Jake Sussman knows how it feels to be called stupid.
To pick up a book, want to read — and be unable to.
To be told dismissively, “I can’t believe someone in high school wrote that.”
He also knows what it’s like to find out that he can learn — just differently from his peers.
To embrace his differences.
And to discover his superpower.
The Westport native — who struggled mightily with ADHD before graduating from the Forman School, then the University of Hartford — ultimately learned to advocate for himself.
He learned that 1 in every 5 people is neuro-divergent — including up to 10% with dyslexia, and 5% with ADHD.
He took a huge step forward — gaining confidence and renown — when “The Forgotten Child,” a poem he wrote as a college junior for a poetry slam went viral.
With lines like “Imagine yourself as the child that always smiled/You were wild, you were beguiled/Until the day you were profiled,” it touched a chord with youngsters battling every day against a world filled with peers, teachers, even parents who did not understand them.
That forgotten child “refused to acknowledge he would never go to college,” Jake wrote — and repeated that poem and message to parents and educators.
A video of his poem went viral.
Jake had found his passion. His calling. And his superpower.
The 28-year-old could not deliver his message of overcoming frustration, affirmation and ultimately elation to his younger self.
But he could tell it to the millions of boys and girls just like him, growing up now in a world that — despite greater knowledge of learning differences — still does not provide the role models and lived experiences those kids need.
Jake’s younger brother Max empathized completely. A basketball player in Staples High School’s Class of 2018, and a business/ entrepreneurship major at Northeastern University, he was the perfect partner to help spread Jake’s message of how to reach “that kid in the back of the class.”
When Jake spoke to educators, parents, community groups and at a global dyslexia conference, people asked if worked with young people.
“I’m not a parent, a teacher or a therapist,” Jake says. “But I had credibility, because I lived this. I spoke kids’ language, because I knew it. I was relatable. I had the missing link.”
With Max’s help, Jake set up an online mentorship program. Four youngsters quickly turned into 30.
“They sat their totally focused” as he talked with them, Jake recalls. “They couldn’t get off the call.”
Of course, mentoring more than 2 dozen kids himself was unsustainable. So Superpower Mentors was born.
Jake is the heart of the company. Max is its CEO.
Their mentors are not licensed healthcare professionals. They are not competing with schools.
The mentors are men and women — just a few years older than their mentees — who provide guidance, advice and support based on their own lives. “They speak the same language,” Jake notes.
Those lives are impressive. Mentors include a NASA engineer, professional musician, animator and video game designer.
Mentors undergo rigorous training through a proprietary course. They are matched with mentees who share their interests and backgrounds. Then they meet online, up to 6 hours a month, sharing experiences only someone with a learning disability can understand.
Mentors offer practical advice in areas like time management, organizational skills and executive functioning.
Equally important is the confidence and excitement youngsters gain, just by talking with someone who knows what they’re going through.
But Superpower Mentors serve parents too. They have access to the mentors to discuss their child’s progress, and gain insights and tips.
“They ask things like, ‘how can we handle the fight we always have just before dinner?'” Jake says. “It’s a family partnership.”
“The myth is that kids with learning disabilities can’t sit still,” he adds. “But they can. And they do, the entire time they’re with their mentors.”
Since launching, Superpower Mentors has enlisted over 100 mentors. They’ve conducted over 7,000 sessions, with mentees as far away as Spain and Norway.
But as important as that is, Jake has another goal: to impact the town he grew up in.
His time in the Westport public schools “did not work out well for me,” he says. “But I’m not pointing fingers. I want to be partners. We can help change the world. And it can start here.”
Jake’s home town is filled with “artists, creative people, entrepreneurs,” he says.
“They’re people who think differently. We want to make sure our schools are empowered to reach those types of kids. Max and I love this town!”
To reach those area kids (and adults), Superpower Mentors has partnered with Smart Kids with Learning Disabilities.
“A Mind Like Mine: Inside the World of Kids with LD and ADHD” is an interactive program for parents and educators, to learn strategies and empower youngsters. The free event is May 7 (7 p.m., Westport Library). (Click here to register.)
Westport Board of Education and school officials have been invited.
Over 100 people have already signed up, a month before the event. Jake looks forward to meeting them.
And — even more — to helping their kids’ unleash their superpowers.
(To learn more about Superpower Mentors, click here.)
As a dyslexic boy in school I couldn’t subtract until a teacher recommended summer school for math . IN THE 4TH GRADE!
