My name is Abigail Castillo, and I have been attending Chinquapin Preparatory school since the sixth grade. I have a passion for science and service and I hope to continue with both in college. I will be attending Wellesley College thanks to the help of Posse Houston. I am a Latina and first generation to go to college.

When researching, I focused on learning about autism and special education. Autism is a neurological disorder that people have heard about but are not fully educated about. Many people do not know basic facts or how to behave around people with a disability. It is very important to their treatment to have human interaction, and it is very important as humans to understand those with an illness, disease, and disability. Especially with children, it is important that their education is inclusive. It is also shown that adults with a disorder, specifically Autism Spectrum Disorder, behave similarly to children in the way that they do not understand certain ideas or they are dependent on another person. This proves that different ways to improve special education are necessary. From my research, my desire to help kids with autism grew because I knew how helpful it would be to them.

For my Junior/Senior Project, I wanted to do something that I was passionate about but would also learn a lot about along the way. My idea was to make inclusive safe havens for kids with autism and other social and mental disorders. I had never really known much about autism, so I decided to learn more about it and create a project out of that desire to learn.