Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Episode Transcript

Transcript edited by Hannah “Asher” Sham

Introduction to Let’s Talk!

Kylo: You are listening to Let’s Talk! Let’s Talk!, is a digital space for students at PCC experiencing disabilities to share their perspectives, ideas, and worldviews in an inclusive and accessible environment. The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of Portland Community College PCC Foundation, or our community partners. We broadcast on our home website, pcc.edu/dca, on Spotify, on X-Ray, 91.1 FM and 107.1 FM, and KBOO Community Radio, 90.7 fm. 

Meet the Guest: Kari Hanken

Asher: Hello, Let’s Talk! listeners! My name is Asher and today I’m going to be interviewing a special guest today to talk about ADHD. So, can you start by telling me what your name is, your occupation, and your pronouns?

Kari: Yeah, my name is Kari Hanken, I use she/ her pronouns, and I am currently a disability counselor at PCC in the accessible ED and disability resources department.

Asher: Hi,Kari. Thank you so much for joining me today. 

Kari: Well, thanks for having me. I appreciate being invited.

Understanding ADHD

Asher: Can you start by explaining what ADHD is in simple terms for us?

Kari: Well, there’s a lot of different definitions out there, but I would like to use, like, “neurodivergent”, and that there are just natural differences between how people’s brains develop and function and their cognitive styles. In general, people with attention deficit have inattention that impacts them day to day. They can also have hyperactivity and impulsivity. But, that’s not always the case.

Asher: Oh, interesting. And, can you also just say what ADHD stands for?

Kari: Of course! “Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder”, and that is a little misleading because many people who have ADHD do not have hyperactivity. That’s something that was added in the DSM Mental health diagnosis manual a few years back. But, it used to be called just “ADD”, ” Attention Deficit Disorder”. So, they added the “hyperactivity”, but it doesn’t always apply to everyone who has ADD.

Asher: Oh, interesting. How common is ADHD or ADD among college students or young adults now?

Kari: So, The Center for Disease Control, reports out about 11% of children are diagnosed with ADHD. 15% boys, 8% girls. But, in general, the adult population would be about 12% overall.

Asher: Wow, that’s quite a number. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting such a big number.

Kari: Yeah, it really is. And, there has been an increase in diagnosis since 1997. A part of that is better identification and understanding of how ADHD impacts women. Because women were rarely diagnosed with ADHD and that’s changed the perspective. And, symptoms tend to affect women differently than men.

Asher: Oh, wow. 

Common Misconceptions About ADHD

Asher: With that, like what are some common misconceptions people have about ADHD?

Kari: Well, I think that maybe the most common is that ADHD is all bad. ADHD can be an advantage in certain settings. In particular, where creativity is needed. Thinking differently in approaching problem solving. There’s been some studies of ER doctors and there’s a lot of ADHD in the ER. Being able to work efficiently, quickly. Also, for performance, many actors, athletes report ADHD. People in the arts also. So, it is pretty prevalent. I mean, I think any work setting that you’re in, you are gonna work with somebody with ADHD, and I would guess that you’re gonna see people with big picture ideas, creative approaches, and things like that. So, I think the perception that ADHD is all bad is not the case. Now, that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t present challenges to people in certain settings, which is totally the case. But, I think the misperception that you can’t be successful or that it will prevent you from being able to reach your goals is not accurate.

Asher: For sure. I’ve heard a couple of misconceptions myself just with the idea of people with ADHD are just procrastinating or that they’re just lazy about something. I’m like, “no, it’s because there’s this physical block.”. Or, at least from how I experienced when I was in school and I didn’t know I had ADHD then, was that I couldn’t get myself to physically do an assignment until the very last minute. Which made it really difficult to get things perfectly done. And, I also have like a perfectionist attitude too. 

Kari: That’s really common. There’s this classic book that was written in the early nineties called, ” You Mean I’m Not Lazy, Stupid, or Crazy?”

Asher: I love that title!

Kari: It was written by Peggy Raimondo and Kate Kelly is the other author to that. But, it kind of illustrates a lot of misperceptions around why it can be so difficult to function with Executive Functioning for people with ADHD. Like getting started on things, continuing and finishing, that kind of thing. And, that is particularly impactful when the way that our education system is set up requires a lot of efficiency.

