Science Mentor 4 Autism Spectrum Young Man with BS in Biochemistry (Inwood / Wash Hts)

M son has a degree in Biochemistry from City College and right now I would like to find a scientist (any field is fine) to work with my son, He would like to go to graduate school but he is nowhere near ready in terms of his behavior to do that. I have to say that the only sort of people I feel comfortable hiring to work with my son are those who value sincerity, honesty and integrity. Teaching science is only one part of the job, the most important aspect of which is to work with Ben on various life skills, such as how to interact appropriately with other people, how to keep his apartment and himself neat and clean and how to travel safely and independently in the community, and, most importantly, how to control his impulses. The goal is to help him--to whatever extent possible--develop his sense of self and his place in the world. One of our overarching goals is to work with him and his other mentors on figuring out an appropriate career path for him. My son is gifted and intelligent. Since he is no longer in school, there has been a gap in his life--thus my focus now on finding a scientist to work with him. He has always had an enormous thirst for learning, and an impressive ability to acquire and assimilate knowledge. He has been studying violin for several years and has been developing a classical repertoire. (He is not a talented violinist, but he keeps at it.) He recently started studying guitar and piano. He excels in the visual arts. Musicians and artists have been successful teaching giving him lessons in Art, Chinese and Italian, and for the past year and a half Russian. I want to emphasize that this is a long-term job, with the potential for more responsibility and more hours, depending on the mentor’s interest in and ability and commitment to working with my son. I also want to be careful not to mislead applicants by putting too much emphasis on my son's academic and artistic gifts: his deficits in the area of attention and communication are significant and just as great as, if not greater than, his gifts. To reiterate: teaching science will by no means the only thing you will be doing. Working on B's deficits is the ultimate goal of all our work with him. The Pandemic has come bearing its own hefty share of challenges for my son. Helping deal with the trauma of it is an important focus of everyone's work with him. This is very much a collaborative effort, and can be inspiring and rewarding, depending on what you value as a human being, and whether or not you enjoy Benjy for the unique—and at times, quite challenging, person that he is. It can also be very frustrating, if this is not your thing. What I have been trying to do is build a potentially sustainable community of like-minded, deep-feeling people, devoted to helping my son develop the skills necessary for him to make use of his considerable intelligence and gifts, the ultimate goal being to give him a chance to live a happy and productive life and one that is as independent as possible. That is why I have been placing this ad on Craigslist every month for quite some ti It is essential that working with my son be as rewarding for his mentors, as it is for him. The hours are flexible, as is the start date. My son lives in Washington Heights, right next to the A train. If you live far away from us, I don't think it would be worth the commute, unless you have some other reason to be uptown. Please send your resume to Maxine.