Yekaterina Tsipenyuk O'Neil
Parent of 2e Kids
Neurodiversity Advocate
Cybersecurity Professional
Services
Overview
The services I offer to mentor, guide, and support culturally diverse neurodivergent families and professionals include:
Vision
I envision a world where neurodivergent and twice-exceptional individuals of all cultures enjoy a sense of acceptance, support, and belonging on the road to self-actualization.
Mission
Through my writing, speaking at conferences, conducting research, facilitating support groups, consulting, and coaching I hope to spread awareness and acceptance of and provide support to culturally diverse neurodivergent and twice-exceptional individuals at home, at school, and in the workplace.
Qualifications
Doctoral Student at Bridges Graduate School of Cognitive Diversity in Education, expected 2027.
Trained SENG Community Group (SCG) facilitator, 2024.
Certificate in Twice-Exceptional Education from Bridges Graduate School of Cognitive Diversity in Education, 2024.
License to conduct strength-based assessments using the Suite of Tools,™ 2024.
Over 15 years of experience in homeschooling and supporting profoundly gifted, neurodivergent, and twice-exceptional kids.
Over 20 years of experience in cybersecurity research.
M.S. in Computer Science from the University of California in San Diego, 2004.
B.S. in Computer Science from the University of California in San Diego, 2002.
Support Groups
Support groups is an opportunity for individuals to come together and share their experiences, tricks, and life hacks with each other and realize that we are not alone. The feeling of belonging and being part of the community that understands, empathizes, and accepts is comforting and empowering.
SENG Community Group:
Parents of Profoundly Gifted
Homeschoolers
This virtual support group will focus on creating a safe space for homeschooling parents of profoundly gifted (PG) children to allow for a series of discussions of their unique challenges and wins. Join me and Lisa Jobe, my fellow SENG Community Group (SCG) facilitator, Bridges Graduate School (BGS) doctoral student, and parent of PG children, for six supportive sessions from 7 till 8:15pm PST between October 8th and November 12, 2024. Please, register here.
SENG Community Group: Parents of Culturally Diverse Twice-Exceptional Children
This virtual support group will focus specifically on culturally diverse twice-exceptional (2e) families and provide them with an opportunity to connect with each other and discuss complexities associated with being not just 2e, but 3e -- thrice-exceptional. Join me and Dr. Lin Lim-Goh of Bridges Graduate School (BGS) later this year to be part of this understanding and supportive community. More to come in a few weeks.
Consulting & Coaching
When I started on my own parenting neurodivergent kids journey, I felt confused, helpless, misunderstood, full of doubts, lonely, stressed...the list goes on. I wished I knew I was not alone and that my intuition about how to parent my children that went against the mainstream actually had substance underneath it. If you are looking for support, guidance, or somebody who understands what you are dealing with, I would be happy to hop on a call / zoom or grab a coffee at a nearby cafe. Sometimes simply knowing that you are on the right track and not alone goes a long way.
I am also plugged into the local homeschooling community and can provide suggestions on how to set that up.
Further, as a cybersecurity professional who spent 20 years in the industry, I can provide suggestions for how to create a thriving environment for neurodivergent employees.
Finally, I am comfortable with English, Russian, and to some extent Ukrainian (though I am very out of practice speaking it).
Contact me, if you're looking for that someone.
Suite of Tools™
Strength-based assessments pioneered by the Strength-Based Assessment Lab at Bridges Graduate School (BGS) take advantage of the Suite of Tools™ (SOT) developed by Drs. Susan Baum and Robin Schader to identify the strengths, interests, talents, learning preferences, and times of personal best of each individual student. The process is a collaboration between myself, the learner, their parents, and their educators. With the help of in-person or online interviews and the information collected with several questionnaires, I provide suggestions for creating an appropriate learning environment for the student and recommendations for enrichment and talent development opportunities as part of the final report. This report may be used for advocating for the learner at their school or when identifying the best way to support them at home.
Contact me for more details.