Your Vote Counts for Autism Research

Livingston High School student Joy Ming, a senior in the high school’s science research program, has been selected as a semi-finalist for the Google Global Science Fair. Joy, a 17-year-old national merit finalist, is one of 20 semi-finalists in her age group selected for this honor.

Joy’s project, titled “Looking deeper into Autism Spectrum Disorder,” can be viewed here. Brian Carey, Livingston High School Science Department Chair and Director of Science Research, said 15 finalists will be selected, five from each age range and will be flown to Google Headquarters for final judging later this month.

Joy’s is also in the running for a “People’s Choice” award and asks for the community to go online and view Joy’s “impressive” project and cast a vote on her behalf. “Joy has worked so hard to get to this point and I know that she would be grateful for any support we can give her,” Carey said.

Vote here for Joy Ming’s autism research.

Joy, a member of the national honor society as well as the science and Spanish honor societies, came up with the idea for the project as a result of her love of music.

“As an avid musician, I had felt the power of music and wanted to see how it would affect others,” she said. So she looked at music therapy and how it is applied in a clinical setting for the treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorder, known as ASD, and the two facets of thalamic abnormality, volume and connectivity and their effects on the symptoms of ASD. ASD is characterized by social, communicative and behavioral impairments and affects 1 in every 110 children.

Joy conducted research noticing that the incidence of autism was increasing, yet the knowledge of the condition lagging behind. She visited the Nordoff-Robbins Center for Music Therapy at New York University-Steinhardt and MoreToBaby Center for Mental Health Therapy in Kunming, China and did research at the Center for Biomedical Imaging associated with the NYU Medical School.

All of her work helped Joy realize how fortunate she is “to be born without any impairing disease, in a world that encouraged me to pursue my dreams – a world of open doors,” she said. “I wanted to help these children out, and unlock the doors to the world, to have them be accepted for who they are and who they will be.”

Joy, who also plays on the varsity field hockey and lacrosse teams, has set long-term goals for her work and hopes to “improve the quality of life for individuals with autism and other disorders and disabilities.”

Allison Freeman is the Interim Manager of Communications and Community Outreach, for Livingston Public Schools, afreeman@livingston.org