Klaire Clifford

Klaire is a 22-year-old high-functioning autistic young lady who wants to fix the world, even at the cost of herself. Although she has difficulty expressing and describing herself due to her condition, she doesn't let that discourage her from working hard toward her goals.

She is attending her last year at Rugby School at Woodfield as a super senior as she was gifted another four years of high school in special needs to learn what it takes only four years for a neurotypical student to master. She has a good team and they are preparing her to take and pass the Accuplacer exam to begin her college life. However, school was not always a safe and nurturing place.

What would make most people diminish and collapse into themselves after suffering a life of bullying from the school populous and verbal and emotional abuse from school staff, Klaire turned her pain into purpose. Her mission now is to help children like her heal through art therapy. This will require a Master’s degree but she is not deterred. She has overcome challenges before and didn’t fold under daunting tasks.

In 2013, when her family could not afford to pay for her summer camp, she decided that she was going to do it and relieved her mother’s burden. That cookie season, she sold 3340 boxes to raise over $2500 to pay for her summer camp and was among the top ten sellers of the Jersey Shore council.

When both her kneecaps were fractured in dance class and she had to wear braces for a year, she did not complain and went through the therapy weekly and attended school daily with a smile.

In her second year of vocational school at Monmouth County Career Center in their horticulture program, she was to select a project to enter into the 2022 Hort Expo and could have picked something easy just to get it over and done with. Instead, she chose a Canadian holiday called the Naka Festival to spark interest in the Northern Lights. Her project won second place.

Every single marking period for seven high school years, she has been an Honor Roll student. Recently, she is being recognized for her outstanding academic achievement by the National Society of High School Scholars (NSHSS).

In addition to all of that, like many young people her age, she loves animals, babies, corny jokes, superheroes, and spending time with her family. Her room is a mess. She finds loopholes in instructions to find ways around them. Her mother is always finding empty cartons in the refrigerator. She laughs, she loves hard, and she has a vision to help the youth of the future heal and be whole and happy. She is courageous against adversity and continues to boldly stride forward to make her mark while finding the beauty in her autism. Klaire has an inner flame that can light up the world and that flame will illuminate the darkness that our future generation will find themselves existing within.