Support Students Helping Neurodivergent Kids And Families

With An AI They Trained

Foothill College teams with AI tech to do good – empower students to bring emotional support, confidence, and connection to the children who need it most.

A student’s perspective

We all receive love and care differently and may not even know how. Likewise we’ve all heard the stories: AI bullying, eliminating jobs, even encouraging suicide. But there’s also untold stories about families with children suffering and they can’t help, millions of them.

Then we discovered a chance to do something about both – right now and that’s this program. How? Because we actually get to train an AI that’s explicitly designed to learn how we receive love and care, on an individual basis and apply that knowledge to everyone else. A pretty cool thing to know how to do, for an incredibly important purpose that motivates us as students.

Something extraordinary

Foothill College sought out and partnered with Cyrano. This made available a self-learning AI learns and gets smarter about helping by just talking with our students, of all ages. Students were thrilled.

They want to make a real difference in the lives of neurodivergent children. They want their work to matter. They want to help millions of families who have been overlooked, ignored, or underserved.

Through Cyrano, they’re gaining hands-on experience in emerging AI technology — not to build the next engineering tool or social media app, but to build connections that actually have the potential heal and empower.

Your support doesn’t just help a project. It helps shape a generation of technologists who are choosing empathy over profit, humanity over hype.

From Cyrano’s Founder

Hi. My name is Ralph, and my entire life I’ve been searching for something I couldn’t name as a child. A guide maybe. A translator. Someone who could help me understand emotions—my own and everyone else’s. This is how it started.

I don’t know how long I was in that bed, but the depression that held me there was the worst I’ve ever known. Sensing something was wrong my brother just kept calling me. And finally I answered and told him everything. He asked, “Do you have friends nearby?” I said “yes.” He said, “Text them right now and tell them what you just told me... I’ll wait.” That one act got me out of bed that day and may have saved my life. I couldn’t help wondering, “what about those who don’t have a brother?”

I went from being so helpless, I couldn’t get out of bed, to getting to see what I thought I’d never see in my life. The transformer, a machine that, for all intents and purposes, understands us. So I wanted to use it to help us – and Cyrano was born.

I built Cyrano for those like me, who needed help, but unlike me didn't have a brother checking up on them.

Ralph Garvin Jr.,

Cyrano Founder, Foothill Alum

Foothill College + Foothill Students + Cyrano

Cyrano is a new kind of AI that gets smarter as you talk to it, as a brother would. It learns things on its own. And Foothill College wanted to give their students the experience of working with and training an AI to help kids and adults like us.

It’s an emotionally intelligent AI designed to support neurodivergent children and their families:

– helping kids interpret feelings

– helping parents understand what their child is experiencing

– building confidence, communication, and emotional clarity

– and doing it all with compassion, patience, and consistency

Cyrano will be a lifeline for families who have spent years waiting for therapists, struggling through communication barriers, and feeling like no one sees their child clearly.

Why We Need Your Help Now

We’re launching something profound, something needed, and something that's already changing lives — but to continue our momentum, we need help.

Your contribution will support:

✔ Continued development of Cyrano’s emotionally intelligent AI

✔ Training and empowering the Foothill College student team

✔ Expanding access for families who cannot afford therapeutic support

✔ Research, testing, and responsible development that puts children’s safety first

Every dollar helps bring Cyrano closer to the children who need it most.

A Future Where Every Neurodivergent Child Is Understood

Imagine a world where a child who feels overwhelmed has someone they can turn to — instantly.

Where a parent who feels helpless finally has clarity and guidance.

Where children grow up not feeling “different,” but supported, confident, and heard.

That future is possible.

We just need help getting there.

If you’ve ever felt unseen, misunderstood, or alone…

If you’ve ever watched a child you love struggle to express what’s happening inside them…

If you believe mental health care should be accessible, adaptive, and compassionate…

If you believe AI should serve all of us, not just, well you know...

Join us.

Help us lift up the children who need it most.

Thank you — from Ralph, Foothill College, its students, and every family Cyrano will touch.