understand that our current educational situations
situations
and experiences as a dyslexic only last
so long
and you can find yourself into a
meaningful career
and you know flourish within that so
without further ado i want to
allow our guests to introduce themselves
and share a little bit
about who they are and how they're
joining us this evening
and then we'll go ahead and kick off the
session here was was starting with
questions so
alyssa let's go ahead and start out and
have you give us an
introduction thank you sounds good
thanks rachel i appreciate it
hello everyone my name is alyssa henriksen
henriksen
i live in the minneapolis area actually
in a suburb mound
in the west suburb and i co-own grace
search and strategy which is an
executive recruiting and recruiting
consulting company
and my husband and i actually started
our business about 12 years
12 years ago together which i can't
believe it as i look
back i can't believe 12 years i kind of
flew by
started actually in 2008 in a recession
and here we are going through a pandemic
and so i'm excited to be here
jim how about you well i'm jim bauer
uh i'm a person with dyslexia
uh i'm also retired occupational
therapist with a master's degree
in human development and authored
three books so far on the topic
of dyslexia currently living in
fridley with my wife molly
and we have two adult children that live elsewhere
elsewhere so
and michael would you like to tell us uh
give us a little information about
your background yeah well i uh
obviously i'm mike balzano uh i have
been this
dyslexic for 85 years
uh i run a communications company
and i have engaged all kinds of ceos in
fortune 100 companies
for about 40 years now and i
wrote a book or published a book called
dyslexic my journey which talks about
all the fun and games i had in getting
and go ahead jody i'm jody smith and i
live in
ridgefield minnesota and i am a special
education teacher
high school and so i work with students
who also have learning differences
i have dyslexia myself in adhd and
um i just i love my job
i think i'm kind of a non-traditional
teacher and i think that fits
my students really well um because i
know growing up i never had a teacher
that i felt connected to or really
understood me
and so um i just feel really lucky that
a person for you know that person for so
many students so
and thank you and we're excited to have
all of you this evening
especially again like i said um it's so
important for our youth right now to be
able to see that there
is there is something beyond their k-12
educational experience
and um to see just how fun and inspiring
that can be um through hearing through
hearing that through you guys
so um one thing i want to do before we
um before we get into the key uh the
questions and answers and find out
more about you guys is during dyslexia
awareness month we've been doing some
giveaways here at decoding dyslexia
and i want to ensure that
our attendees know that their names have
been entered
into a drawing tonight and before we
part ways this evening i will announce
the winner but the winner will
receive a let me just
check here i was going to have one of my
board members join me and it's
it doesn't appear to be working out so
the winner is going to receive a training
training
from dyslexia training institute
and their company out in california
run by dr kelly
sandman hurley and they do some amazing
resources for educators and parents so
the winner tonight will receive
a webinar certificate for iep
goals and dyslexia and how to write good goals
goals
so stay tuned and those of you that are
joining us
before we leave we will announce who the
winner is
on on the iep goals webinar
okay so let's go ahead and get started
i'm so excited for our attendees to
learn more about you guys and i'm going
to start out with
my first question which is how old were you
you
when you found out you had dyslexia
and when you found out how did you feel
about having dyslexia we'll go ahead and
start in the same order we did last time
so with alyssa
sounds good well so man i was about six
years old
when i found out that i was dyslexic
at the time um obviously i really wasn't
sure what was going on
um my parents clearly knew that there
was a lot going on because i was
struggling in school
um i didn't understand anything that the
teachers were asking of me i felt like
honestly i felt like um they were all
speaking another language
and it was the most confusing and
complicated time and i remember it
so clearly feeling very lonely um
and you know i had um amazing parents uh that
that
said you know they were going to figure
it out and took me to
the reading center in rochester and
that's where i was tested and came back
that i was severely
dyslexic auditory dyslexia is is what i
was diagnosed with
and so that was right when i was about seven
seven
at the time so you know um i
look again i felt a number of things and
what was really tough is
because i wasn't able to understand like a
a
normal individual was able to understand
at that time
it was even harder to communicate how i
was feeling which
left me feeling lonely a lot like
just um very scared angry i had mixed
emotions across the board
and you know i think when i was you know
a big part of my story is when i was
tested um the gentleman who
worked with me at that time i'll never
forget it he came into the room
and and again i wasn't really able to
understand a lot a lot of what was being
said because i
was extremely dyslexic but i could see
my mom and dad's face
and as he was telling them my mom has
shared the story
he was saying you know alyssa is going
to struggle in life
she's not going to ever be able to speak
a second language she won't
have a normal career and
my mom said at that point in time she's
like well you don't know my daughter and
she is very determined i know that at
this age
and you know she just always told me you
know don't ever let somebody else define
your future and that's really what it
was all about
she's like we're gonna figure this out
and i knew based on how she was really
looking at me and the confidence that
we were gonna figure it out so that gave
me hope
even though i would continue to be you
so
who loves them thanks alicia for sharing
that i'm really glad to hear
about your mom and your determination
especially because um that can be so hard
hard
for students to hear um what they can't achieve
achieve
you know or like you know just like as
if they're
you know the decision was already made
for you right i'm so glad you shared
that piece and so glad to hear that um
the rochester reading center was the
place that you
found some help for dyslexia so that's
