731f11a73a78c1f04d22c76e19685164.jpg

Lawrence High students campaign for greater awareness of autism

By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
   Visitors to Lawrence High School next week should not be surprised to find the hallways filled with students wearing white T-shirts that read “Cards for the Cause.”
   The T-shirts are part of a marketing campaign, spearheaded by LHS seniors Kari Van Treuren and Nicole Krawczyk, to increase the awareness of autism and to demonstrate that LHS students do care.
   Autism is a spectrum disorder, which means it has a broad range of symptoms. The most significant symptom is difficulty with social communication, which is eye contact, conversation or taking another’s point of view. There is no cure for autism.
   Each year, the student-members of the LHS chapter of DECA — formerly known as the Distributive Education Clubs of America — must become involved in a marketing campaign, according to Kari and Nicole.
   The two seniors zeroed in on autism because Nicole’s friend has a younger sister who is autistic. They decided to funnel their energy into working on the New Jersey Students Tackling Autism Research (NJ STAR) project, which raises money for research.
   Kari and Nicole also plan to enter their project into the national DECA competition.
   ”We had to exercise our marketing skills,” Kari said. “We had to come up with a product and we had to advertise it and persuade people to buy it. We decided to make T-shirts. We had to use our creativity. We came up with a million designs (before settling on the one used on the T-shirts).”
   Kari and Nicole sold the T-shirts at Community Day earlier this month, and also let their schoolmates know of the T-shirts through announcements at the annual back-to-school night and during the morning announcements at the high school. They also prepared flyers and brochures.
   Along the way, Kari and Nicole hope to teach their classmates more about autism. School district officials have taken steps to integrate autistic students into the classrooms in the schools, and it is important to try to raise awareness of autism, Nicole said.
   The two 17-year-old LHS seniors said they also want to raise awareness of autism — its causes and its manifestation — so students would be less likely to make fun of an autistic classmate.
   ”I didn’t know much about autism,” Nicole confessed. “All I really knew was that kids who had it were different. They were more socially quiet. They don’t know how to be social or how to act. But you can’t treat them differently.”
   The autism awareness campaign also fits nicely into one of DECA’s four foundation principles, the seniors said. That principle is civic consciousness, in which students learn to recognize and value the responsibilities of citizenship.
   ”Even people who read the brochure at Community Day are educated about autism,” Nicole said. “We did well, but we need to do more. Maybe it has opened their eyes for a second.”
   ”We are so excited that we can make a difference. As long as everyone knows about autism, we have done our job,” added Kari.
For more information about the autism awareness project or to purchase a T-shirt, contact LHS teacher Diane Schneck at [email protected].