feature story nonpareil Institute
Without
Equal
The nonPareil Institute in Plano is leaving its mark as a software
company, making waves in the mobile marketplace with apps, but
its biggest contribution comes by training and employing people
diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.
T
Crew Members
Top row, from left: Amber
Rose Tompkin-McDonald,
Rachel Boles and Taylor
Gerik. Middle row, from
left: Josh Benko, Evan
Cotner and Trent Riley.
Bottom row, from left:
Nick Hall, Stephen Cook
and Cheryl O’Brien.
o say Rachel Boles was skating through life
would be very accurate. For hours each day,
then-34-year-old Rachel would take to the
streets, rolling free and fast on her rollerblades through
Plano, struggling to find something to capture her attention and energy.
Rachel is still on the move, but today, it is between
desks as Rachel fulfills her role as a lab assistant for
students at the nonPareil Institute.
While Rachel looks like any dedicated manager as she takes questions, demonstrates new ways to
do things and makes recommendations to students
and employees at the institute, Rachel has struggled
through life with the same condition her charges in the
lab do: Rachel is on the autism spectrum.
“I didn’t know how to keep my daughter from rolling through town. She needed something to capture
her interest, and she has found that,” said Nita Boles,
Rachel’s mother, who struggled for years to find something to which Rachel could apply her energy.
Today, Rachel is a part-time employee of nonPareil Institute, a nonprofit technology company based in
North Texas that specializes in training and employing
people on the autism spectrum who show an interest in computers and technology. Students are called
“crew members” in acknowledgement of the institute’s
collaborative, supportive atmosphere and also as a
marked differentiator from a typical school. With no
tests, no grading and no semesters, crew members can
chase their interests, free from constraints and completely focused on their talents.
Employment can also be found here in this software company – part-time for 20 crew members like
Rachel, who enjoy taking classes and also instructing
and assisting others, and five full-time employees who
have completed their training and who choose to dedicate their days to making new applications to compete
with any other software company.
Rachel took a design class in her first year at the
nonPareil Institute that uncovered a talent she had for
building incredible maps, a difficult task that many developers have a hard time mastering.
Not only did she quickly become proficient in
the skill, but she also demonstrated a proclivity for
teaching other crew members how to master it, making her a perfect match for a part-time “teacher assistant”-type role. Continuing her training, Rachel
has now moved into art and produces artwork that
astounds her teachers.
“NonPareil” means something of no match, no
equal. Dan Selec, co-founder and CEO of the nonPareil Institute, a technology professional whose own
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