Caitlyn Tansey

Over the last three years, I have spent what seems like countless hours working with an
organization called the Center for Autism and Related Disorders. I started off as a volunteer my
freshman year, a wide-eyed psychology major who has familial ties to autism and a history of
working well with children. I was a member of a leadership program, a program that I applied
for not realizing the impact it would forever have on me. Not realizing that becoming a LEAD
Scholar would set in motion a chain of events that would change my life forever. I needed
volunteer hours for my leadership program, and I thought working with a soccer class for special
needs children would be more admirable than the time spent working at a homeless shelter where
I had been volunteering previously. I was right, something clicked after the first practice and I
was in love with the program, and with the children I was working with. I was offered a job after
two years of consistent volunteering five times a week and was asked to volunteer my time to
help the team at the Florida Special Olympics. I realized quickly that aspirations for anything
other than working with children were futile. When you realize you are good at something, you
don’t walk away from it, you put yourself in a position to be better.

My career goals are vast. I want to work as a psychologist who specializes in special
needs children. I want to be able to be more than a volunteer turned facilitator on weeknights, I
want to help in a more clinical way. My goal is to get my master’s degree in school psychology in
order to continue helping developing minds. Growing up I watched my mother advocate for
resources in order to give my sister the accessibility that she was owed under her IEP. My family
had the ability to fight for her, but not every family has the time or the resources to advocate for
their children. I want to be part of the solution to this, making sure these families have a resource
available to their children, working in the system to help make it better. Working towards an
undergraduate degree in psychology over the last four years has shown me how much I enjoy the
study and discipline of psychology itself. I enjoy my classes, I am enchanted by developmental
psychology and personality theory, I find even the parts of psychology that are difficult to
comprehend a welcomed challenge. 471 hours. Over the last three years, I have spent 471 hours
working with a group of incredible children who do nothing but surprise me every single time I
see them. I will end my time at CARD with over 500 hours working with them, and after that, I
look forward to starting over, beginning again with the next chapter of my education and career.