right here in our local community and
they do so many amazing
things for both students with dyslexia and
and
educators yes
so jim what would you like to tell us
about how old you were
when you found out and how you felt
about having dyslexia
yeah i was actually 20 when i was
diagnosed as severely dyslexic
and i had finished a year at technical college
college
and i was told i was reading writing and spelling
spelling
a little bit less than a third grade
level but she said she was a non-reader
and uh but i that's when i would it was
discovered i was dyslexic but i knew
i was having this collision with the
educational system
since about the second or third day of
first grade
what was previously said about almost
like a different language
and i was told
about the third grade i was my parents
were told i was a slow learner
and without ever being evaluated which is
is
you know at the bottom of normal as far
as iq at the top of retardant
uh and it it really started to
affect my entire life because when you
have a secret i
didn't want anybody to know that i had
couldn't read write or spell
and it didn't have a
name that you try to hide that from people
people
and that becomes a very very lonely
place to be
and uh finally uh
making it through a entire program at
anoka technical
i was diagnosed as dyslexic and at first
i didn't
didn't want to accept it well i don't i
don't need any more labels i just want
to be
like everybody else but then slowly the
light bulb came on
which i think was a dimmer switch i
developed a lot of bad habits
uh and it gave an explanation as to
why i had this collision in my my entire life
life
with very few friends and uh
couldn't please all those big people all
those teachers
and it took me a long time to get over a
lot of that
when i was a young adult if you would
have told me
you were a teacher i met you socially i'd
i'd
instantly dislike you it took me a long
time to learn to uh
like teachers and my late brother was a
teacher my
brother-in-law's a teacher and i
discovered that they were
fine people after i came
and went through my tutoring and came to
grips with
a lot of the emotional baggage that
comes with the dyslexia
thank you jim thanks for sharing that
and um i imagine that's what makes
jodie such an excellent teacher is
because she knows what it's like
firsthand to
experience that being a dyslexic student
well let's
let's have you share with us michael and
and tell us what age you were
and how you felt about that when you discovered
discovered
you had dyslexia well um
unlike most people today i never heard
the word dyslexia until i was 40.
uh and there's a lot of good reasons for
that i grew up in an uh
inner-city working-class immigrant community
community
where the teachers who came into our
inner city uh
in the late 1930s they were not
astute to what the learning disabilities were
were
okay uh but then again i was uh
the community bad boy and uh
and i'm serious about that i was thrown
out of kindergarten
i was thrown out of two schools and
later in life i was thrown out of the
military so it doesn't get much worse
than that
at the fourth grade uh when i was 21
years old i read at the fourth grade level
level
i dropped out of school at ninth ninth
grade now today
i know that i am dyslexic
i am as dyslexic now as i was when i was
five that's for sure but i had add
and asperger so as a combination of all
of those i was the
bad kid okay none of these learning disabilities
disabilities
was ever identified
i a friend of mine got me into an
apprenticeship program learning how to
grind glass
part of the requirement was i had to get
go to school i went to high school at night
night
um i became a licensed optician and ran
several optical companies
and then i decided i wanted to go to
college so i went to
university in bridgeport and i graduated magna
magna
i was offered a full scholarship to
georgetown to for the phd
which i obtained uh with distinction
and i became the director of a federal
agency i ran the peace corps for four years
years
and other than that i'm still dyslexic
i cannot read out loud i write well
and i don't know why but anyway that's
i keep muting myself so for the background
background
thank you michael for sharing that and jody
jody
let's uh let's hear from you
um so i have to agree that
um teachers still scare me a little bit
too um especially english people
writing emails to them but um i was also
an adult i was 25 when i found
out that i was dyslexic and um
you know but really that's when i was
officially diagnosed i knew that i was
different in first grade
because the teachers made me feel
different and
um in first grade i didn't have a word
for it i didn't know what it was that
set me apart from the other students
and so by fourth grade um i finally had
a word
for what made me different and that was stupid
stupid
i really truly believed that i was stupid
stupid
and so um it is a really lonely place in
that world because
you know you don't want anybody to know
that you're dumb or different
and um so i chose to be as quiet as possible
possible
so no one would figure it out that i was different
different
and you know i ended up getting through
high school i was really involved with
sports and had a lot of friends
so i got through um and then
you know because everybody else went to
college i
went to college and um i'm a community
college dropout
and um you know so wow
after a few years of working at a bank i
realized that i didn't want to be there um
um
and so i stumbled across i don't know
getting into classes at normandale
tried the community college thing again
um and i got into an intro to education
class and
i did the first assignment and i was
like i'm pretty sure a learning
disability so i was on this like journey
to figure out
how does a 25 year old get diagnosed
with dyslexia i went to my like
um regular doctor you know you should go
for the checkup i had no idea how to
try figure this out um so finally when i
was 25 i got diagnosed with dyslexia
and adhd and it was honestly
the biggest relief of my life i can
still remember anxiously waiting for that
that
appointment and i was more nervous that
i wasn't going to be dyslexic like i was
really rooting for myself to be dyslexic
that answer and um i was relieved when
she told me that i had dyslexia and so
it kind of went back to first grade and
realizing i'm not
stupid i i didn't know how to learn
and so now i know strategies and
accommodations and i know how to be a
learner now
um and it's been a really um changed my life
life
when i was and importantly
you know how to teach dyslexics as well jody
jody
and that's such an amazing part of you
