ROCHESTER, N.Y. — “Today we are gonna talk about perseverance,” said Tim Gordon, a senior at Rochester Prep High School as he spoke to a room full of elementary students.

Perseverance isn’t always something that came easy for Gordon.

“I didn’t think it was cool to be different, I wanted to be like the crowd, I wanted to be just like everyone else,” he said. 

What You Need To Know

  • According to data from Pew Research Center, New York serves the largest share of disabled students in the country at 20.5% of its overall public school enrollment

  • One of the biggest obstacle neurodiverse students face is feeling confident in their learning
  • Rochester Prep High School is part of a national near-peer mentoring program where students mentor younger neurodiverse students to help them embrace what makes them different

He realized he had a learning disability when he was in elementary school.

“I would struggle to hear things and I got a hearing check and I found out that I had hearing loss,” said Gordon. “A lot of people realized that I had hearing aids and it kind of made me embarrassed.”

So he did everything he could to blend in.

“Every chance I got I would just always take them off because I was just so ashamed of the hearing aids and stuff," he said.

But in middle school, he joined Eye to Eye, a peer mentoring program where high school students with learning disabilities mentor younger neurodiverse students, and something changed.

“I felt a sense of belonging because I realized that I’m not the only person who has to get special help because of their learning disability,” he said.

Now a senior at Rochester Prep High School, it’s his turn to help other students persevere.

“I realized how big of a change eye-to-eye was making on me, so I wanted to influence other people around me, influence them in the right direction to be more proud of themselves,” said Gordon.

Students like Xzavion, an eighth-grader at Rochester Prep.

“I relate to him a lot. He talks about how he used to be embarrassed of having to get out of class to get extra help and that's how I felt,” said Gordon.

“I relate to Tim because he’s like me, we both have a disability and we can both help each other,” Xzavion Washington said. 

The program teaches students to celebrate different ways of learning and embrace their own differences — and how to persevere together.

“They spend a lot of time talking about how to advocate for the accommodations that you need, they spend a lot of time talking about recognizing what your learning strengths are and how you can lean into those in the classroom,” said James Dill, director of special education at Rochester Prep.

“At first I wasn’t doing good, I wasn’t having good grades, I kept getting in trouble. But now that I started going to Eye to Eye I get good grades,” said Washington.

But most importantly, it helps them understand who they are.

“I actually embrace being different, it’s part of who I am,” said Gordon.