Aldo Suarez, 21, of Chicago's South Side, likes to play the video game Halo. Another favorite? Building McLaren vehicles with Lego Technic sets. And he prefers the older “Matrix” movies, Courage the Cowardly Dog, and walking North Riverside and Woodfield malls when he can. And his favorite food is tofu.
“My cholesterol is very high, so I have to lower that down. They also say my blood pressure is too high because of salt. I want to lower all of that down,” he said. “That’s why I’m going for tofu.”
The other thing the Ray Graham Training Center student is going for is a job at Michael’s, the arts and crafts store. Suarez is engaged with his first job at Jewel-Osco, corralling carts. It’s a position that Urban Autism Solutions (UAS) West Side Transition Academy helped him obtain. Academy staff assists high schoolers with autism and related challenges with finding gainful employment and job readiness — from filling out job applications, writing resumes, and learning interviewing skills and any additional assistance once employed to make sure their segue into the new entry level position is a good one.
