Stairway to STEM
← All articles

STEM, Autism, and Building Professional Relationships: Interview with a Mentor, Part Three

Published
Reading time
1 min read
Author
Laura Gilmour

Laura GilmourContributor

Laura Gilmour is a PhD candidate in educational psychology at the University of Alberta and an autistic self-advocate. Her research has centred around issues surrounding autism across the life span ranging from sexuality, online gaming, employment, and autism culture. She is actively involved in guest lectures in the Edmonton community which share both her personal and research experience.

Originally published on Stairway to STEM by Laura Gilmour

At a Glance

  • To me, "honors" is about the quality of your work, the quality of your thinking.
  • It's not about whether you can do this full time.

Dr. Melike Schalomon is Interim Dean of Arts and Science and Associate Professor at Grant MacEwan University in Canada. Her background is in neuropsychology. In this three-part interview series, I speak with her about her experience mentoring me as an autistic student. This segment explores how my case (and others like it) influenced Dr. Schalomon to advocate for administrative change to make honor’s degree programs at Grant MacEwan University accessible to autistic students and students with other disabilities or health conditions. In fact, MacEwan is recognized within Alberta for initiatives to encourage diversity on campus and to support students and faculty of all minorities. I am thankful both for the advocacy of Dr. Schalomon and the values of the university when it comes to promoting diversity and inclusion.

For a pdf transcript of this interview,.

Download the audio file here:. Parts one and two of the interview also available.

Ask this article

Stuck on something here, or want to go deeper? Ask away — answers come from this article and our library, with the sources shown.

Try one of these