deciding to become a special educator it is
is
yeah it is amazing being there for them
because they come to me broken
really when you
when when you build that trust in that
relationship it's amazing when they
bring down that barrier and the light
comes out it is the best
moment i love that moment and um i'm so grateful
grateful
that i'm get to experience that
i'm so glad that you're there for those students
students
so glad that and and you know um for those
those
that are joining us that maybe don't know
know
uh jody has been with us at decoding
dyslexia in one capacity
or another since our beginning jody was
at the
capitol with us for our very first
legislative work groups and we saw her then
then
as a student and watched her go through
you know getting her diploma and
becoming an educator
and moving into the field so we are so
very proud of you jody
i'll never forget the first time that
you spoke at our
at our work group and and told the policymakers
policymakers
really what your learning experience was
like and
in doing that and and having all of you
here speaking it really does
help us to be able to make educational
environments and learning experiences
better for
students all students so well we did
some really great things with that first
question there and so i'm kind of trying to
to
think about what my next one should be
because there were a couple answered
within all that
and um let's see
so i feel like we we learned
not only how old were you and how you
felt about how
having dyslexia but also a bit about the learning
learning
experience and the struggles do we feel
like we cover that
or would any of you like to add a little
bit more about your learning
experience and your struggles
i think michael made me think of something
something
uh when i did a research project in
graduate school about
what people are like how they dealt with
uh the stress when they didn't
understand their own dyslexia
is that it seemed like they fell into
three categories
and one was mr trouble which would
michael was in trouble but i was mr ghost
ghost
i i want nothing more than to be invisible
invisible
and just get spit out at the end and
then i had another friend who was
dyslexic who was mr
clown and everybody laughed including
the teacher
and the whole all three of those are
designed to keep the attention
off of you being asked to read right or spell
and i wonder if you can be all three of
them because that was more my role
well you could you could probably learn
to be quite skillful i i'm quite a
clown too if i decide to be a clown i
have an incredible sense of humor
i probably remember every joke i ever
heard uh
but you know i can i can use that and uh
i usually i don't get into too much
trouble never really there
so you've matured a little well my mouth
gets me into trouble a few times as an adult
alyssa did you want to add anything to
the experience
learning and and maybe how the struggles
impacted you
yeah you know i think there is something
to be said about
and i say this coming from a really
sensitive place
when you look normal externally
and when internally you're not
it really tough because at that time i
grew up in a very small town very
very small community and um
you know it was almost as if uh you know
my learning experience was they didn't
believe it right because i look so normal
normal
how is it that this was such a challenge
or that you're really
truly challenged in school and so
um i think my i became very quiet as well
well
i'm an extroverted person and i
love i get energy from people um but
it was tough because when i was being
very transparent or trying to be very
transparent and honest about what i was
struggling with as i was getting
and learning like i'm grasping this on
my own i'm trying to understand exactly
what all of this means
and trying to understand exactly how to
communicate this to teachers along with
my parents
it was tough even to hear teachers say
you know that's not this isn't the case
there's no way
and so that coupled with i think just
being a student in school is tough
whether you have
a a learning difference or not right
going through school you're you're
already dealing with
various challenges um and so
you know it was about if i look back um
and could tell my small self
something it would it would be that to not
not
give up on that um you know there were
some really
hard days but i remember every day my
mom and dad would say
don't change who you are and continue to
tell people that you need help and that
that is okay
and to use your voice and someday that's
going to matter
even if today it seems to be very
difficult and lonely you need to make
sure you tell people
you know i don't understand and it's
okay to raise your hand and ask
questions and you can ask as many
questions as you want
and that's exactly what i would tell
anybody that's dealing with this
is to never feel like your question
um is is a stupid question or that it
can't be heard
and that was a big part of my learning
because you're you know you're dealing
with like trying to figure it out but
also communicate this as you go through
life and you're interacting with
different people
so um i was in school yeah i was in
school and then i was tutored so i was
tutored outside of school
two or three times a week and that that
was i mean that helped that aid
oh that's great does anyone else want to
add on to that before we
um we're going to after this part here
we're going to ask about um you know
what you currently do
um and uh what that path was like but
would you like to add to anything alyssa
said because this is really great stuff
yeah i um i feel like i can really
relate to that
um you know i was um a really
polite kid i sat in my desk i
raised my hand i turned in my or i tried
to turn my word but i didn't cause a scene
scene
i was you know a picture-perfect student
except for i didn't do the work
but i didn't cause trouble and
so i think and i was really really nice
and so i don't think teachers wanted to
believe that some
or i don't know i but i never got
referred for anything and yet when i
look at my work that my mom saved from
when i was in grade school
it is so clear that there's something
going on
so i don't know why the signs
didn't trigger like this like light for
my teacher
besides maybe i was just a nice kid that
didn't do anything wrong
i you know and so um but it is really hard
hard
and every single day that you have to go
to school
is the hardest day of your life
walking through the just getting through
the doors is this the day i'm gonna have
to read out loud
this today my spelling is gonna be
greedy and i just have to say
though every dyslexic then
