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Believe it or not, Nick Giuffre has been part of the world of Spectrum Fusion since before the program even began. He first met Dr. Heidi Ham when he was only 4 years old when he was a part of her Language Learning Group at the University of Houston. “At the time, I recommended that he add intensive occupational therapy intervention as well to address developmental dyspraxia,” Dr. Ham said. Nick participated in her Language Learning Group for two years and then they parted ways. Dr. Ham moved to London and Nick began his lifelong participation in sports. He played basketball for 10 years, took gymnastics for 9, and ran track for 4 years. “They partially led to me wanting to become a fitness trainer,” said Nick. “I also wanted to become a personal fitness trainer because I wanted to stay involved in sports and fitness, helping people lose weight because I went through and am still going through a weight loss journey myself.” After graduating high school, Nick continued his education at Shreiner University. Initially, he had some difficulties with schedule management, the size of his workload, and separation anxiety from being away from home, but with the support of Dr. Ham and executive functioning therapists, he was able to learn strategies for organization and studying through the Spectrum Fusion Wings Program. With the help of Spectrum Fusion, Nick aced his final class and now holds an Associate’s Degree in Global Perspectives. After earning his Associate’s, Nick volunteered to lead Spectrum Fusion’s new health initiatives called ‘Healthy Fusion’ and ‘Power Fusion’, designed to help adults on the Spectrum embrace healthy eating and living habits, and be more active. Nick jumped at the opportunity to use his fitness expertise to help others. However, Nick was eager to expand his activities in the field of physical fitness and one day truly turn it into a career. Unsure how to go about this, he joined a personal training certification course. The course proved to be more challenging than first expected, requiring advanced knowledge of anatomy and other exercise sciences, but on October 20, 2020, Nick passed the final exam and earned his ACE Personal Training Certification. Encouraged after completing such a milestone accomplishment, Nick says earning his certificate has helped him to feel ready to accomplish a lot more. Finding a job has been a difficult prospect during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but through Nick’s perseverance, he has already found an opportunity to put his new certification to use. In January of 2021, Nick was recommended by multiple parties to become a personal fitness trainer at LA Fitness Richmond location through Spectrum Fusion’s Reactor Room Program. One activator was Dan Vasquenza from Georgia who used to work for the Atlanta Hawks and the other was Richard Leach from Leach & Minnick law firm. The first connection didn’t go through but it was a great practice interview and the second was a winner! After shadowing under his mentor Andre for a week, Nick is now employed as a professional fitness trainer. JT is the lead trainer and he is impressed with Nick’s attention to detail and his dedication to the team. Nick is excited to explore further opportunities in the field of physical fitness, and he is considering returning to college at some point to complete his Bachelor’s Degree. For now, Nick is proud of the accomplishments he’s made and is ready to take the fitness world by storm and soar to new heights. Source: Spectrum Fusion

This event (on 3 July) may be of interest. It's hosted by IBM at their Client Centre in London - which, incidentally, is not their UK HQ (that's in Portsmouth). A day of workshops and networking focused on ensuring careers in cyber security are made accessible to everyone. The workshops will educate and offer constructive advice and guidance for both employees and employers. The workshops: Exploring the gender gap in cyber security – has anything made a difference yet? Combatting stress and burnout in cyber security .. from surviving to thriving How to tap into the neurodiverse workforce to plug the skills gap Physical disability: addressing the accessibility challenges faced in a technical security career Book on Eventbrite

Hi all, I’m new to this forum and joined because I wanted to communicate with - and possibly meet - women of a similar age to me (mid fifties) with Aspergers. I have a couple of male friends, who I can confide in, but no female friends, just a few colleagues and acquaintances. It would really be something for me to have a female friend I could trust and be myself with – something I think most women take for granted. I suppose I’m a typical Aspie: I love science, sci-fi and animals, and have, I've been told, ‘the social skills of a wombat’ (although that’s probably unfair to wombats). I’m in my mid-50s and pass as more or less normal, albeit as a shy, anxious type, but I am SO tired of trying to fit in, and beating myself up every time I commit a social faux-pas. Gxx