Asher: Yeah, definitely. you mentioned Executive Function. Is that one of the effects for having ADHD?

Kari: Well, I think that in some ways that’s a universal thing for people with ADHD. Executive Functions are in the frontal lobe. That’s the place that sort of is our organizer of our brain; where we shift gears and when we can transition back and forth to different activities, and organizing, time management– more what I would call temporal things and spatial things where it’s kind of the manager of our brain– and sometimes some of the things that can be challenging for people with ADHD.

ADHD in College Students

Asher: How does ADHD affect a student’s ability to focus, learn, and incomplete assignments? I sort of shared a little bit of my struggles with that, but are there other more difficult encounters that you have, heard of from students in what you do?

Kari: Yeah. Back to that “Executive Functioning”; being able to sort of consolidate information, use a calendaring system or list, and things like that, consistently, to be able to make sure you are keeping up on assignments, you are tracking what’s due, figuring out what priorities you have, for assignments. All of those things can create challenges. And, another part of that is sometimes physical activity and how important that is for a lot of people with ADHD. School requires a lot of sitting at a computer and very sedentary work, and so I think that adds to some of the challenges, that I hear from students; about how do I have enough time to do this and also have some sanity around my life and being able to function?

Asher: I’m recalling a lot of different scenarios from when I was still in school and just the difficulty behind it. Because, I only recently got diagnosed with ADHD myself, and then after that diagnosis I’m just like, “Oh! Everything makes sense now! Why I was struggling so much in school!”. I had difficulty sitting for very long periods of time and I always needed something stimulating me, whether it be music or whether it be like fidgeting or doing something, basically. So, yeah. That was very difficult for me.

Kari: Yeah. And that’s something that I hear from students very frequently. I cannot work in a quiet room. I need music. I need something playing in the background. Yeah, just to keep focused and be able to keep working.

Asher: What are some of the less obvious symptoms that students or faculty might overlook when someone has ADHD?

Kari: I’m kind of going back to women on this too, but the stress that sometimes the ADHD can cause people; it’s like I have this goal, I wanna complete this goal, I wanna do well, but I have things interfering with that. I think that there’s a lot of anxiety that happens for people with ADHD. And, also some shame. Because going through life with ADHD you have people pointing out things that maybe you’re not getting done like throughout your whole life and a lot of people internalize that. That can become shame for people, or guilt, or embarrassment, when things don’t go well. So, I think that is something that often isn’t apparent. Sometimes if you have untreated ADHD you’re more likely to experience depression, even addiction, issues. There’s quite a few studies around untreated ADHD and people being more likely to have addiction later in life if they’re not treated. So, there’s just a lot of things that can impact people. Maybe students stop attending because they’re getting far behind. There’s all these different things that could be happening. Like chronic absences, where students are trying to cope and they do some avoidance behavior because of that.

Asher: Yeah, that sounds very difficult. 

Emotional and Social Impact of ADHD

Asher: You were talking about anxiety and depression, would you say that somebody that has ADHD, is it more than likely that they will also have anxiety and depression too? 

Kari: Well, if you look at the statistics around it; about 85% of people who have been diagnosed with ADHD have a comorbidity. Meaning they have some other diagnosis and depression, anxiety, neurodivergence, and like autism spectrum disorder are common co-occurring experiences for people. That can happen with bipolar or any other mental health diagnosis. But, if you think about it, that means that there are very few people that only have ADHD and don’t have another diagnosis in other areas.

Asher: We talked a little bit about how a DHD influences a student’s motivation and their time management. How does it also affect their emotional regulation? Because for myself, especially, I get serious weird mood swings every single day and one small like mishap can ruin my whole day. It’s just like, “what is going on?!”.

Kari: There are some great resources, that talk about that. One of them is like a journal called “ADDitude”. But, it’s “ADD” in big letters, and I-T-U-D-E. It’s kind of ADHD Science and Strategies kind of thing. It’s really a great website. There’s an article in there that talks just about that; just emotional dysregulation. Overcompensating, going down the road of perfectionism, being impacted socially with bullying. Sometimes like impulsive behavior or turning in on yourself, that can happen. It comes out socially and what you are describing too; a lot of times people with ADHD are feeling a lot of complex emotions all at once and it’s can be so overwhelming that that can make people shut down and not really feel like they can cope with the present situation. So, you might leave or it may come out in other ways that impact emotional regulation. Because it’s distressing.