is really good at doing hard things we
can do
hard things we're in a really hard
moment right now
school is really hard in a different
level but you can get through it
because you're dyslexic and you can do
hard things like i just think that's in
our training
as a dyslexic and so i think it's just
really important to
again um like alyssa said is to advocate
for yourself because that is the way to
get through these hard moments
is just acknowledging that you need some
help or someone to
talk to or you know um we just all need
help sometimes and you can't do this alone
alone
so i really um have to second that self-advocate
self-advocate
self-advocacy thank you
um let's go ahead and talk about
uh what you each currently do and what
that path was like
and i might mix things up a little bit
here and i'm going to start with mike
and then jim on this one um would you
share with
with our audience what you currently
doing and what your pathway was like i
know michael you got a little bit into that
that
um in that intro well i just want to
just touch what jim said uh
i am convinced today that my anti-severe
antisocial behavior
was an attempt to mask all the learning
disabilities and inadequacies that i had
so when i came over those everything
else changed i still am dyslexic
but i don't need to have the antisocial
behavior to mask
what my disabilities are okay yes i run
a communications company
as a matter of fact i wrote a book i
published a book
in december that was pushed by
two of my largest clients okay the president
president
the ceo of yeah thank you alyssa for
showing the book
but anyway they they were people who
were um
they're giving away all their money and
they sat me down
i've worked for them for 20 years and
they did not know i had any of these disabilities
disabilities
we sat down they said look we're giving
away all of our money
but you've got something to give away
that's more important than that you've
got an example
and so i put together this book which has
has
a an appendix in it which is very important
important
for identifying those behaviors that
indicate dyslexia but what i do now
is i am i'm a consultant to some of the
largest corporations in the world
i i'm in communications and my specialty is
is
predicting preventing and stopping strikes
strikes
so i run an organization that has unions
in 30 states
and most of the clients that i have at
one point or another
have a problem with a major shutdown of
an industry
and that's when i'm called in to see
that it doesn't happen
but that's what i do now
michael did um so what was the path like
to getting to to there because i know um
one of the things you and i talked about
when we met last
last winter at uh education conference
in orlando and you and i were discussing
your book
you told me about your um garbage man
versus uh you know how you became a
trash collector and
and then in your current role and so
tell me what that path was like a little bit
bit
because that is a pretty amazing change there
there
okay again you start off with failing at
everything i did
i had at one point 56 jobs in one year i
was fired
every week and i had another job the
next week and i was fired from that
but over time the thing that turned my
life around was the apprenticeship
program i got
into an apprenticeship to learn how to
grind glass
and the first thing that did was teach
me how to get along with others
and listen to the master craftsmen keep
your mouth
shut okay you do what i tell you to do
you will measure twice and cut once
and suddenly you you become disciplined
okay and which i would never was and
then from discipline
you suddenly have self-respect because
you're you're doing a good job
and you're and you're earning you're
earning money i mean that's what
happened with me
so slowly but truly the apprenticeship
really changed my life and i'm
advocating apprenticeships for a lot of
learning disabled children because
it the way it's set up you have to learn
a before you learned b you have to be
able to
completely master b before you go c and
slowly but surely
those inadequates that inadequacies that
you might have
in just in dyslexia they begin to disappear
disappear
jim what would you like to tell us about
uh what you currently do
and your what your path was like and by
the way
for our attendees i have pasted links to both
both
michael's book and jim's books into the
chat because i know everyone's going to
want to know that information
so go ahead like i i said earlier i'm
retired from occupational therapy right
now i'm trying to promote
my books and one book became a play
and it was done twice here in minnesota
one in east london
uh i'm also a musician a self-taught musician
musician
uh i too had a great number of
failures one of those was going to music school
school
and getting kicked out of that got
kicked out of
boy scouts got kicked out of gun safety uh
uh
i wanted to be an altar white guy kicked
out of that i kicked out a guitar class
so i went home
taught myself and i
still play professionally
but as far as occupational therapy
my personal view is probably one of the
greatest jobs in the world
because it is a science and an art
and i have an ability to get along with almost
almost
anybody that i
used to get referrals to uh
to go in and do home health care
particularly in
in areas that weren't considered very safe
safe
with some of the crabbiest uh
even some violent people and he's was
able to get along with them
quite well developing rapport
i also got invited several years ago
to take a risk and with some nurses
and was a respiratory therapist
and we took high quads that were on ventilators
ventilators
and moved them in the community
and it was never done before and we were
told by
some of the leading rehab centers you
would all know who they are
uh that we're risking our licenses
but we went ahead and did it anyway and
i think my dyslexia
drew me into that because i could see
the potential in these people that other people
people
just just couldn't do it's good to see
and now that's the standard in america
today if you
are a person on a ventilator
uh quadriplegic uh you can expect at
some point
later in your life after your rehab to
move into the community
and it's kind of proud i was able to be
a part of that
and again my dyslexia my ability to see things
things
to have empathy for other people to
develop rapport
quickly i think that essentially led to that
thank you uh alyssa what would you say about
about
your um you know tell us what you're
currently doing what that pathway was like
like
yeah so as i mentioned um i own with my husband
husband
a small boutique recruiting company
we've been in business for 12 years
