Daren Kraft
Daren Kraft is a personal chef, author, speaker, dog trainer, and autism advocate. Currently unemployed, he volunteers on neuroinclusive housing committees and seeks out opportunities to be a voice for the autism community.
"I am a thinker, not a doer", Daren often remarked in primary school. He read at a much higher level than his peers, but at a far slower pace. Often placing at the top of his class on exam, he failed to complete homework and classroom assignments with vexing regularity. As he advanced through the grades, Daten gravitated towards more and more challenging electives. He loved math and yet struggled to show his aptitude to instructors who asked for detailed work shown or expected a breadth of knowledge to be gleamed from textbooks before lecture. The struggle to do and show his work contrasted with papers that drew his interest and his performance on exams. Despite articulating his perceived difference to others, he received little grace without a diagnosis.
His difficulties increased when he attended the University of Colorado, Boulder. Through introspection and a tumultuous journey to find quality mental health services, Daren finally received an autism diagnosis at the age of 27. For the first time in his life, he had a diagnosis to match his life's experiences. Armed with new paperwork, he returned to school and received beneficial accommodations. He graduated in 2020 with degrees in molecular biology and biochemistry. Last year he finally received his formal autism assessment, which reaffirmed his strength of mind and validated his struggles to live life as an unsupported adult in the America of today. Daren is still working to overcome the expectations and pressures he grew up with, "my self image was that of a failing neurotypical, when I should be celebrated for being a successful autistic". Through public speaking and advocacy work, he hopes to change the image of and pathways to success for neurodiverse people, "because we all have so many gifts and talents, but we are constrained by a neurotypical system that is structured overwhelm our weak points and fails to identify our strengths".
