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T-shirt says it all: “We Speak for Autism.”

Weekend BBA+ class with Robert Hogner, instructor, Business in Society

Florida children with autism and their families may experience improved services thanks to the efforts of the College of Business Administration’s Weekend BBA+ cohort 23. For their Business in Society course’s required community service project, they decided not to fundraise or undertake a hands-on improvement effort.

Instead, based on a suggestion by a class member and by course instructor Robert Hogner, associate professor, Department of Management and International Business, and coordinator of the college’s Civic Engagement Initiative, they thoroughly researched how Florida’s support for these families stacks up against what other states and countries do. They sent their forty-page report to Florida state legislators.

The 23 students divided into four teams: domestic statistics, led by production manager Charlie Ramirez; domestic laws, overseen by Josh Frieze, benefits reconciliation analyst for automatic data processing (ADP), who also edited the final report; interviews of families, under the guidance of Tony Juhe; and international laws and statistics, led by Andrew Carbon, cohort president. Karen Smester, benefit eligibility analyst, ADP TotalSource, Inc., designed the t-shirt and other graphics and served on the interview team. The class named Carlos Bustamante, network operations administrator, Vista Health Plans, project coordinator. His description of his autistic nephew, and the financial and emotional impact on his sister, persuaded the class to focus on autism.

Project effort gives back as much as it takes.

The immersion in the subject brought Frieze, Ramirez, and Smester new skills, an appreciation of what families face, and insight into what it takes to complete a class assignment of such scope.

“The recurring theme of the interviews was parents’ desire for their children to be taught basic life skills—essential right now and even more so when their parents can no longer be caregivers.” said Frieze, who discovered that “even while working and attending school full time, I can have a positive impact on issues that are important to me.”

“I learned that a good leader doesn’t impose himself on his team, but instead needs to guide it through the most effective means to accomplish the desired goals,” Ramirez said . “I’ve done community service for many years, and in the future will volunteer for autism events.”

Smester hopes that the project “serves as an eye-opening experience for those in control of our health insurance laws and that it results in adequate coverage and support for families facing autism.”

Learn more.

Read “How bright is the Sunshine State when it comes to autism?” at http://business.fiu.edu/pdf/AUTISM_REPORT.pdf.