we work nationwide so what we do is we actually
actually
go in and support your mid-sized
privately held family owned and operated company
company
up to your publicly traded organization
so we work with
your two three billion dollar company
and we sit with the leadership team at
the table and we actually help them
put together teams so as we look at
their organization
we help them look at what kind of people
they need to add to their
uh to their company in various
departments in order to hit their growth
goals which is
probably the coolest thing um i never in
a million years
thought that this is something that i
would be doing when i was 15
i wrote a business plan because i knew
that i was going to prove
to everybody that i haven't
met face to face that i was going to be
able to do this and do it on my own and
that i would not have to have my parents
support for the rest of my life and i
wanted to prove that to myself and i
wanted to prove it to
them and to my and to my parents and so
i wrote a business plan it's not what
i'm doing today
but it really set me up for knowing that
i wanted to do it and i was
going to do it and so i was introduced
to somebody who
when i graduated from college which um
by the way i just want to say i continue
to get special testing
all through for high school and college because
because
i continued to say i needed it and i was
able to share information with my
professors that
um you know i was able to get that which
was huge i think a lot of times when we
go into school or we go to college
we're afraid to share that piece of
paper or that note because it does it
kind of defines you a little bit if you
allow it to
but that special testing helped me
because i was also i received a full
ride scholarship to play volleyball
and um so all of my time if i wasn't playing
playing
in in on in a gym i was studying and i
was working really hard
um and so i i graduated top of my class
and was really proud of that because i
thought about
all of the things that were said to me
along the way
but what that did was that prepared me
as i went into the workforce
and as i had this experience of being a
recruiter and i had no idea what that
what that was all about
but i get to help people and i get to help
help
all types of people and a resume is
something that also can define you if
it's not
put together the right way and what i
love about my job is i get to know
people behind the black and white of
that resume
and i can help them in ways that they
didn't even know they could
you know get help because sometimes we
will look at a resume in fact people
will spend three seconds looking at a
resume and they will pass on them
if all the things are not popping up and
so as a recruiter
i get to help and work with those
individuals but then also support our
clients and bringing in
amazing talent talent that maybe
wouldn't have been given that opportunity
opportunity
um to fill in uh important roles and so
um it's really cool it's a ton of fun
and we've been doing it like i said for
12 years and
we've had clients that are with us for
those 12 years which has been pretty fantastic
fantastic
that's great i'm so glad to to hear that
and what i think is
a really fun for our young attendees too
is to see that
you can be dyslexic and own a business
and chart your own path
and i think it's just it's really
amazing and that's
again why we have all of you here to
share with us today
um michael go ahead and then we'll have
jody answer that question
you know uh the reason i wrote this book
was to provide hope and help for parents
with kids like me
because i was considered hopeless and
the conclusion
i have in my life is nobody's helpless
everybody can make it uh and i had help
doing it
i never could overcome the dyslexia but
i overcame every other problem i ever had
had
and i wrote the book to
focus on kids who feel like
like many of you did hopeless and if i could
could
if i could make it anybody can make it
that's what i feel about my life
you know and you know michael and jim
with regards to both of your books i
will say this
uh especially for our attendees these
books are both written in a way
that a young reader can read them with
relative ease and that's something that
i really enjoyed about them and
my 14 year old has read both of them and
found them very entertaining and insightful
insightful
so i think it's great if our attendees
want to
check out either one of those stories or
both um it's
it's really really well written so that
a younger reader can
easily read it one last point
one last question i put the book it has
its own website it's my name
michael peopleson.com the goal was to
give away
everything i could and so all of the
appendices and all of the things that i
did are all
in the website for free that's awesome
thank you jody what do you um want to
tell us about your
what you currently do and what that path
was like for you i know you touched on
yeah i'm a special education teacher and um
um
to be honest i hated school um k-12
um every day i went to school was the
worst day of my life
um and uh when i graduated high school i
specifically remember
i will never sit in another classroom
again and i was so excited about that
and um but then you know peer pressure
or social pressure i felt
like i needed to go to college um so i
ended up
at a community college when i was 18 and
i was back living with my parents before thanksgiving
thanksgiving
um so i consider myself a community
college dropout like i said
um because i wasn't ready i didn't know
how to be a learner yet
and so uh i got a job where i started
working full time
um and i am very much a people person
and i also in in order for me to
really do well in work i have to have a
reason and a passion behind that
i was not passionate about banking it just
just
wasn't for me and i just felt like such
an outsider when i went to work and it
led me to um another dark
place right like i thought that all of
my problems were gonna end when i
graduated high school because all my
problems were school i couldn't read i
couldn't write it couldn't spell
so those had to end when school ended
and they didn't end
they followed me into the workplace and
so i
just was on this journey i was sick of
feeling that way
and so i was just on this journey to
figure it out i didn't know what that
meant but i remember i used to take the
public bus to work and
every time we drove by the community
college i was like i want to go there
i want to go there i want to try it
again i don't know why or what's
going to get me there but i just wanted
to do it
and so um i just took a leap of faith
and quit my job and
enrolled in at normandale and found
