Winston School Alumnus Turns Disabilities Into Strengths

Twenty-six year old Taylor Richards, an alumnus of Del Mar’s Winston School, is an amazing role model for people with learning differences. His optimism and personal philosophies for moving past challenges are rooted in his can-do attitude and determination to turn weaknesses into strengths. Today he is thriving in a new career two years out of college, a fact he credits to the Winston School’s curriculum that supports kids with learning disabilities.

Taylor has Dyslexia, Attention Deficit Disorder, Dysgraphia, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and on the manic spectrum. Singularly, these are disorders that can easily derail and isolate people afflicted with them and prevent them from living a full normal life. The combination of these disabilities made Taylor’s probable success a long shot at best.

When he entered the Winston School in 2000, he was in sixth grade, withdrawn and plagued by mood swings. He was lost in the public school system and isolated by his disabilities. But with focused attention from teachers combined with the school’s unique teaching solutions, Taylor began to make progress. “Winston taught me to harness and manage my disabilities,” he recently told a group of kids at a school assembly.

Taylor learned self-awareness, self-confidence and how to control his mood swings. “I learned how to manage my differences,” he adds. “It helped me become whole and made me realize that I’ll never be successful at everything so I can quit judging myself.”

An introvert by nature (though you would never know it by his bubbly, outgoing personality), he attributes his personal metamorphosis to the personal management skills he learned through the program. One of his favorite mantras is a popular quote from Winston Churchill: “Success consists of walking from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”

The motto along with a healthy dose of personal drive propelled him to study politics and gender studies at Cal State San Marcos. He graduated in 2012 with a bachelor’s degree and instead of joining the family business (his parents own Picnic People, a long-time local event and catering business), he took a sales job with Deschutes Brewery, an Oregon-based company that is trying to make inroads in the local micro brewing industry.

“After college it hit me that my family has always been saving me. I wanted to do something on my own. True victory is self victory,” he says. So he struck out on his own.

While most people might expect Taylor to one day move into the operations and management of his parents’ successful business, that’s not in his 10 year plan. Instead, he wants to return to school, get a teaching credential and eventually teach at the Winston School.

“I want to do for others what was done for me. That will fulfill my life’s purpose,” he says with conviction.

Surely the great Vince Lombardi must have known someone like Taylor who inspired him to say: “The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have.”