It changed my life but I wish I could have benefited earlier ! God Bless this program and these guys.
I commend Jake for his dedication to helping this important and diverse community of students who are too often neglected by the “system”. His comment that: “(My) time in the Westport public schools did not work out well for me, but I’m not pointing fingers. I want to be partners. We can help change the world. And it can start here.” was particularly poignant to read – and has context in the current objective by those determined to destroy the Community Gardens at Long Lots Elementary School.
I recently researched the increasing trend to create school gardens and incorporate them on school campuses, and summarized my findings in the Westport Journal. There are now over 7,000 school gardens across the nation because the benefits of integrating these gardens into the school curriculum are well established – including the documented psychosocial benefits and community connections for those with special needs.
I won’t repeat my “white paper” WJ commentary which anyone can read, but I will provide the following information as it pertains to this important article:
1. A study of children with disabilities who participated in gardening found that their nonverbal communication skills and situational awareness improved. This helps them better interact with peers, allowing them the opportunity to make connections and form relationships. It also helped children with “normal facilities” learn to work together with children of all abilities by creating common ground where all can interact and engage, discovering that perceived differences are not so different after all.”
2.“Childhood development concerns are not always visible. Learning disabilities and problems with concentrating (ADHD) can have a severe impact upon a child’s ability to function in society. Community gardens can help. Numerous case studies conducted by the Royal Horticultural Foundation (RHF) in the UK delivered fascinating results regarding children with special educational needs. There were improvements in acquisition of knowledge and understanding, the ability to think independently, and they were better able to question and to apply concepts and principles in different contexts. It enhanced communication skills and improved use of vocabulary. A study on children suffering with ADHD found that outdoor exposure (participating in a community garden) enhanced their ability to concentrate.”
3. “Children with disabilities have additional weight added to their shoulders that can cause them to feel more stress. Those with learning disabilities for instance are more likely to feel the effects of stress and exhibit signs of tension and anxiety. Studies have shown that community gardening can help alleviate this. It is important to note that in order to take advantage of these benefits you need to make sure that the community garden is accessible.” Ideally it needs to be close enough to classrooms that it can be used regularly. A garden out of site is difficult to monitor, maintain, enjoy, and interest wains.
4. “Pupils showed more socially competent behavior in school garden lessons than in classroom lessons. The school garden lessons, designed according to the basic needs, seem to create favorable incentives for social learning. Due to frequent social interactions, it can be assumed that learning activities in school gardens can promote emotional and social competence.”
Given that Stepping Stones is to be relocated to the Long Lots campus, it is incredulous to me that anyone in Westport would even consider destroying the gift that the Community Gardens can provide to these students. Instead, by just having a little bit of vision to incorporate what we are fortunate to already have, Westport can create an avenue (one that has been utilized and succeeded elsewhere) to assist the special needs child where Westport has failed those like Jake.
Instead of having the determination to restrict, prohibit and ultimately destroy our Community Garden and Preserve, the Westport leadership and community should be advocating for EXPANDING them into the Long Lots campus and incorporation into the school curriculum for the benefit of our elementary school students and their families.
AND given the fact that so many of the current gardeners are seniors who not only have a wealth of beneficial real world and child rearing experiences, and time to expend, I imagine that many would welcome the flow of these young children into their world. With some foresight and planning there is great potential for the Community Garden to provide many impressionable young students with a wealth of volunteer mentors and impactful relationships in addition to all the other well documented academic benefits school gardens provide.
It is not too late to heed Jake’s words: “I’m not pointing fingers. I want to be partners. We can help change the world. And it can start here.” In my opinion, it is time for the adversarial relationship with the CG to cease. Instead it can be time for the BoE to partner with the Community Gardens to help change the world of many of our children who can benefit from innovative cooperation. It can easily start here by taking full and new advantage of what we are so fortunate to have already exists right there.
Instead of restricting access to the CG in effort to ultimately destroy it, in partnership we should become focused on how to best utilize this gift that we already have for the benefit of all parties involved. The design phase should be quite capable of making this happen in a fashion that satisfies everyone’s needs – including any potential “safety concerns”.
Dr J
Sign me up. This is very relevant on so many fronts. I for one would welcome a youth learning program in the garden, as I know many other gardeners would.
When I was at Columbia taking a class in educational psychology at Barnard, the teacher–Sue Sachs–had us on the floor the first day with crayons drawing. She then mentioned that we all got where we were because we were good at lecture classes, but many people learn visually and our educational system ignores them. It is important to take into account near-diversity.