Asher: Yeah, it sounds very stressful. I don’t really know how to explain it. I feel like I keep on thinking of things way into the future when it hasn’t even happened yet, and I’m like just figure out what to do right now. And, I can’t really figure out how to just stay in that moment and like figure out what I need to do so that significant future doesn’t happen.

Kari: Exactly. Yeah, I experience some ADHD symptoms and it’s a spectrum. I try to find some ways to get those emotions back under control- Or, I don’t know if I would say under control, but so that they’re not as acute. Like for me, making a list and allowing myself to have to work a little bit late some nights. Different things. If I write it down, then I just know I don’t have to keep it in my head anymore and I can refer back to that list and not fret about it. Making sure you take enough breaks and getting physical activity, even meditating. I have some different resources that I’ll share at the end. But, there’s a lot of different things, I think, impacting all people right now. That are causing a lot of stress for people and people with ADHD, a lot of times, are very sensitive to others in their environment, to what’s happening in the room. And, sometimes that can be overwhelming, noticing a lot of things all at once and not being able to calm that down.

Asher: Oh, yeah. I totally relate to that. I think just every single time I step into, whether it’s like, a community group or just a group of people, I start reading into every single person. Like who’s okay, who’s not okay, who’s safe to go to? Or is it not safe to be here, kind of thing. I feel like I’m not giving people the benefit of the doubt, and it just makes me also just feel really bad! 

Kari: On the flip side of that too, is noticing when other people may be feeling left out or may need a human connection. I think that can be an advantage of that. So, if you can be down in the middle, as far as not overdoing it and making sure you’re taking care of yourself too; that ability to empathize and recognize that other people might be feeling similarly, is something that happens for people with ADHD.

Self-Advocacy and Support Resources

Asher: How can students with ADHD advocate for themselves if they’re struggling but hesitant to ask for help? When I was a student, I didn’t really know how to ask for help because I didn’t know what was going on. But, with those that have ADHD and are struggling to ask, how can they advocate for themselves? 

Kari: If students with ADHD are in need of accommodations in the classroom; maybe they need some help with note taking or extra time for tests and things like that. Definitely they can come to accessible ED and disability resources. There are a lot of other ways to also self-advocate. Communicate and reach out for help. There’s a lot of resources just in general at PCC. We’ve got tutoring services, we have tech tutors or digital navigators that can meet with students online and in-person. If you’re just having a hard time navigating the PCC system, that’s a great resource. What I like to do with students that I’m working with who are sort of struggling with that communication piece is just to sit down with them and compose an email together and looking at the syllabus to see if an instructor has office hours or by appointment or in person that are accessible to the student. Encouraging them to form study groups, ask other people in their class, connect with other people, so that you can share information with them or they can share information with you if you happen to miss a class or they miss a class. It’s sort of like that mutual natural support that we all can give each other if people are working together on that. A couple years back we did a parallel learning thing where students could just get online with somebody else and both be working on something. And, they wouldn’t necessarily have to be in the same class, but maybe set a goal for that time. This is what I wanna finish during this time. Let’s stay online together and help each other stay focused kind of thing.

Asher: Yes, I have heard about that! I think there’s a term for. It’s called “body doubling”? 

Kari: Yeah, “body doubling” is one way to call it, or “parallel learning”. If you have somebody that’s interested in that and you can find a common time to just log in and say, ” we’re gonna help each other get our work done”, or even going in person somewhere like the library or the Student Learning Center around campuses. I think that network of learning and sharing, a lot of times, is helpful to people. Not everybody has the schedule that they can do that. But, the fact that you can do that online with somebody is also pretty cool.

Asher: I feel like, with that, just looking out for other students that are struggling, even if they are hesitant of asking, is there like a gentle way to reach out to them and be like, “Hey, do you need help with something?”. 

