There’s a stigma to being the only kid in a sixth grade classroom who can’t read. David Flink was that kid and knows that the prejudice against people who are “different” goes on into adulthood. He’s standing up and speaking out on behalf of all the people like him who are dealing with learning challenges, and with others’ preconceptions about learning disabilities.

Flink has what’s been labeled Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder—ADHD—and he says his early school experiences convinced him he was “stupid, lazy, and crazy.” He was clever enough, however, to duck his turn to read out loud by pretending repeatedly that he needed to leave class to go get a tissue. But his teacher figured that one out. “I got kicked out and went to a school for kids with learning disabilities, but it didn’t fix the hardest part of the challenge, which was the shame.”

Thanks to his parents’ persistence and their resources, Flink did well in special schools and was accepted into Brown University. There, in 1998, he co-founded Eye to Eye, a nonprofit that matches college-student who have ADHD and other learning disabilities as mentors for elementary and middle-school students who are struggling. He wants them to have a better schooling experience than he had.

Eye to Eye helps the mentors themselves as well as the kids they’re mentoring. Flink offers the example of one mentor he knows well. “He was the kid you would have judged most likely to fail. He struggled with reading. His grades were poor.” That student-mentor is now a renowned cancer specialist in Manhattan. Flink says, “As we taught our students they were not broken, we learned we were not broken, either.” Flink knows how important the work of Eye to Eye is.

About 20% of the US population has learning disabilities, cutting across race, gender, sexual orientation, economic status, and geography. That’s a lot of ability lost to society because it's stigmatized and sidelined.

“A learning problem is not an intelligence problem,” says Flink. “These children are smart, creative, and capable. However, they think differently, access and process information in an atypical way. That is where opportunity lies, and where we are falling far short.”

Flink has seized that opportunity. Currently Eye to Eye has more than 60 chapters in 20 states, serving thousands of students. Besides mentoring, the organization runs a camp, a speakers’ bureau, and various events throughout the U.S., including campaigns to explain learning disabilities. Flink has written books, delivered keynote addresses, served on boards of nonprofits, and promoted Eye to Eye far and wide, ignoring people who might think less of him because he has ADHD.

“There’s so much stigma,” he says, “and we’re changing that.”