June 10, 2009
Autistic Teen Breaking Barriers
By Brian McTavish
Then 16, Ben Berlin of Topeka, seen posing next to a model of the U.S. Capitol, became the first person with an autism spectrum disorder to work as a Congressional page last summer.
Ben Berlin was just being himself when he landed a coveted government job last summer in Washington. But the Topeka area teen wound up making history while in the nation’s Capitol.
In June 2008, Ben became the first person with an autism spectrum disorder to work as a Congressional page.
“I’d have preferred less of the celebrity,” Ben says. “I don’t mind getting some media attention. But I was joking at the time that the only person who was more famous than me was the president himself.”
This summer, the 17-year-old high-school senior with Asperger’s syndrome is dealing with more interview requests as he eyes another appointment with history, this time on the international front.
In June and July, Ben will become the first person with an autism spectrum disorder to participate in the People to People Student Ambassador Program, established by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956. People to People Student Ambassadors spend two to three weeks overseas absorbing other cultures and representing their communities and schools.
“He’s just such an extraordinary kid,” says Ben’s mother, Mari White.
Ben Berlin this summer will be the first person with an autism spectrum disorder to serve in the People To People Student Ambassador Program.
Ben is proud of his accomplishments. But he maintains it’s “not really that big of a deal” that he has Asperger’s, especially since his challenges are relatively mild, he says.
“I prefer that people don’t focus on it,” he says. “I don’t really consider it a disability. It’s almost non-existent to me.”
Even so, the dedicated student and member of High School Army ROTC can appreciate how other young people with Asperger’s might be interested in or even inspired by his achievements.
“I can see that,” Ben says. “For who knows how long, people with disabilities have been seen as not being able to do anything for themselves.
“There are some disabilities that do involve that. But you could almost say that everybody in the United States has a disability of some sort. ‘Disability’ is a very broad term.”
Ben’s Asperger’s related strengths (photographic memory, knack for tinkering, take-me-as-I-am personality) and weaknesses (quirky behavior, disinterest in peers, threat of seizures) are part of him but are not him, White says.
“I’m very much into working with his gifts,” White says of her son. “You don’t focus on the fact that he has a disability. To me, that’s very secondary. I mean, it makes him special. But at the same time it doesn’t define him. I’ve learned to accept that.”
To what does White credit her son’s success, besides his 136 IQ? Something, she says, that should be the focus of every parent with a child on the autism spectrum: ongoing advocacy.
“It’s really up to the parents to be able to go to bat for their kids and really feel comfortable in that role,” White says. “If they assume the school’s going to do it, their child’s going to float through the system and then that’s going to be it.
“It’s up to the parents that come forth and say, ‘Look, this is what my child’s good at. This is where he has weaknesses.’ And you need to kind of chide the school, because nobody else is going to do that.”
White believes it was her outspoken support of Ben – who had previously worked one day as a congressional page for the Kansas legislature in Topeka – that inspired Shawnee Heights High School officials in Tecumseh, Kan., to suggest her son for the Congressional Page program.
“He got in because the school called me and said, ‘You know, there’s this program that looks like it might be right up Ben’s alley,’ ” White says. “And so I looked into it and we thought, ‘Well, heck, why not?’
“We applied and I didn’t really think much of it. And then we get this phone call from Washington, DC, saying that he’s one of the top kids they’re looking at. And I thought, ‘Oh, my, gosh,’ because it’s really hard getting into this program.”
Not simple for White was getting through the three weeks that Ben was working for Kansas lawmaker, U.S. Rep. Nancy Boyda – 1,100 miles away from home.
“I actually sat on my hands and didn’t pick the phone up,” she says. “I was tempted. But I kept saying, ‘No, if there’s a problem, they’ll call me.’ And, finally, after about 10 days I called and said, ‘How are things going?’ ”
They were going great, Ben recalls.
“Mostly it was delivery work, taking stuff from one office to another,” he says. “A senator or a representative would come up and give you a package or a message. I got plenty of exercise. Lots of walking.
“I really enjoyed it. I wish I could have stayed longer. Because most days, by the time you got off work, most of the museums were closed, so I didn’t get the chance to do a quarter of my itinerary.”
Ben fortunately made it to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (he’s a big fan of theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking and is fascinated by the cosmos). On the job, he witnessed how representative democratic government really works.
“I learned that our government’s not nearly as messed up as I thought it was,” Ben says. “I always thought that the Republicans and the Democrats hated each other’s guts. And I expected that in session there would have been cat and dog fights.
“But it wasn’t anything like that,” he says. “If they were discussing something, they would say, ‘I like what my friend across the aisle said, however… .’ I thought it would have been like: ‘He’s wrong. This is the way it should be.’ ”
As a student ambassador this summer, Ben will visit France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy.
“I am really excited for my trip to Europe,” he says. “And that’s why I’m forcing my mom to get me a really nice digital camera so I can take a ton of pictures.”
Where does Ben see himself in the future? Maybe as a NASA engineer. Or a chef. Or both.
“My mom tells me that one of the first things I said was ‘be yourself,’ ” Ben says. “And that’s probably the best advice that you could give anybody. If you want people to look up to you and admire you, don’t go for the, quote, norm.
“You don’t have to be the tallest or the strongest or the hottest. You don’t have to have the newest clothes or car. Just be yourself.”
