It’s the phrase that stops any parent short, especially when spoken by their child’s elementary-school principal:
“Do you have a minute?” Jennifer (England ’85) Allen did, so she followed the principal into a conference room to discuss Sam, a third-grader who was highly intelligent but unable to socialize with his classmates.
The principal slid across the table a paper with a list of autism symptoms on it. Sam met each one.
“The room was spinning,” Allen recalled of the fateful moment that would change her and her family’s lives. “As I read each bullet point, I was sobbing and sobbing. It wasn’t sorrow – it was that I finally knew what was challenging my son.”
Spurred by the relief and clarity provided by that moment, Allen has spent the past dozen years helping other parents receiving a diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder, including producing a well-received documentary and founding a nonprofit called Aspergers101.
Through it, she has used in unexpected ways the skills she learned in ACU’s television-production program.
“All that I learned at ACU I thought was for one thing,” she said, “but God has another plan.”
A radio/TV major, Jennifer England produced newsmagazine programs, including an interview show hosted by Dr. Gary D. McCaleb (’64), then dean and vice president of campus life and a member of the Abilene City Council.
After graduation, she was a producer, editor and anchor for the CBS affiliate in San Angelo for seven years, then spent eight years with San Antonio’s UPN affiliate, rising to become director of marketing. Along the way, she met and married Herb Allen and had two children, Sam and Charlie.
Then came the fateful 2003 conversation with Sam’s principal about the boy’s difficulty with socialization. Jennifer decided to quit her job and stay home to educate their children and provide the support Sam would need.
“I left cold turkey,” she said. “It was the best decision ever. It was the right thing to do, no doubt.”
Looking for ways to give the kids an active role in their education, in 2004 she created an animated civics-education series called Ameriquest Kids, distributed through Landmark Media, with Sam and Charlie as the main protagonists.
Shortly after, she produced the documentary Coping to Excelling, which featured a number of people on the autism spectrum, as well as doctors and other experts. The 68-minute film has aired on San Antonio’s PBS channel and is available online for free; after its release, it was shown in theaters across Texas with Q&A sessions featuring Jennifer and Sam for parents and their autism-spectrum children after each showing.
Now 21 years old, Sam is preparing to attend Texas A&M University-San Antonio; among other things, he builds computers from scratch and once constructed an FM radio station in his room for fun, Allen said.
In 2014, Allen formed Aspergers101 to provide information and resources to parents who face a diagnosis like her family did 13 years ago. She runs the nonprofit organization from a closet-office in her home.
“I just feel so blessed,” she said. “You just never know where your life is going to go.”