Editor’s note: The following article was adapted from an oral report delivered by the author for a class during the Spring 2023 semester.

Good day, my name is Daniel Crosby. I have been at Landmark now for one and half years, and it has completely changed the way I not only study, but also how I view the world and the different people in it.

One of the main reasons I chose Landmark was because it was one of the few schools on the East Coast I could afford and had the GPA to get into. However, what struck me differently with Landmark was it was an unconventional college. There were barely any big, long three-hour lecture classes. And unlike the other two colleges I looked at, which had smaller fields when it came to neurodiversity, this college has centered itself around how being neurodiverse is not a terrible thing, in that it can be a good thing.

Most colleges that you go to do not really think about the neurodiverse. They have that one place where you can ask for accommodations, but that is about it. Landmark was different. It felt like a second home to me, and I still remember my first week here.

This has not been the first time I have been alone away from my parents. I was a huge fan of long summer camps and other types of trips like that. Plus. I have been in The Boy Scouts, so I have been on long camping trips. Personally, I was just excited to be able to do a physical college after I had to do my whole entire senior year of high school online, which sucked.

One of the main things that made Landmark unique was that you could feel that most professors and staff cared about students who were neurodiverse and knew how to work with them. With most colleges, you get a feeling that the professors do not work to understand those who learn differently. However, at Landmark College it felt like most professors understood how the students acted and how to help them. Also, because every student at Landmark had some sort of learning difference, it felt like a lot of the time people were not made fun of by their peers

The location of Landmark is rural and not near any big city. In my opinion, this is not a terrible thing because it makes Landmark a closer-knit community. There are also shuttles to take you to larger towns in case you need to buy something. Also, there are on campus groups which have trips to these places.

I am glad that Landmark was my first college and overall, so far, I have learned a lot about neurodiversity and that being different is not so bad. I hope to continue to be at Landmark and learn evermore.