The Voice of Dyslexia: Meet Gabriela Alvares

Gifted Unleashed

Gabriela Alvares is a student majoring in Communications Media studies and minoring in Public Relations at Quinnipiac University, in Connecticut. She was born in South Africa to parents from Portugal where she calls home. She grew up as a third culture kid and has lived this global and inspirational experience which brought her to her purpose in life.

At a young age she was diagnosed with dyslexia and here starts her journey.... Unfortunately, at the time living in Tanzania, a country which had limited or no resources to support people with Learning Differences, she had to learn how to be the best dyslexic in order to succeed. She desperately wanted to be the same as every other student as well as achieve those amazing scores, so it was a realisation and awakening time where she found herself having to work twice as hard. As she transitioned from grade to grade, each year the workload increased so the challenges became tougher but never never gave up. Her good support network with great teachers at school and her family at home she was always encouraged to keep going.

Her self-esteem was her biggest struggle, she was labelled with dyslexia which had an immediate connection to all the negative prejudices possible, especially at a young age, you fear to be labeled by other kids as< "stupid" or "dumb".

She learned the skills to advocate for herself and this is when she realised her voice is her biggest strength and she wants to share her story to inspire others to develop skills and tools do thrive despite a learning difference.

Gabriela’s goal in life is to be a learning difference advocate, she wants to share her story to inspire young children and let them know that they can do anything that they set their minds too. She wants to create awareness of the topic and fighting the stigma associated with any learning difference. DYS does not mean “not able” because we are all able, sometimes it just takes different routes to get to the same place as others.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

• Having a learning difference means you need to learn to become your own advocate.
• Getting a diagnosis for a learning difference (for example dyslexia) helps students and adults getting accommodations in school and in the workplace.
• Dyslexia is a learning difference, it is not a mental health issue.
• There is still a lot of misinformation and stigmatisation around the topic of dyslexia around the globe.
• Gabriela’s goal is becoming an activist and raising awareness around the topic of learning differences and especially dyslexia.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Gabriela Alvares on LinkedIn

Ability Media

Focus and Learning Center on facebook

Quinnipiac University

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