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Sara Hellman is preparing to throw herself into unfamiliar territory. At seventeen, this ACC student is not your average candidate for admittance into the prestigious Gallaudet University, because of one factor: she's not deaf.
Gallaudet University accepts only up to 5% of their incoming class as hearing students.
But, Hellman is not your average hearing person. She's not really bothered at all about the lack of hearing interaction.
"I don't really think it will be hard at all for me not to talk. I really dislike talking. I'm more of a silent person really," Hellman said.
Hellman first started getting involved in American Sign Language about 3 three and half years ago. Her first ASL (American Sign Language) teacher at McNeil High School,Audrey Nelson, sparked her interest in ASL
"She was a hearing teacher but she was really enthuastic about the language. I think she just presented it to me in a way that really got me moving and inspired me too," Hellman said.
Unlike many hearing people interested in ASL, Hellman does not have deaf parents, siblings, or family members. Early on, her main source of interaction was with the deaf students in her high school, but it was not significant interaction at that point.
"A lot of the times I just had classes with them. I worked a lot with interpreters," Hellman said. The interpreters served as links of communication between the hearing students and the deaf students.
Currently, Hellman is working towards her Interpreting Preparation Degree in the American Sign Language Program at ACC. The most rewarding aspect of learning sign, Hellman thinks, is learning "a second language makes you gain a greater appreciation for society."
According to the ASL website, the "certificate provided by ACC is an educational certificate and not state or national certification. The IPP (Interpreter Preperation Program) is designed to provide the skills and knowledge necessary to become certified at the state level. State Certification is available through the Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services (DARS), Board of Evaluation for Interpreters. National Certification is available through the Registry of Interpreters of the Deaf (RID)." In part, Hellman chose to attend ACC because the "interpreting certificate is pretty intensive," and "the deaf community is very big."
After attending ACC, and gaining her certificate, she would like to gain an internship while continuing her education at Gallaudet.
When asked if she's concerned about making the transition from a mainly hearing student population to a deaf one, Hellman shrugged her shoulders, "If I play it off right, it shouldn't be too bad at all. I think initially it will be awkward. I've heard some stories that some play pretty loud bass music to wake up too, and I don't like to wake up like that, but truthfully, I think the deaf students there would be really open to hearing students."
ACC is among the few colleges that not only offers ASL but offers classes taught by deaf teachers and has numerous options, varying from fulfilling a foreign language requirement, learning about the deaf culture, and gaining a degree.
Many universities do not consider ASL a foreign language.Hellman thinks this shows that people "have a false conception, that since it's American Sign Language, it's instantly a lot easier to translate than Spanish or another language."
ACC is not one of those schools. After all, despite the fact that Hellman jokes that her "spoken vernacular is degrading slowly" her love of learning ASL is not.
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