Kari: What I’ve suggested to students in the past is, if they didn’t feel comfortable just approaching other students to join them; just asking the instructor to facilitate that. Just say, “I’ve got people who are interested in joining a study group. If you are interested send me an email and I’ll connect you.”. That kind of thing. I think sometimes people have to hear about resources more than once to reach out. In Accessible ED and Disability Resources, we will sometimes reach out to faculty and ask for help with that. I will do that on behalf of a student. Sometimes we will work together to kind of craft an email to the instructor to get some assistance with that. So, there are different ways to approach that I think it’s just letting people know what the resources are more than once.

Strategies for Managing ADHD

Asher: What kind of strategies or tools do you recommend to a student with ADHD to manage their workload? You also touched in on that “ADDitude” app; are there any study techniques or routines that they can get to help, whether it’s regulating their workload or, emotional regulation… 

Kari: Yeah. I think it’s so individualized for each student on what works for them and what doesn’t work for them. One bit of feedback I’ve gotten from people, because there are apps out there, this “ADDitude” website has a lot of strategies, resources, that people could tap into webinars, and eBooks, and blogs, and things like that. A lot of times I hear from students, who experience ADHD, that getting too much information can be overwhelming. Trying to figure out an app when there’s all these things that I need to be doing for classes and things like that; sometimes it’s helpful, sometimes it’s not. The most important thing is that everybody needs to customize things for themselves. What works for one person doesn’t work for another. So, sometimes I meet with students to work on time management and organization and things like that, and that’s usually my approach to that. Do alarms work for you or do you just turn them off and just keep going with what you’re doing, even if it’s not productive for you? A strategy that I often recommend to students is scheduling your classes so that you have a morning class and an afternoon class with a big gap in between to force yourself to stay on campus and get your work done as much as you can on campus, so you can access those different resources. Like tutoring or digital navigators or just be in a structured place rather than at home, where there’s so many distractions and things like that. Being able to tune out of social media and texts and really make yourself unavailable, if possible, for periods of time. Maybe it’s just a half hour, take a break, check it. So, that you’re just not constantly being pulled away from work if you’re really concentrating. So, there’s a lot of things that you can do. Putting a calendar together that has all of your assignments and tests on it, at the very beginning of the term, whether that’s electronic or paper-based. Some people like to be able to just kinda lay it all out and see it all. Then working backward; ” when do I need to start this in order to finish it on time?”, setting some goals that way, and getting support from people once you have that system set up. How are you going to track it? It’s one thing to set up the calendar, but if you’re not checking it regularly. So, before I go to school today, I’m gonna check that. Or, before I go to campus, I’m going to go through these lists and look what’s coming up? Do I need to schedule, testing accommodations in the testing center, those kind of things. So, I think that those kind of things are challenging.

Asher: Oh yeah, for sure. I found out that, for myself, if something is out of sight, it’s out of mind for me. Especially when it comes to calendars. I’ve bought so many physical calendar books that, in the end, I’m just gonna use my phone. ‘Cause it’s on me all the time, and it rings me every single time there’s something coming up. Versus a physical book that I’m just gonna dump into my backpack and I’m not gonna look at it. 

Kari: The digital things are more dynamic. Because, like you said, you’ve got ’em in your pocket. For me though, I really need a visual reminder. So, if I tuck something away and I don’t have it. It’s important to have that long-term look ahead. I also use my phone, appointment reminders, and things like that, to try to track things. If you’re trying to get into a routine of doing something; it usually takes about 30 days for you to really establish a habit and a routine. So, really focusing on maybe one goal of I’m checking this calendar every morning before I get started with the day and having it in a reminder or something like that. Those kinds of things help to establish routines.

Asher: How does the Disability Service Office work with students to create individualized support plans? And that goes for you as well.