myself sitting in an intro to education class
class
and it was really there that i started
to figure out myself
i was like i i know i have a learning
different disability
i had to figure that out i was obsessed
with trying to figure out how to get
diagnosed with dyslexia um and
once i did that um
it really opened up the doors um i
learned how to be a student
and it's the simple things i learned how
to time like time management
i learned strategies to organize my
assignment list
accommodations text to speech
having tests read out loud extra time on
tests all of those things made a world
of difference
um and it gave me confidence that's what
i was missing i think too
my whole journey was that confidence
piece and once i
found that the sky was the limit like i
was just
on a mission and i couldn't be stopped
and so
um after normandale i went to augsburg
and that's where i
found an organization called eye to eye
and that's where i found my people i
finally found that there were people
like me that
also struggled with dyslexia that also
struggled in school
and it was so refreshing to be around
those people too that
we could share stories and oh yes the
teacher did that to me once or whatever right
right
um and it was just so uplifting to be
around people that understood me
um and so when i went to augsburg i was
a full-time
para in a special education program so i
went to work monday through friday and i
went to college on the weekends
and this is from someone who used to
hate school but i was passionate
and i was driven and i didn't care what
i had to do i was gonna get through it
and i was gonna do it
um and so i graduated augsburg
um with like honors i don't know
all the names because i remember i got
the letter
and my husband's like you you graduated
with honors i was like i don't know what
this means
like i just like nada but i um
but i was excited i guess about that um
and then uh
as like i said i was a para and then in
the bloomington
school district i went from a para to a
student teacher to getting a job and
i've been there um
ever since and so i've worked elementary
through high school and um
it's just really awesome to be there for
students it's like this
they come into my classroom and they
don't even have to
tell me like i just get them right and
um really teaching those self-advocacy pieces
pieces
um self-worth confidence those are the
things i really
the academics will come but first we
have to get you
in a safe space learn and that starts
with building up that confidence
um believing in yourself that is where
what i think you need first and then
again like i said the academics will
come and so i just really like to be
there for students you know it's just
sorry thanks jody no that's awesome
thank you it's so inspiring too
um did we get to everyone with that one
i lost track because your stories are so fun
fun
okay good we did so what i next want to know
know
and i think this will be really helpful
for our
young ones again is this is just
something simple
and fun and and we are kind of coming
into the last 15 minutes of our
of our time period here so i've got a
just a few more questions but
first what do you like most about your
job and maybe that would be something
that we could um
all kind of rattle off fairly quickly here
here
so let's start with alyssa
what do you like most about your job
that's a tough one
um i have many things that i like
number one i like that i am a business
owner that i'm an entrepreneur
and i make decisions for myself and for
um as a team we have employees so
as a team i get to help make decisions
as a company and to help other people
grow in their career
the fact that i get to see other people
who are part of our company grow
and hit goals is honestly one of the
best things
the other thing is just making um
you know kind of making dreams and goals happen
happen
for our clients and for the candidates
that we represent
and so you know we're presenting
opportunities to people to vice
presidents of operations to coos
we're presenting opportunities to them
they didn't even know existed because
you know a lot of it is through
networking and it's a lot of cold calling
calling
um and so when you're able to do that
when you're able to bring an opportunity
to somebody that
had no idea it was out there and then to
really make that a win-win
where they're doing things that they've
wanted to do and with companies that get
them really excited
um it's kind of the best you know we
were raised in our family where you
never chase the dollar you
always focus on the service and the rest
of it will follow
and we provide that is our utmost goal
is to provide one of the best services
that anybody will ever experience
because that's the legacy i care to
leave behind is the service
and so to be able to do that to go to
bed every night next to my
my best friend and my business partner
and to wake up feeling really good about
the work that we're doing
i i get emotional about it because it's
um it's been a journey and we have been
able to do a lot together and to be able to
to
work through it with dyslexia
you know is is awesome so makes it all
worth it right 100
jim how about you what do you like most
about the job you're currently doing
okay well i got to talk about
occupational therapy
even though i'm retired that what
and one of the factors that many
dyslexic people have characteristics is
the intuitivism
and this sometimes borderlines
on being psychic almost
and when you you you talk to people that
are dyslexic about their intuitivism
they'll say well they would just go on
to describe this
but i being able to connect really with
someone who's a severe disability
and knowing that you made a difference
and there were a few times of
individuals they were
high spinal cord injuries and mostly
were laborers
and they've been through all this rehab
and no one
is asked can this guy read
in this guy's spilled maybe they were
you know
bricklayers all their life or carpenter
and there's nothing wrong with that we
need people like that
and they suffer a spinal cord injury and
the vocational people say let's send
them to junior college
and they can be an accountant well they
wash out
their first quarter well
what's going on well okay well the
psychologist says he's not done dealing
with a spinal cord injury
sent them to me about 12 more times
but no one ever asks can this person
read and i've i
uncovered so many of these people
through my career
and once again it's so painful and
embarrassing to them
they don't want to talk about it until
someone gently confronts them
about what's been going on and say
i hear what you have to say because i've
