South Phoenix school helps fill ‘a major gap’
Founder sees academy as potential model in STEM education for kids with autism
Mims sees great potential in the lives of his students and the wider autism community.
Fifteen-year-old Angel Montano said it’s “not fair” that many students on the autism spectrum don’t have access to a place like Science Prep Academy.
After a long time of feeling misunderstood in public school, Montano transferred to the south Phoenix private school about three years ago.
“It’s been amazing,” Montano said. “It’s like the Land of Oz — how it’s all magical and wonderful here.”
The teenager said he’s flourished at Science Prep Academy, where he has learned how to code and program robots and where his creativity and individuality are encouraged instead of diminished.
Montano, an aspiring screenplay writer, proudly showed off his sketches of three superheroes to The Arizona Republic in early January. He was in the process of writing their origin stories and said he was considering making the smartest one be on the autism spectrum.
Montano recited a list of people who displayed neurodivergent traits and were believed to have been on the autism spectrum: Beethoven, Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton.
“If they go down in history, kids in this school can probably go down in history,” Montano said.
It’s a lofty goal, but one that Science Prep Academy founder Kenneth Mims believes is within reach.
Likely the first STEM career prep school for kids with autism
Mims’ background is in physics, but he transitioned to education and started as a physical science inclusion teacher in Georgia in 2011. It was at that point that Mims heard about autism for the first time, after a student he was working with told him about his diagnosis.
Mims discovered that common traits of people on the autism spectrum, such as having strong analytical and problem-solving skills alongside social and emotional challenges, mirrored his own experiences as well as those of his colleagues in physics.
He became “super passionate” about understanding autism and wanted to create a learning environment that would prepare students on the spectrum for the transition into college and career.
Mims moved to Arizona and opened Science Prep Academy five years ago. The school is the first college and career preparatory school specializing in STEM for students on the autism spectrum, according to marketing firm DRA Collective.
He said south Phoenix was chosen as its location because of the lack of services for the autism community in the area.
“There’s a gap everywhere, but there was a major gap (here) and there were no options,” he said.
The cohort is small, but Mims said capping enrollment at about 20 students offers each of them more individualized attention and support. Though he’s gotten many requests to open additional campuses, Mims told The Republic his priority for now is validating his model and partnering with other organizations to replicate it in communities across the Valley.
Advocating for legislation on behalf of autistic people
January marks the official launch of Mims’ Neurodiversity Education Research Center, an umbrella nonprofit that will operate Science Prep Academy on top of sponsoring other opportunities for the neurodivergent population, such as college and career fairs. It will also publish research that Mims believes could make a huge difference when it comes to societal attitudes and public policy surrounding autism.
He referenced the impact that the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 had on people using wheelchairs by requiring ramps in public areas, and said he’d like to see similar legislation enacted to make society more equitable for people on the autism spectrum.
“We’re going to have to evolve as a society to understand what are the barriers for individuals that have autism, that are neurodivergent, and what are the ramps that we have to put in place?” he said.
Mims sees great potential in the lives of his students and the wider autism community, but laments that many still see autism as a disability to be mourned rather than a difference to be celebrated.
“All I can do is really hope and have faith that there will be a change,” he said.
Despite the work that lies ahead, Mims said the progress that’s been made even in the few years since Science Prep Academy opened its doors makes him optimistic about the future.