Kari: Well, different from K 12. We don’t have IEPs or 504 meetings. But, a lot of times we might use that information to help better understand when the student comes into our office. We have a website where students can go and fill out an application. Then we will reach out to students and set up an initial meeting. And, in that meeting we usually are focusing on; ” what are your strengths?”, “what are your goals?”, “what are you made gonna major in?”, And, ” what are you experiencing barriers?”. Then, based on that conversation, we set up kind of a menu of options, that students can customize each term, for each of their classes. Once that’s set up, students make their request for the term, and that request is emailed to the instructor. Then that kind of starts the accommodation process. Some of that is classroom accommodations, testing accommodations, note taking supports… But, we also then have supports through our office. If it’s helpful for you to check in periodically; I oftentimes have people say, “I’ve gotta have some accountability. Will you be that person to help me?”. My approach is, ” what is it that you need in those meetings?”. I’ve had students go, “I can’t keep up with my email. If I could just go in and just be checking my email and that’s just the time I’m gonna do it.”. Or, maybe it is, “let’s look at this week and what are the upcoming things that are happening in the following weeks.”. Those kind of things. So, we definitely do some organization, time management, that kind of thing.

Asher: Which is very, very helpful, I feel like, in a stressful environment such as college or school. in general. There was a time where I decided to take four, four credit classes. Which I think I was a little bit crazy for doing so. But, I mean in my own defense, those were the only classes that were available during that term and, if I waited, I would have to wait for another two or three terms in order to take it. Basically, I got so stressed out that I just had to sit down with my calendar and try to just figure out; ” this day I’m doing this. This day I have this due. This day I have…”

Kari: Mm-hmm. 

Asher: I also wish that I had someone sitting next to me and being like, “okay, Hannah! You got this! This is what you need to do!”.

Kari: Right. The other thing that I often tell people, especially people with ADHD; because, I think that a lot of times self-esteem can be wrapped up in that just because if you’ve repeatedly felt like maybe I caused some disappointment because I was having difficulty following through on things, and stuff like that. I think people with ADHD are very hard on themselves, and it’s really important for people to know that they can give themselves some slack and be able to say, “you know what? I didn’t do it this time, but that doesn’t mean that I’m an abject failure for doing that.”. It’s kinda like, “this is my goal. I’m not gonna always meet it. But, I’m going to still work toward it and sometimes I may slack off and not stay in that goal. But, I’m going to keep working toward it.”. I do often say to students, when we do organization and time management, there’s no judgment coming from me. You need to cancel an appointment, or if you haven’t done what the goal was for that week, I’m not going to judge you on that. We’re just gonna keep working toward meeting the things that you’ve set up as priorities and goals. 

Asher: I feel like that’s just especially hard for those that have ADHD. There’s just such a fixation, I think? At least in my opinion, of if I don’t get it right this time, “oh, it’s over.”.

Kari: ” Maybe I might need to take this class again.”, or, ” I’m not going to get an ‘A’. Maybe I’m going to get a ‘B’ in this class.”, kind of thing. And, to be fair, there’s a lot of programs that have really high expectations on grade point average, and things like that. So, it also is societal pressure too. That’s on everyone. But, I think, if you don’t have a great history in school and you’re nervous about that, it’s even more pressure.

Asher: With that, what advice would you give to a student who suspects they might have ADHD, but haven’t been formally diagnosed?

Kari: If you just wanna talk to somebody, like an informational interview or just say, “Hey, this is what I think might be going on.”, you can always come into Accessible ED and Disability Resources. This “ADDitude” website, the ADHD Science and Strategies, has a lot of really good information for somebody who is looking into it. There’s a description of symptoms in adults, women, just the brain itself, and then some different symptom checker tools to go, ” where do I fall?”. Just to do some exploration if you wanna do that on your own. ADHD it occurs in childhood through adulthood, and a lot of people choose careers where ADHD, like I said, is an advantage. Or, maybe somebody chooses a career where there’s a lot of movement, or big ideas are important, that kind of thing. People do tend to go toward careers that use those skills that people with ADHD have. it’s an enhancement of the work environment to have people that can think like that and be creative on the team.

Asher: Yeah. Each person who has ADHD is different from the next person. I’m guessing there’s not like a rigid, ” you have ADHD”, but there’s like a different definition for each single person that has ADHD, whether it’s like a range from how severe to how not severe. Would you say that’s correct?

Kari: Yeah. Like with the comorbidities that it impacts people very differently, and there are similarities, right? We’re talking in a lot of generalizations. But, another thing that is very common, that people don’t think about, is that a lot of people with ADHD can be very hyper-focused on things, especially areas of interest. So, a lot of people don’t realize that maybe they have ADHD because they can focus for long periods of time. I look more at like, how do you transition from something that you’re super interested in to something that you’re not very interested in? I think that is interesting. In fact, way back in the field, I used to teach in public school and I taught elementary. It was really interesting, because at the time there was not the idea that over focused was a part of ADHD. And, so that would oftentimes make people not pursue assessments for kids, if they were able to really focus on something.