been there too
so those are very rewarding experiences
you really know you made a difference in
someone's life
wow yeah that's awesome
michael you're up next
when i left georgetown uh i was one of
two people to get a
degree in the classics and i had been
wanting to write
a treatise on the classical
underpinnings of the us constitution it
is my first
love i teach courses to special people
i used to have a whole bunch of students
come in every year
for about 10 years into my office like
eight weeks with me i loved it
uh and you know my my
i have to say this about minnesota it's
one of my very special places because i
was a very close friend
with hubert humphrey hubert humphrey met me
me
when i was a graduate student working
with james kirkpatrick and we were
working for him
and then i wound up being the director
of the peace corps where he was the
chairman of the committee
and what a friend and
a great statesman incidentally a great statesman
statesman
but i i have a warm place in my heart
for minnesota
i will write something if i get time i'm
85 years old
okay if i get the time i'm going to
start it now
because i when i look my two sons are
technicians and what they're saying is
dad don't write a book
let's do it on a podcast okay because
more people will see it you know
but the you know the garbage man thing
was kind of fascinating because
nobody ever referred to me as somebody
who's majored in classical political
theory they always referred to me as the
garbage man
because you know when i graduated i said
garbage man gets
doctor's degree and i wound up as the
third highest-ranking democrat in
nixon's white house
i mean so that's why i'm free on one
side nixon on the other
it's a fascinating life experience i'll
tell you
um anyway but that's what i that's what
i'm hoping to do is to
put some papers together on that
thank you michael jody what's your
favorite part
of your job or what do you like most
about your job
at the end of the year um getting
letters from my students
and like last year i had a student who
said um he was very thankful that
i made him stay in school because yeah i
had him fourth hour which is the middle
middle of the day
and he always wanted to go home after
fourth hour and so i would tell him you
know you've made it this far i just
finished the day
um and so he was ended up being very
thankful for that and so
um just those messages that are so sweet
and simple
um but made a difference you know
because he probably would have left
school every day after fourth hour
um and you know that would have been
really hard to graduate if he would have
you know done that and so um just the
little things like that it's just very rewarding
rewarding
i have a couple more things and not
enough time
but let's do let's see
um gosh i wish i had enough time for
each of these questions but let's
do you use any here's the one i'm gonna
go with okay
do you use any tools currently
to help you navigate dyslexia in your workplace
um alyssa let's start with you again
is there anything you use to help you
whether it's technology or otherwise
yeah so you know i think one thing that
will always be a challenge regardless of
spelling for me
so because i'm interacting with leaders
um of various size organizations
you know any tool that i can use to
check my work double check and triple
check it
is something that is work i mean it's
use all the time because it's you know
at the end of the day no matter what
it's a representation of me what i put out
out
um and i want to always do my very best
i'm using tools that will help me with that
that
you know um i had to learn real quick
i had to learn reading lips
so as i was listening i was reading a
lip i was repeating it
and i was writing it so i'm still at
this point in my career even though technology
technology
can do a lot i still write over 95 of
the things that i'm hearing
because i need to see it feel it right
and i just think that still helps me in
my job
jim is there anything you use i use uh
dragon naturally speaking and
i really love it i i wrote my third book
on it
and i'll use it another way i i went
back for a short time to work on a doctorate
doctorate
and i was downloading you know the
doctorate level
works had to buy a whole different
system for that that would read me
those texts uh but sometimes if i'm tired
tired
and i'm going through long emails and
stuff i'll
have dragon naturally speaking read it
to me because i don't feel like reading
at all
and probably one of them the best
technology is to have a spouse that can spell
spell
uh a significant other that can spell
that doesn't mind
i've even got as far as uh tell a few
people that
what i call the spelling police that
will point out your
spelling did you understand what i said
and they'll say yeah
not on a professional level but a
personal personal level
if you understood what i wrote it was right
right
there you go michael is there anything
you use
you know uh i say the other thing uh
in addition to minnesota jody i envy you
because the one thing i
always would i wanted to teach i taught
one year
university and i give a lot of different
lectures at columbia yale and harvard
i'd give a lot of different lectures but
i would love to teach full-time i really
would what a gift
god has given you to teach full-time
because i
i've been in every battle you could
think of
and from the day i got out of georgetown
it's been one battle after another
i counseled six presidents from nixon to
clinton so i had a whole bunch of
different experiences
but i'd trade at all if i could have
gotten into a classroom and teach
classical political theory
you know that's what i want to teach so
that's what i'm hoping to do god willing
and jody what
uh tools help you or do you use
with your dyslexia in the classroom yep um
um
i use grammarly uh grammarly for my
emails i just
um and it's cool because it actually is you
you
so if you take the time to look at your
errors you can learn along the way
so i advocate that for all those people
out there um
and um i am old school too paper and
pencil to make my to-do list my planner
it's gotta be physical i've gotta feel
it i gotta sit and touch it
i've tried technology once but it just
kind of gets
lost out there in the dark hole of your
computer right and so
um that's my thing paper pencil and but
grammarly because
especially right now we're emailing a
lot and
and just students um i try to use
fonts i can't remember the name of the
font but if i see it i know it's good
for dyslexics and i make it large
and i be and very simple and very
minimal you know like when i'm
communicating with
a student that's good up an email and a
lot of words
