In mid-June, students from The Help Group's Village Glen School in Sherman Oaks experienced the time-honored tradition of high school graduation.

An exciting event for many, this particular graduation was more than just pomp and circumstance for 19 graduates. These students overcame communicative and socialization challenges and learned how to adapt to a world that doesn't necessarily feel and see things the way they do.

The Help Group Village Glen School serves students with special needs associated with Asperger's disorder, high-functioning autism and non-verbal learning disabilities.

Students successfully divided their time between scholastics and working on added daily social development needed to acclimate to different environments - all to reach this goal.

Today, it is estimated that one in every 150 children in the United States has an autism spectrum disorder, and a child is diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) every 20 minutes.

Once considered rare, affecting two in 10,000 children in the 1960s and '70s, ASDs are the fastest-growing serious developmental disabilities affecting children of all racial, ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. ASDs are now more common than juvenile diabetes, childhood cancer and pediatric AIDS.

Many of the Village Glen grads have plans to attend local community colleges. Some have high ambitions of making their career as a game designer or animator while another is focused on mastering the art of sign language. Others will go on to vocational schools with aspirations of one day becoming a culinary chef, train engineer, pediatric nurse or emergency medical technicians.

One of four campuses in Los Angeles - three in the San Fernando Valley - The Help Group's Village Glen campus is a non-public school that receives funding from the Los Angeles Unified School District. The Help Group is dedicated to serving children, adolescents, young adults with special needs and their families through a broad range of educational and therapeutic programs.

Below is a partial list of The Help Group's Village Glen graduation class:

* - Reggie Cornelius has been attending Village Glen since the sixth grade. He is happy to announce he has been accepted to the Culinary School of California in Pasadena.

* - Jonathan Else has been attending The Help Group Village Glen School for three years. He has been accepted into UCLA's Pathway program in the fall.

* - Sarah Jones has been at Village Glen since the ninth grade. She is enrolled in Moorpark Community College and will be attending the ACCESS program in the fall.

* - Mimi Keil has been attending Village Glen since ninth grade. She would like to become a pediatric nurse and will be taking nursing classes at North Valley Occupational Center (NVOC).

* - Austin Pearlman has been attending Village Glen since the ninth grade. He will be attending Moorpark Community College in the Fall of 2007. He is enrolled in American Sign Language.

* - Jules Robinson wants to attend East Los Angeles Community College, where he is interested in taking a course in computer animation and game design. He has already designed several games.

* - Ashkan Tat has been attending Village Glen since the sixth grade. He is enrolling at Pierce College in the fall and would like to be a teacher's assistant.

* - Nick Yoshimori has attended Village Glen for more thanfive years. He is looking forward to attending Pierce College this fall and continuing his education.

* - Corey Weiss has been attending Village Glen for almost 10 years. During his time in high school, he has taken classes at Valley College and will be attending there after graduation to continue his college studies.

* - Andy Bloch has been attending Village Glen since the eighth grade. He is currently taking welding classes at NVOC. He will continue classes there in the fall.

* - Molly Doucette has attended Village Glen for the past four years. After graduation, she plans to take classes at Pierce College or L.A. Valley College. Molly would also like to continue working with children.