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Chasing His Goals
You may have seen COLEMAN JONES’ confident smile in a sponsored Facebook video or a full-page newspaper ad—he was chosen by Chase for a recent marketing campaign highlighting small businesses. The 23-year-old, who has Down syndrome, is the vice president of Dallas ice cream shop Howdy Homemade, locally loved for hiring adults with special needs. “We’ve had people contact us and say, ‘It just has encouraged us so much with our child with special needs seeing what has happened with Coleman,’” reveals Lendy Jones, his mother. We asked Coleman about the ad experience and what he dreams of doing next. How did you get this advertising gig with Chase? When Howdy Homemade opened … Chase lent [founder] Tom [Landis] a check to help him open Howdy. How did they choose you for the ads? I think it was a God-given talent, and I think that’s how it happened. What was the shoot like? Personally, I
Quotable:
Living a Dream In a five-minute speech, 11-yearold Dallasite COLIN HARRIS galvanized an audience with reflections on what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream for America would be in 2020. With his inspiring words, Colin won the annual Foley & Lardner MLK Jr. Oratory Competition. It’s an amazing accomplishment for any child—and especially poignant considering that at 3 years old, Colin could speak only five to six words and was “Violence isn’t the diagnosed solution to anything. on the autism Violence only breeds spectrum. more violence. I After speech don’t know about therapy, Colin soared. you, but I’ve had “He’s excited enough of that.” —Excerpt from to bring awareness Colin’s speech to autism,” says his mom, Jasmine Buschbacher. “There have already been people from all over the country, from Canada and Florida, reaching out saying, ‘Our son is 4 and he’s not talking yet. This has really given us hope.’” Read more about Colin on our website, dfwchild.com. Search for “Colin Harris.”
AUTISM INTERACTIONS A University of Texas at Dallas study is giving new insight into how adults with autism interact differently, but not necessarily dysfunctionally. Researchers asked 125 participants to have a five-minute chat with another person, then evaluate the conversation. The study results suggest that successful social interactions for autistic adults depend more on their compatibility with a conversation partner than their own conversation skills. UTD’s NOAH SASSON, Ph.D., notes that autistic adults preferred future interaction with others who have autism. “If autistic people were inherently poor at social interaction, you’d expect an interaction between two autistic people to be even more of a struggle than between an autistic and non-autistic person,” Sasson says. “But that’s not what we found.” 6 special needs
spring 2020
COLEMAN: JPMC; HOWDY: CENTRAL MARKET; COLIN: REX CURRY/FOLEY & LARDNER LLP; SASSON: UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS
ABOVE // Coleman Jones hopes the ad campaign inspires more hiring of special needs adults.
loved it. It was great doing it with Chase. My favorite part was when I was dipping the ice cream, and I also liked it when Tom and I were walking with the [ice cream] cart together. I thought that was cool. Was this your first time being on camera? No, ma’am, it was not my first time. My first time was a buzzer-beater at the Midlothian [Special Olympics basketball] tournament. That was my first time being on YouTube and getting a lot of likes. (Editor’s note: Google “Coleman Jones buzzer-beater” next time you need a pick-me-up.) What do you hope the ad campaign accomplishes? Hiring more special needs adults. What are your future plans professionally? Do you see yourself at Howdy Homemade for a long time? Yes, I do plan to stay with Howdy, but I also have a dream I want to go after too. So my dream is to—if I have enough money, first off—to buy … a Christian video company that started in 1993, I believe, and to continue with it. It’s called Big Idea Productions, and what their product is, is VeggieTales. They’re half-an-hour videos that go through all these biblical times. And looking at Howdy and all the adults who I got to work with … what I thought of was seeing a suit of armor around the world. I thought that could really help not just me but also my friends and the employees at Howdy, to really give them a voice and to give them a chance at, like, actually seeing the world and having the chance to see what their abilities are. That’s why I see a suit of armor around Howdy, and around the world, just to protect them. Do you have any advice for kids with special needs who are chasing after their own dreams? Personally, I would say keep faith, and also dream big.