Asher: Interesting.

Kari: Yeah.

Asher: I’ve actually noticed that with myself as well. I tend to like really zone in on a certain task, or whatever I’m doing. Whether it’s a hobby, or work, and if anybody decides to like interrupt me or tap me on the shoulder, I would jump and I would get triggered, for some reason. I don’t really understand that and I’ve not figured out if that’s ADHD or if that’s something else, but what will you say about that?

Kari: My Experience is similar to that.

Asher: Oh! Okay, great! So, it’s not just me!

Kari: Yeah. I’m really into music and I play a couple instruments. There are times where it’s really hard for me to tear myself away and go do the laundry or, do other things that I need to do. Now, I have kids and they’re grown and gone, so I don’t have as much responsibility, as I used to. But, being a parent was very challenging because of all the shifting and transitions that you have to do. So, I often felt very overwhelmed.

Asher: That’s very interesting. Different life stages, I would say, would also affect ADHD too; just how you respond to stuff and all that. I really wanna get more in depth into like researching more about ADHD, especially after figuring out about being diagnosed. I’ve read a lot of things, but at the same time, it’s great to hear from an actual person about, “this is what ADHD is”, and “this is what you need to look out for”. 

Kari: Yeah. Like I said before, everybody has a different experience. They have a different childhood, different makeup genetically, and things like that. But, it does tend to run in families. There’s a pretty big correlation with ADHD in families. It accounts for a lot of diversity in how you think about things and how you approach them.

Asher: Second to last question. 

Success Stories and Final Thoughts

Asher: Any success stories when working with a student with ADHD? 

Kari: I have so many. I couldn’t really speak to them, in different cases because of confidentiality. But, I do wanna say that, we’ve had students with ADHD in probably every program that’s ever run at PCC. We have ” Honor Society”, “Delta Alpha Pi”, for students who have achieved a 3.1 or higher and identify as having a disability. That’s been going since 2020. I know there’s many people with ADHD who have been inducted into that Honor Society at PCC. There’s many people who work at PCC, have ADHD. The prevalence of it, at about 12%, just shows that there are a lot of people who experience that. You are going to have people in every walk of life who struggle with that, makes them who they are, and makes them good at their jobs, in certain aspects of school, and things like that.

Asher: It’s crazy that in every single department, you said, that there is a student with ADHD. That’s impressive!

Kari: Well, I am just anecdotally looking at that. I don’t know for sure, but I’ve worked here for almost 30 years and I’ve worked with almost every program at PCC. Whether it’s medical programs, vocational, technical, STEM. I, myself, have just seen that there are people with ADHD in all of the programs. When we have the “Delta Alpha Pie” induction in the spring every year, students can submit information for a slide, and what we do is have the student’s picture and whether they’re graduating, what they’re majoring in. I can tell you that one of my favorite things of the year to see all the different programs that have students with disabilities in general. It’s pretty impactful for people to see each other and know that people are successfully participating in programs at PCC. 

Asher: That’s very impactful. I would say that even with having ADHD, you’re not completely unable to do all these different tasks. Maybe it takes a little bit longer for the person. 

Kari: Yeah. Or, a different approach. One of the biggest challenges that we now run into is, like you said; you took that term with four classes. There being procedural things that happen at the college, whether it’s through financial aid and within financial aid. I’m required to take all of these credits each term in order to finish at this time. So, it’s hard to have some flexibility in there for a difficult term, or like a life event. That’s really for everyone. But, my preference is for people to take the number of credits that they can take that’s manageable, and that might be two classes for somebody. But, they may be required because of loans, to take three classes, and that’s more than they can manage if they’re given their own life situation. Whether they have a family, or they have work commitments, and things like that. So, I wish that was a little bit different for students, so there was more flexibility for them to take their time and not feel this pressure to do everything all at once. Because, I think that one size fits all doesn’t really work for most people.

