Malik Beyard

Mr. Yoon
Statistics
August 18, 2014
Story of Self
I identify myself as an African-American male growing up in a middle-class
neighborhood in Inglewood, California trying to follow my dreams to become a chef or a
musician. Another part of me that I do not share with many people aremy challenges as a
high functioning Autistic male. I realize that I am not alone. I have my family to support
all my career opportunities that I pursue until I establish a foundation as I work to
become successful in the future. As I began to develop as a young child, I did not
understand why I could not figure things out like I wanted to. I wanted to do things like
other children. When I was five years old, I had some challenges at school with my
ability to read. This was very frustrating for me because I tried very hard but my reading
was delayed. This made me not want to read books. I learned through patience with my
parents that I would develop my reading skills. I eventually gained my confidence when
I began to read words and understand what I was reading with some prompts from my
tutors. I want to continue to develop in this area. My success has been my ability to
verbally communicate although I have struggles if what is being said is not stated in
concrete terms. I am now comfortable with asking questions if I do not understand what
is being explained. I continue to have challenges in communication. I sometimes get
frustrated when I am given an assignment and do not fully understand the expectations of

the assignment. I do see growth and success in this area. I was recently given a
assignment in my Government class where I had to apply language specified in different
authoritative documents and state in my own words what the concept meant. I see
growth in that I understood the instructions was able to apply them and write in my own
words what the language means. I often felt why I cant pronounce words properly. I
would often think to myself, what is wrong with me. My success in the area of
communication is that my classmates no longer laugh at me when I am trying to express
myself.
My diagnosis of autism has taught me that the challenges I want to overcome is
communication as it relates to expressing myself appropriately, writing skills as it relates
to organization of thoughts, grammar, processing of information, and management of my
frustrations.
I have been in special education classes from Kindergarten until Middle school. I did not
like being in those classes because students and some teachers treated me as if I had
limited potential. Some of the educators did not seek to bring the best out of me, For
those teachers that believed in me, I believe that I was able to excel and show my true
capabilities. I realize now that being in special education helped prepare me for the
general education classes that I began taking in 8th grade and ultimately through out high
school at Da Vinci Design.
At age 13, I became a 9th grade student at Da Vinci. I was very excited to try new classes
and meet new students. I did not have many friends, but the friends that I did develop
friendships with in 9th grade were very supportive of me.

Tenth grade was a challenge for me because the work became more difficult. I
understand that I have to study long hours and take advantage of tutoring to achieve the
best grade possible. I was able to receive a grade point average of 2.9 last year. I am
very proud of that achievement.
Because I have to work very hard to achieve the grades I need to be successful, I fear not
achieving my goals at times. However, it has made me develop a strong work ethic.
My fear of failure has helped me to develop and grow from a young boy to a mature
young man. My immediate goal is to graduate with the class of 2015 and move on to a
successful career in college.
One of my goals is to become the best person that I can be by building confidence. One
way to reach my goals is to believe in myself.

My support teams consist of my sister

Armentria. I can always talk to her. She helps me to solve problems when things do not
go well at school and in my personal life. She is a problem solver. I also have a mentor
Mr. Sal Vasquez. Mr.. Sal has helped me in explaining the work environment and has
helped me in my growth and development as a camp counselor working with young
people who are autistic. Dr Pamela Wiley has known me since I was 5 years old. I often
refer to her as my second mother. She hired me as a camp counselor at the Los Angeles
Speech & Language Center. She has given me an opportunity to get valuable volunteer
work experience in a structured but nurturing environment. Positive people like my
sister, Mr. Vasquez and Dr.Wiley is my motivation that reinforces for me that I can do
anything as long as I work hard. Music and exercise are motivators for me. Music
relaxes me and exercise releases stress. Im ready to accomplish my goals this year so
Im ready to graduate as the class of 2015.