When: Friday 23rd October 2015 10:30 - 17:00 Where: The Royal College of Surgeons, 35-43 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, WC2A 3PE. Nearest tube: Holborn The Diversity Careers Show offers you a range of opportunities to explore what's is really like to work within a diverse company. Throughout the course of the event we are providing you with a multitude of options to improve your career prospects through engaging workshops, 1-2-1 CV advice and interview technique practice and panel discussions. The employers attending this show are here because they want to bring people like you into their organisations. They understand the multitude of benefits that come with having a diverse workforce. Creativity and innovation are made possible by having a team of individuals who work and think differently. Details and times of workshops and seminars to be released soon.... For more information and to register click here

"Autism in the Workplace": workshop at the Workers' Education Association (WEA), 4 Luke Street London, EC2A 4XW. Nearest stations: Old Street (tube / rail), Shoreditch High Street (Overground) 25 March 2015, 9.30 – 16.30 Sponsored by the Communication Workers' Union (CWU) and including participation from Simpson Millar solicitors. The course is for union reps, officers and members of all unions. More information and booking here

That's St Clement Danes as in the St Clement's of "Oranges and Lemons" fame. I wonder if any of Goldman Sachs's Asperger employees will be among the performers? One of GS's offices is a short distance away in Fleet Street. Booking information here.

So... what do you think... it's on C4 right now, hasn't been on long, is looking very artistically colourful... Any thoughts? (obviously the programme needs to finish first) I just wanted to set this up ready for those Olympic and Paralympic addicts (like me) out there who want to talk about it And is it just me... but how come the Paralympics has to be on so long after the Olympics? I can handle it changing channels but why the delay? Why don't the Paralympics follow straight on from the Olympics? Is there an actual reason? And is it just me that thinks it should all be one massive set of games - for all - and not split like that? Isn't that supposed to be the message the Olympics give out, that they unite everyone?

Ok, so even though it's late, and I'm pretty damn tired, I figure this has to be done right, so here's a post to mark the end of the Olympics 2012 (until the Paralympics start lol). We won 65 medals in total, coming third in the medals table after USA and China. That's - 29 Gold medals - 17 Silver medals - 19 Bronze medals I'm leaving out any negatives in this opening message because there were so many good things - and in some ways I preferred it to the opening ceremony because it had a relaxed atmosphere. For me the highlights of the closing ceremony were the people playing the bins and sweeping (not gonna go into interpretative and descriptive details here - if you watched it - you know what I mean - if you didn't - then it shouldn't matter) I liked Waterloo sunset. Russell Brand was pretty good with the psychedelic bus singing I am the walrus. Fatboy Slim and the giant octopus were great The cannon with Eric Idle sliding out and then singing Always look on the bright side of life - made me laugh after LancsLad psychically posted it in the "what's everyone listening to" post a short time ago - thankfully tonight was a night where it made me laugh The ballet thing was pretty cool - showed a edgy side a lot of people don't see, even if they only got a polite and short lived cheer and round of applause... Brian May was excellent. The flame obviously - seeing it come down and eventually go out was kinda the thing that made me stop and think about this being over in some ways, and hoping it isn't in others... And The Who did a great job of taking the attention away from that, and god he can still belt out a song. Now I have little need to watch TV again.... gonna have to find something else to fill my time Anyone watch it? Anyone sad it's over? What you gonna do with your free time?

Hi everyone, I'm a researcher at University College London conducting an experiment into the visual attention ability and time perception ability of high functioning adults with ASD and Asperger syndrome. We think that under some circumstances people with autism might be better than other people at concentrating on a task despite distractions from other information. We hope that the results of our study will help us work out why people with autism find some tasks easier and some tasks more difficult than people without autism. To do this, we're looking for participants to come to Bloomsbury near Euston station for some simple behavioural tasks. We can pay for time and travel expenses up to a certain amount. None of this research can be done without people who are willing to participate in our study! I don't expect anyone to turn up to a study based on a forum post alone, so if you're in the London area and would be interested in taking part or know anyone else who is, please PM me and I'll send you some more information and my email address. Thanks!