A full-scale replica of one of the earliest programmable digital computers now fills a classroom space in Arizona, built almost entirely from cardboard and wood by students working under a teacher who credits his own dyscalculia (the math equivalent of dyslexia) for shaping how he engineers.

The life-size recreation of ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), widely regarded as the world’s first general-purpose programmable electronic computer, stretches across hundreds of square feet and mirrors the layout of the original machine that once weighed about 30 short tons.

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Keeping my kids as my main focus. When things got tough, I chose to homeschool. It started with one child, then two, and eventually three of my four children. That experience taught me how to truly support them and how to teach in a way that made sense for how they learn.
My strong entrepreneurial abilities, which I attribute to my neurospiciness. I have learned to lean into how my brain works instead of trying to fit into a traditional mold, and that has been a huge advantage in building my business.

What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Build your support system intentionally. Surround yourself with people who encourage you, challenge you, and remind you of your vision when things feel hard.

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Have you ever felt like the mango in a line of lovebirds? Sure, you look like you fit in—same general shape, same red, yellow and green coloring—but, well, you’re a mango and everyone else is a bird.

That’s how Ruby Emmerson feels at Benton Academy, where she’s starting sixth grade with her twin brother, Bryce. But while Bryce is an academic high achiever who likely will excel at the competitive charter school, Ruby’s diagnoses of dyslexia, dysgraphia and dyscalculia mean that reading, writing and math are tough for her.

And when she fails her first test at Benton, wow, does she feel like a mango. She even writes a brief blog post about it: “I dont belong at Benton Acadamy. I’m an imposter. I walk beside you in the halls every day. But I’m not smart enuff to stay much longer. Theres so much work. Im failing.”

Nathan Pieplow (left) and Katheryn Lumsden (right) are the authors of Confessions of a Mango, a new mid-grade novel that explores questions of belonging.

Except . . . so many of her classmates relate. Just as readers likely will.

Ruby’s are the confessions in Confessions of a Mango, a mid-grade novel published this week and written by Katheryn Lumsden, a University of Colorado Boulder molecular, cellular and developmental biology alumna, and Nathan Pieplow, an associate teaching professor in the Program for Writing and Rhetoric.

I was the child who did really well academically, who became the adult who continued to do really well academically. I am currently undertaking my MA in Autism, distinctions at PGCert and a first class honours degree. However, when I reached the age of 7 and we were being taught to tell the time I struggled incredibly. I could not tell the time properly till I was well into my teens. I went from an automatic set 1 maths student (judged by others by my other academic abilities) to a set 3 maths student in 5 years. This resulted in a GCSE grade E maths in 1991, which was and remains a significant outlier to my other qualifications.

I am now a company owner. I get by on the numbers front, but struggle sometimes with creating quotes, and not under-charging or miscounting financial figures. I know I will have done at some point and it will have cost me. I rely heavily on a calculator, and hand as many numbers-based tasks to others that I can. I am a mental health trainer, so managing timings in the training room and putting people into groups can be difficult for me too. Such a basic numbers task but I still struggle.

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