Augustin Gonzalez Memorial Scholarship

I have two passions that I work with now and will be able to do better after graduation. The first is autism awareness. I am a single father of an autistic son. I knew tremendously little about autism before my son was diagnosed. Now I work to educate others and help others who struggle with raising autistic children. I have raised awareness and funds for autism childcare. In the metro Atlanta area we have several daycares and schools that focus on working with autistic children. My son went to one of these schools and I will continue to assist with that school and others in my community. My second passion is law enforcement. I have been a cop for 17 years. I have learned as a cop I have a higher responsibility to work with my community. Cops are often only seen during emergency situations. How cops respond in those situations and the follow up that is needed so important. I have been through critical incident training. This training shows officers that mental health situations can be handled differently than they were ten years ago. An individual may be yelling and breaking stuff. As an officer we have to assess is this individual trying to cause damage, having a mental health episode or some combination. We have to determine what’s the best way to protect the citizens and property of the victim. The more training officers have the more options they have at their disposal. I recently became a General Instructor with our Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training. This certification allows me to train other law enforcement officers. I want to use this certification and my college education to train others these techniques that I have learned. Some of the techniques come from my personal experiences with my son, some have come from my CIT training, and the rest comes from my experiences with individuals through my job. This scholarship is incredibly important because as a single father money is tight. Without scholarships I will not be able to continue my education and achieve my goal. I hope you will recognize my current effort to to make my community a better place and will assist me with doing more to help my community. The Atlanta area is growing so rapidly and with this growth brings more individuals who may have a mental health crisis or may be autistic. Knowing how to interact and deescalate those situations is vital to our community.