Students at DTU with a mental disorder have the opportunity to work with a mentor in the form of a fellow student or an academic supervisor. That is how William and Carsten originally met.
When William Bang Lomholdt started kindergarten at the age of three, the educators soon noticed that there was something different about him. They said that he was not like the other children, and that he preferred to play on his own. Nine years later, he was diagnosed as suffering from infantile autism, with traces of Asperger’s syndrome. His parents were told that he would never be able to function normally in society.
Today, at the age of 23, he has just started the third semester of his degree in Physics and Nanotechnology; and he is doing very well. This is due in no small part to Carsten Knudsen, Senior Executive Officer for the study programme at DTU Physics.
Carsten is William’s academic supervisor, a kind of ‘support person’ who, through weekly meetings, helps him to keep everything together when the pressure starts to rise.
“I sometimes have a tendency to focus fiercely on details, pushing everything else into the background,” explains William. At other times he finds it difficult to concentrate on anything. Occasionally, he has reached the point where things have almost become too much for him.
“My degree is something I really want to do, and do well—and my condition simply serves to amplify my innate perfectionism,” he adds. This is where Carsten comes into the picture, helping William to maintain an overview of the reading he has to do, the lectures he has to attend and the assignments he has to hand in—to ‘tidy up’ in other words.
It gives me a real boost
It makes sense to Carsten to help the students. This is actually the main reason why he chose teaching as a profession in the first place. He takes a passionate approach to his role as William’s support.
“I get to experience the low points with him—and the high points as well,” he relates.
William is in no doubt that the programme pays dividends:
“Having someone like Carsten around allows me to think in terms of ‘this education mountain I have to climb’. I’m doing it for my own sake, but having an academic supervisor around helps me maintain my motivation. If you have a diagnosis like mine and have to tackle a study programme on your own it’s tempting to give up, but having someone to talk to keeps my spirits up.”
Today, neither of them is in any doubt that William will complete the course. As Carsten puts it, William doesn’t have any choice in the matter.
They plan to carry on together until William is in a position to stand on his own two feet—and perhaps even longer. As the two of them have become firm friends.
Article in DTUavisen no. 10, December 2014.
A total of 51 students have applied for—or have already been allocated—a mentor from DTU, in the form of an academic supervisor or a fellow student.
The scheme is run via the Special Educational Support (SPS) programme, which provides different types of assistance for students with different kinds of impairment.