Asher: I have one final question. And, you can feel free to not answer it. But, I found out that with myself, with having ADHD, is that I’m having a lot of difficult times with making friendships and being able to hold relationships for a very long period of time. I think it’s also just with a lot of anxiety and a lot of thoughts that just go through my head, or self-sabotaging, or whatnot. Are there any ways to help with that? And, I know that’s a very broad question.

Kari: Yeah. In a time too where there’s a lot of strong opinions on different things, it may be hard to find somebody who you can kind of trust and that you feel comfortable with and have social interests that are similar. I really think that, at PCC too, being a community college and people come and go, and a lot of times they’ll be like, “I come to school for class and then I leave right away.”. But, if there are people that are really interested in belonging and making connections with others. I always go back to, again, stay on campus as much as you can. Get involved in the clubs at PCC. There’s a lot of different clubs, social ones, academic ones. That’s a way to meet people. Go to the student centers. We have the Queer Resource Center, Veterans Resource Center, multicultural Center, Women’s Resource Center. I think that those are places to meet other people who are interested in, developing friendships and finding people that are interested in social types of activities. Because, there’s such a big student body, but we’re not all there at the same time, and there’s people that have evening classes only. But, I think that those belonging activities are essential for people to feel like they belong here. A-S-P-C-C, student government things that are going on, and getting involved on campus I think is a really good way to be a part of things and meet people. The more people you meet the more likely you may have a chance to find friendship in those activities. We also, with Accessible ED and Disability Resources, have a Disability Cultural Alliance, or DCA, which we call the “Hub” at Southeast Campus, and that’s specifically for people with disabilities. There’s a lot of online and in-person ways to interact with that because it is at Southeast. So, it’s not always in everybody’s range, geographically. But, like I said, there are some online activities. We’ve had an ADHD support group. I’m not sure if they’re running that right now, but certainly, if students are in interested, that could be a place for belonging and just having peer support. So, I guess that was a very long answer.

Asher: No, it’s totally fine. I really appreciate that. Yeah. The ADHD support group that you mentioned, is that happening in PCC as well?

Kari: You know, I’m not sure. But, I am going to look it up right now and see if it’s running. So the Disability Cultural Alliance or DCA, that’s a group of people that are doing programming for students with disabilities specifically. But, the actual hub where we have a space right now is at Southeast Campus. We also have town halls every month, and we have opportunities for employment for students that may want to work for our department and do some programming around other students. So, I think that a good place to start is to go to that website. I’m looking right now; the ” ADHD Peer Resource Group”. Yeah, so it looks like you can join that group if you click on the link. Like I said, I’m not sure that they’re running regular meetings right now, but you can ask to join the group. The description of it is creating community and sharing ADHD adventures on PCC campuses. Focused on ADHD, open to all Neurodiverse students.

Asher: I’ll have to take a look into that. That sounds very interesting! Where has this been my whole life?!

Kari: I’m not exactly sure that it is running right this minute, but it has been in the past. For people to join the group, that would probably spur meeting regularly. There’s ADHD Aware is a website that talks about perspective from the UK. So, I always like to look at what kinds of resources they have as well. Sometimes they are more progressive in their thinking about things.

Closing Remarks

Asher: Well, thank you Kari. Do you have any closing thoughts for us? Anything you’d like to share to our listeners, especially students heading into this new term in regards to getting support and reaching out?

Kari: I would say, use the resources. That’s why we’re here. Your tuition and fees pay for these services, and as much as you can be on campus use the resources for “belonging” too. I think that all of those resources are really helpful.

Asher: Well, thank you so much, Kari, for joining me once again, and I will talk to you guys later, listeners.

Kari: Thank you for inviting me. I really appreciated the time to talk to you.

Asher: Of course. Thank you so much.

Kari: Thanks, Asher. 

Asher: Thank you for listening to Let’s Talk!, Portland Community College’s broadcast about disability culture. Find more information and resources concerning this episode and others at pcc.edu/dca. This episode was produced by the Let’s Talk! Podcast collective as a collaborative effort between students, the Assessable Education and Disability Resource Department, and the PCC multimedia department. We air new episodes on our home website, our Spotify Channel,  X-Ray 91.1 FM and 107.1 FM, and KBOO Radio, 90.7 FM.