it's kind of a lot anxiety and and i'm
just gonna
we are gonna go over just a minute or
two here because i can't
leave without knowing was there
something you wish
someone would have told you when you
were younger
and struggling in your education with dyslexia
dyslexia
i i guess i would have liked someone to
explain to me
dyslexia when i was a young person and
all those big people in my life who
understand it as well
i was looking at some literature not
that long ago
and dyslexia was discovered in the 1800s
my goodness how long did it take
to get to the upper midwest where people
understood it
i guess i i would have been much better
if i would have understood
dyslexia and my strengths and other people
people
would have understood that as well but
all my experiences have contributed to my successes today and my my personal
my successes today and my my personal happiness i must say too
happiness i must say too okay alyssa or jody
okay alyssa or jody what might you say to someone uh
what might you say to someone uh who is uh younger
who is uh younger or maybe something you wish that you had
or maybe something you wish that you had been told when you were younger
um i think it's simple but you will be okay
okay i never i um
i never i um yeah i think it's just you will be okay
yeah i think it's just you will be okay in the dark moments
in the dark moments um reach out for help and you will be
um reach out for help and you will be okay
thanks i like that alyssa yeah
alyssa yeah you know um honestly it's so
you know um honestly it's so if this is so true and at the time i
if this is so true and at the time i hated hearing this but what doesn't kill
hated hearing this but what doesn't kill you makes you stronger
you makes you stronger um and now i really appreciate uh that
um and now i really appreciate uh that uh fair amount
uh fair amount and that i agree i mean i see this as my
and that i agree i mean i see this as my superpower today
superpower today uh you know i i think it might be crazy
uh you know i i think it might be crazy for most of you to hear me say this but
for most of you to hear me say this but what i learned through this journey i
what i learned through this journey i would not change
would not change at all because it's given me more
at all because it's given me more empathy and compassion for others
empathy and compassion for others it's given me sometimes the patience i
it's given me sometimes the patience i need to work through
need to work through things it's given me the strength to get
things it's given me the strength to get through
through what i think anything because of some of
what i think anything because of some of the things that
the things that you're challenged with with dyslexia and
you're challenged with with dyslexia and that it's
that it's true that you should not give up because
true that you should not give up because honest to god some of the
honest to god some of the brightest people the best people
brightest people the best people the most inspirational people if you do
the most inspirational people if you do research
research have dyslexia and that has aided in
have dyslexia and that has aided in their
their success and who they are and honestly um
success and who they are and honestly um this is a marilyn monroe quote but give
this is a marilyn monroe quote but give the girl the right pair of shoes and she
the girl the right pair of shoes and she can conquer the world
can conquer the world and honestly just pick your shoes pick
and honestly just pick your shoes pick your situation
your situation and you can do it and that's so true i
and you can do it and that's so true i pick shoes that i know will need to get
pick shoes that i know will need to get me through that
me through that and um i have confidence in in that and
and um i have confidence in in that and you can do it so that's what i'll say i
you can do it so that's what i'll say i love that
love that thank you and with that we're gonna wrap
thank you and with that we're gonna wrap things up
things up i am so thrilled to have had you guys
i am so thrilled to have had you guys join us for this first
join us for this first uh my dyslexia success stories and i
uh my dyslexia success stories and i know it's going to be
know it's going to be very meaningful um for our
very meaningful um for our parents who are navigating this and the
parents who are navigating this and the students who are watching as well
students who are watching as well and we've got um kimberly carlson from
and we've got um kimberly carlson from our board who's joined us here
our board who's joined us here she's going to wrap us up with the
she's going to wrap us up with the winners of
winners of the contest go ahead kimberly
the contest go ahead kimberly thank you welcome so we are actually
thank you welcome so we are actually able to give away two certificates
able to give away two certificates tonight
tonight and i drew names i did a little online
and i drew names i did a little online drawing and we have your emails
drawing and we have your emails so we'll send your certificates via
so we'll send your certificates via email
email um but let me pull up the first one here
um but let me pull up the first one here name
oh i found the wrong and that first one oh
first one oh rachel i sent it to you and i wrote it
rachel i sent it to you and i wrote it down but now i
down but now i can that's fine i've got them here it is
can that's fine i've got them here it is annalisa and i'm not going to say your
annalisa and i'm not going to say your last name
last name correctly but it starts with the j j
correctly but it starts with the j j sikera and it's for the iep goals and
sikera and it's for the iep goals and dyslexia what's a good goal
dyslexia what's a good goal anyway and then our second winner
anyway and then our second winner is melinda brown and it will be the same
institute it's through dyslexia training institute and it's a 90-minute webinar
institute and it's a 90-minute webinar that takes you through the process of
that takes you through the process of writing goals for iep
writing goals for iep that are individualized for students
that are individualized for students with dyslexia
with dyslexia we'll email those out to you
all right well that's all we have for you guys this evening
you guys this evening again thank you for joining us
again thank you for joining us and thank you to our panelists for
and thank you to our panelists for sharing
sharing your stories with us this evening
that's all we've got have a good evening thank you good night everyone
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