Hi Brooke – I am so happy to be here as part of the scholars, I know it will be so helpful for me! I would say my biggest challenge over the years has been around raising my son with autism, who is now 16. He has made great strides and he is in public high school working towards his diploma. His issues often take center stage of our lives and I base a lot of my life decisions around him (how much I work, how much flexibility I need in my job, where the 3 of us go, what we do and do not do, etc.). The biggest challenge right now is he doesn’t do work that he is capable of doing at school… he sits in class without getting started (this has been an ongoing problem) his dad and I get emailed saying they want him to get started and more engaged and that this is an issue,the work sent home with him so that he learns that he doesn’t get out of the work, so his dad or I do the work with him. We are happy to help him and want him to be responsible for his work, but I don’t know how to get out of the cycle of me making it possible for him to succeed or at least be ok. I worry about his future and make my current decisions now over my worry about him for the future. My ex-husband supports me well financially and I work part time in jobs that “work” for my home situation but that are not so great in helping me build a real career for myself. I also want to take advantage of the time while my daughter is still at home (freshmen) so my home life is quite important to me at this time. So my questions are – what would you say MY role should be in helping my son be successful in school, and how would you weigh present life issues with planning for the future? Thank you!!