Volume 126, No. 82 Tuesday, February 7, 2017
NEWS
Catch up on Fort Collins crime PAGE 4
Tony Helt stands next to his girlfriend Rebecca Abbott who has been especially supportive of Helt for the past year. PHOTO BY ZACH BERMEJO COLLEGIAN
CSU employee hopes to pursue an education despite obstacles By Zach Bermejo @zach_bermejo
For the past six years, Tony Helt has been at Colorado State University—but not as a student. Instead, Helt worked in the dining hall of Corbett, serving food to hundreds of students daily. Currently, he works at Spoons in the food court of the Lory Student Center. Aside from a tech certification from Front Range Community College, Helt has no formal university education. He does, however, have a strong desire to learn. Helt’s passion is in the field of computer technology. He honed his skills with computers since he was five, and he started to build his own machines at age 11. Now at 24-years-old, his projects have become more ambitious
the more he has taught himself about software and hardware capabilities. His pursuit has led him to experiment with virtual reality, which is emerging in popularity. His current virtual reality project is a heads-up display that presents the user with data they would find useful in their everyday life. Aside from his heads-updisplay project, Helt has pieced together salvaged hardware to make a portable computer that runs Windows 10 and is powered by a solar battery. Acquiring these skills has taken Helt some time, but overall it comes naturally to him. However, there is a skill that does not come so easily to Helt: social interaction. It is something he has trouble understanding on the same level as other
people. This is because Helt has autism spectrum disorder, ASD. Generally, Helt’s disorder does not interfere with his job. But there are days when he prefers to do only a specific task. Helt exhibits above average intelligence about computer technology. Though he considers himself to be on the high-functioning end of the spectrum, Helt still has difficulty understanding social cues and other forms of nonverbal communication. “I honestly feel like sometimes when people talk to me, I have to translate it into a language other than English that my brain operates on,” Helt said. Adopted as a baby, Helt showed signs of the disorder early on, but there was never an official diagnosis. When Helt was
5-years-old, his adoptive father died, leaving his adoptive mother to raise him. “It was kind of a struggle for mom and me, knowing what to do or how to solve some of the questions we had and other people might’ve had regarding me,” Helt said. It was during that time that Helt discovered his interest in computers. “[My father] left behind a computer after he passed away...I used it to base all my learning,” Helt said. “He was a teacher and he had a lot of cool programs on there [for kids] to learn.” Helt learned all the basics of reading, writing and mathematics on his father’s machine. Where traditional methods see OBSTACLES on page 12 >>
OPINION
Do I speak African? No. PAGE 6
SPORTS
CSU track and field hits top 10 PAGE 8