How is it possible for a gifted student to get only five credits in an academic year? Jesse van Meer should know, because it happened to him in the third year of his Psychology & Technology studies. He has an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and is also gifted and highly sensitive. According to him, the low grades were due to the fact that he had to follow the standard course pattern.

“What I get done in three to four weeks takes another student double that,” Van Meer says. “That meant that I had already gone through all the material at my own pace halfway through the quarter, but couldn’t take the exam until four weeks later. I thought I would still know everything by then, but it turned out that wasn’t the case. This was something I had to deal with all the time.” When the university showed itself understanding of his situation and gave him room for a more individual pathway, his grades shot up again. He no longer has to attend lectures and only sometimes participates in group projects. And he now studies for the exams in the weeks leading up to them.

One by one

Van Meer would love for other students who encounter similar problems to be offered this solution, but he knows it’s not easy to get an arrangement like his. “These kinds of requests for help often come in one by one, so academic advisors have to figure out all the possibilities for each student.” This can be improved, the student thinks. With the foundation Donatues, which he founded in collaboration with architecture master’s student Mara Gianotten, who’s also gifted, he hopes to create a central point where gifted and neurodivergent students can go. “With questions for help, but also for a listening ear.”

Getting the required help

What should you do if you’re gifted or neurodivergent and need help with your studies? The answer to that question, according to academic advisor Tamara de Bock-Loonen, is very simple: go to your academic advisor. According to her, there are more and more academic advisors who completed training courses on giftedness. “The national association for academic advisors organizes those. They teach you how to recognize gifted students, what they’re up against, and how to help them.” Even if academic advisors haven’t taken such a course, they’ll know whom to refer students to in order to get the right help, she says.

If a gifted or neurodivergent student needs extra facilities, however, they will also have to visit the student counselor, who have more resources at their disposal than academic advisors. “Student counselors do ask for some evidence when requesting extra facilities,” says De Bock-Loonen. “This is difficult with gifted students because there’s no official diagnosis for them. Oftentimes, however, these students do have another diagnosis that can help them get those facilities after all.” For example, to apply for a more individual study pathway, students must submit a request to the examination committee. Academic advisors can help with that. Adjustments in the study pathway must fall within all guidelines and rules that ensure that the diploma retains its worth, the academic advisor emphasizes.

According to De Bock-Loonen, enough help is offered to gifted and neurodivergent students at TU/e. She estimates that about 10 percent of the students at the university are gifted. “There are probably still many of them who don’t have the courage or knowledge to go to an academic advisor.” She hopes that these students – with or without the help of Donatues – will be increasingly able to find their way to academic advisors.

In addition to making the possibility of taking a more individual pathway more accessible, the students see other opportunities for making studying easier for this group of students. Gianotten: “For example, what would make a big difference is if courses were taught in a more top-down manner. Right you, you typically start out very broadly at the beginning of the quarter. It doesn’t really become clear what you’ve learned everything for until the last week. It’s like getting a Lego brick every week but having to wait for the manual until the very end.” For gifted students – and other students, for that matter – she says it would help tremendously if they were told at the very beginning what the lessons are working toward, so they can choose their own path toward that final goal.

Advocating for this kind of change is what the students want to do with Donatues, but the foundation also serves as a community for peers: around 45 students have already found their way to Donatues. A WhatsApp group functions as a resource for questions, with students sending each other questions and tips. There have also already been two instances where academic advisors referred a student to the foundation because they weren’t able to make enough sense of the request for help. “Which wasn’t a problem for us,” Van Meer says proudly, “so that’s really cool.”

Gianotten: “As knowledgeable as a professional may be, it can still be difficult for them to get on the same level with these kinds of students. But we are on that level.” This isn’t only useful, says the student, but also makes for a nicer experience all around. “Because you’re on the same wavelength, you can properly talk to one another. You don’t have to adapt to anyone in this community.”

Thinking like a neurotypical person

However, owing to the fact that Gianotten learned to adapt as early as high school, university is doable for her. “I trained myself to think like a neurotypical person. When I take an exam, I read the question, translate it to ‘normal,’ then think about my answer, and translate that back to what I think a professor would want to read.” Part of this is describing all the intermediate steps in her head; those steps often happen very quickly in gifted people, and sometimes they even skip them.

Van Meer and Gianotten are convinced that if gifted and neurodivergent students are given the opportunity, they can truly flourish. “It’s safe to say that all of the students who report to us are very committed to hard work,” Van Meer says. “They are very eager to learn, otherwise they wouldn’t have gone into regular education but into special education. Studying at TU/e means having to deal with a myriad of issues, so you’re only here if you really want to be.”

Dedicated space

He hopes the foundation can offer these students some help. And not just those at TU/e, but also at Fontys and the sports center, for example, where there’s a lot of interest in Donatues. Van Meer: “We really get a lot of requests from outside the university. This shows the topic is receiving attention in more places.” The students are trying to “plant seeds” outside the university, so local initiatives spring up there as well. For example, Career Jumpstart at Fontys has also set up its own WhatsApp community with help from the foundation.

According to the students, the most important thing currently lacking at TU/e is a dedicated space on campus for the foundation. To their great frustration, they haven’t managed to arrange one yet. “It’s really important to have an actual space that people can visit. Academic advisors and counselors sometimes have waiting lists of up to four weeks. Then it’s nice to know there’s another place you can go to right away.”

The students always make a separate room reservation for the information sessions with professionals. The next session is a Meet & Greet Brainstorm, which will take place tomorrow (February 20) from 12 noon to 1:30 pm. The location will be announced shortly. You can sign up here.

The foundation announces the sessions on social media and LinkedIn. Students can also sign up for the WhatsApp group.