Our Stories
Honors Night Recap
PYD hosted the 24th annual Honors Night last month. Shiny gold stars adorned the event space, guest enjoyed a specialty mocktail “Starburst Spritz”, and celestial-themed activities highlighted this year’s theme: “Together We Shine.” Attendees enjoyed a delicious...
Introducing our Fall 2025 Fellows!
The Dinah F. B. Cohen Fellowship Program aims to provide college students and recent graduates with disabilities with professional skills and leadership opportunities. Let’s introduce our Fall 2025 cohort and learn a little more about them! Ali Abdulhadi, age 23,...
2nd Annual Fashion Show Recap
Last month, PYD youth struck a pose on the runway for our 2nd annual Fashion Show. This event provided PYD participants the opportunity to showcase their modeling skills, while also building confidence, creativity, and leadership. The best part? Models chose their...
Q&A w/ Izzy, Spring 2025 Fellow
We had the opportunity to interview Izzy, one of the Spring 2025 fellows from the Dinah F.B. Cohen Fellowship. Izzy, along with other fellowship members, created a blog site that features several resource guides for the disability community. We asked Izzy some...
Interview with Halima, Spring 2025 Fellow
We had the opportunity to interview Halima, a fellow from the Spring 2025 Dinah F.B. Cohen Fellowship. Halima recently took over PYD's Instagram for a day to answer questions about her fellowship, which involved researching adaptive fashion. We asked her some more...
Youth Advisory Council – “Contradictions”
Contradictions by Sarah French “If you’ve met one Autistic person, you’ve met one Autistic person.” It’s a phrase that a lot of people in the Autism community like. Autism is such a diverse diagnosis with such a vast list of symptoms, no one person has the same...
Youth Advisory Council – “The Power of Puzzling”
The Power of Puzzling by Mirra Bhattacharya When people hear I love jigsaw puzzles, they usually think it's just a casual hobby — something I do to pass the time on a rainy afternoon. But for me, puzzling is so much more than that. It's a daily practice that...
Youth Advisory Council – “Transportation”
Transportation by Liz Iniro Transportation has been one of the biggest challenges in my adult years. Being someone who is in a wheelchair, it’s a lot harder to get reliable transportation. Last March I went to the state house to talk to my representatives about my...
Youth Advisory Council – “Some Things About Me”
Some Things About Me By Kyra Francisco Some little things about me: I am not your typical person. I think that’s pretty obvious, but just because I’m not your typical person does not mean I haven’t had some interesting experiences or fun stories to tell, I’m Kyra...