunteer hours during high school, so I knew that helping others in some capacity would be at the heart of my career.

During my four years at Freedom High School in Tampa, I was a part of the National Honor Society, National Art Honor Society, National Science Honor Society, National Latin Honor Society, Key Club, Environmental Club, FBLA, Best Buddies, and the varsity volleyball team. Outside of school, I have volunteered with the Girl Scouts, YMCA, Knights of Columbus, Greater Tampa Bay Blue Star Mothers, Metropolitan Ministries, and Oasis Opportunities. I have devoted many hours to the YMCA. For four years I was a youth volunteer coach for volleyball, where I mentored, helped, and encouraged young volleyball players to develop their skills and sportsmanship.

The volunteering I’m most proud of is the time I spent working on my Girl Scout Gold Award, focusing on Literary Awareness. When I was in third grade, I was diagnosed with a reading disability, so literacy was at the top of ways I could give back. I began promoting literacy and getting books into the hands of children who didn’t have them.

This past summer I completed my Girl Scout Gold Award, where I collected and donated 4,400 books to at-risk students and communities (stamped with my website; now in total I have donated 11,500 books to underperforming schools), created a resource Literacy Portal Website—ScoutingForBooks.com—to help people understand the importance of reading, and I created a Book Buddy resource information packet (which can be downloaded from my website) on how schools can help struggling students with reading. I wanted to make a lasting impact in my community and help children, knowing that other students have similar challenges that I have.

Receiving this scholarship has helped me be able to live on campus, which I absolutely love. I’m close to my classes, I meet friends at the dining halls and pool, I’ve participated in many campus events and activities, and I use all of the study resources. USF is such a great school, with diverse communities and getting to meet so many new people. After taking a semester to get familiar with the school, I plan on joining a few clubs and organizations next semester getting more involved with the USF community. I enjoy my classes and making connections with my classmates and professors. Even though the university is big, I have gotten to know my instructors—and that connection is invaluable. I look forward to being a part of the USF community in the years to come.

Making Disability a part of the DEI Discussion

January 25, 2022/in Meg O'Connell, News

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is at the forefront of every talent management strategy. During 2020, companies found themselves facing significant challenges with respect to DEI and determined they needed to re-examine efforts on race, equity, justice and opportunity.

Yet one element of diversity is frequently left out of most DEI conversations – disability. Disability employee engagement is a gap companies are only just beginning to explore. A review of 10 years’ worth of data from companies around the globe showed stark differences between employee engagement of people with disabilities as compared to those without. But most significantly, it revealed how little data existed. While 90 percent of the companies said they have diversity initiatives, only 4 percent included disability in their diversity programs.

Global Disability Inclusion, in partnership with Mercer, the world’s largest human resources consulting firm, is launching a groundbreaking climate and culture survey focused on employees with disabilities and their workplace experiences.

The goal of the survey, known as Amplify, is to provide companies with valuable insights into the work experience of both people with disabilities and those without, allowing them to improve policies, programs and procedures to create greater equity in the workplace and ultimately improve climate and culture.

“Companies are unaware of the employment experiences of people with disabilities because disability is too often left out of the broader diversity conversation,” said Meg O’Connell, CEO and Founder, Global Disability Inclusion. “What we created is a new survey that asks disability-specific questions. It will incorporate questions for both the person with disabilities as well as people without disabilities so that the entire culture at a company can be measured.”

The survey will launch on Feb. 14, and there’s still time to register.

The survey includes everything from experiences on leadership, for example, “Senior leaders promote diversity and inclusion,” to achievement, such as “I have the opportunity for advancement in my company,” to identity and disability inclusion, which looks at whether people are comfortable disclosing their disability status and whether accommodations are provided.

“The majority of disabilities are invisible, whether it’s mental health, neurological, or a learning disability, and most people don’t disclose their disabilities if they have them,” O’Connell said. It may be surprising that likely 15-20 percent of the employee population could identify as having a disability, she added. “We want to help create a better culture of inclusion where people aren’t afraid to talk about their disability status or ask for an accommodation. The opportunity to impact what is likely 15-20 percent of the employee population is monumental.”

For more information about the survey or to have your company participate, contact O’Connell at info@globaldisabilityinclusion.com or visit Amplify | Global Disability In (globaldisabilityinclusion.com).

Meg O’Connell is Founder & CEO of Global Disability Inclusion, working with companies, foundations and non-profits to provide strategic direction, design and implementation of disability employment and inclusion programs.

Tag Archive for: hidden disabilities

ND Alliance Board Spotlight: Bea Awoniyi

“As soon as we got on campus, I knew what Landmark was about. It was an easy decision.”