News and Knowledge

Julia Selman and Rebecca Bradley began summer internships with OAR last month. Both will work on projects related to programs and outreach. Bradley will be a senior at the University of Maryland this fall where she is majoring in psychology. Selman, who will be a junior at the University of Richmond, is also pursuing a major in psychology. Both interns will be at OAR through August.

Selman is hard at work already on Hire Autism. She is also helping organize the information and reports from the Graduate Research Grant program for the research portal on the new website. In addition, she is supporting the OAR Scholarship Committee in its final selections by reviewing the applications to make sure they are complete.

Bradley will spend most of her internship working as part of the development team for a new resource, OAR’s College Guide, a student-friendly magazine that aims to help students with autism navigate college life and academics.

Bradley “deeply admires OAR’s mission and not only its devotion to advance autism research, but also its commitment to education, outreach, and support for families and individuals impacted by autism.” She notes that analyzing research for the college guide, and learning about current advancements in evidence-based practices, will help her “gain important knowledge and skills to apply back at school and beyond.”

Selman’s perspective on people with autism has shifted already as she delved into articles by and about people with autism, their parents, and siblings. She thinks that will be what she enjoys the most about the internship. She hopes to increase her knowledge of how a small nonprofit organization functions and learn how to create a web of connections through outreach.