B4D: Still Standing- Persistence, Progress, and Success on My Own Timeline

Success doesn’t always happen on schedule, and progress doesn’t always follow a straight line.

In this personal and candid session, Jose Velasco Jr. an autistic young man shares a journey shaped by perseverance, support, setbacks, and the determination to keep moving forward. As a high school wrestler, he lost every match during his first year, but he kept showing up. Eventually, that persistence took him to a third-place finish at the district level. As a Scout, he worked his way to the rank of Eagle Scout. Education presented a different kind of challenge. After years of support throughout school, he entered junior college and spent nearly seven years completing a two-year degree. What might look to others like a delay was, for him, a commitment: keep going until you get there.

Today, he has built a life that reflects that same determination. Through determination, he has maintained a permanent job for more than 7 years and continues to navigate adulthood with increasing independence and confidence. Through his own experiences, he will explore what perseverance really looks like for an autistic person, the importance of having people who believe in you, learning from setbacks, accepting that some goals take longer than expected, and refusing to let someone else’s timeline define your success.

Speakers