Press release from the English Speaking Union of Monmouth County
Andrew Nowak, an internationally noted scholar in the field of education of students on the autism spectrum, chose central and coastal New Jersey for his recent visit to the United States — and the Monmouth County NJ Branch of the English Speaking Union was pleased to host him.
The London-based educator was announced as the winner of the ESU’s 2015 Walter Hines Page Scholarship, founded by the British English-Speaking Union in the 1920’s to honor the memory of Walter Hines Page, a much-loved American ambassador to England during World War I. This international exchange scholarship enabled Andrew to plan and carry out visits to the nonprofit therapeutic center OASIS tlc in Middletown, the Douglass Developmental Disabilities Center in New Brunswick, and Red Bank Regional High School.
In each of these places Andrew was warmly welcomed and given discussion time and tours by the directors and consultants. Andrew was also celebrated at an ESU reception at a private home in Rumson, where he spoke eloquently about his mission to an attentive audience of forty members and guests.
“It was a unique and enlightening experience to meet people in the autistic community of Monmouth County, New Jersey, and hear about their under-recognized, yet hugely valuable work for autistic young people, ” Nowak said of his trip to the greater Red Bank area. “Upon my return to the UK it is my plan to attempt to instill the same breadth of community links and the vision of creating a society for all, regardless of disability.”
