March: Daron Bolat

Daron grew up in Rockville, Maryland (just outside of Washington, DC). He graduated from the University of Maryland with a B.A. in Criminology and Criminal Justice. Daron later graduated from seminary and served as a youth pastor in the Armenian Orthodox Christian Church. Daron moved to Dallas in 2011 when he got married. He has a very active 2 year-old (feel free to stop by for dance parties or to get some cardio in). Daron currently works for Capital One as an Anti Money Laundering investigator. On the weekends, you can find him chasing after his son or serving as a deacon at St. Sarkis Armenian Orthodox Church.

Daron’s involvement in the NSA and stuttering community began in college.  He began therapy at the clinic at the University of Maryland under Vivian Sisskin and made great strides in accepting his stuttering, learning the difference between stuttering and struggling, understanding that stuttering and being a good communicator are not mutually exclusive, and being able to redefine success in speaking situations (saying what you what, when you want, is much more important than how you say it). Daron has spoken about stuttering in various situations such as speaking to SLP students, at the NSA conference, and on NPR (http://www.npr.org/2006/11/21/6520834/a-pronounced-difficulty). Daron attended his first NSA conference in 2011 and was moved by the amount of support and empowerment from everyone in attendance. Daron has been involved in the Dallas NSA Chapter since moving here. Daron still stutters, and occasionally still struggles, but doesn’t let his stuttering stop him from effectively saying what he wants to say, recognizes that a good day is not defined how fluent he is (if he wakes up in his house, his family his healthy, he has a job to go to, and doesn’t have to worry about his next meal- he knows he is having a good day regardless of a few blocks) and with the help of the NSA and the stuttering community knows that he has a voice.