Since starting the interpreting program last year, Ive had a lot of opportunities to get out

and be involved in the local Deaf community. The Connections to Community classes Ive taken
have given me just one more reason to put myself out there. Sitting down with Deaf mentors and
tutors, going to community events, volunteer interpreting, and helping with the Cycling Heroes
Against Abuse event have all been great experiences that have helped me develop as a person
and ally for the Deaf community as well as giving me opportunities to hone my ASL language
skills.
I very much enjoyed the mentoring experiences I had the privilege of taking part in and
learning from. Cedrick and Ann in particular had no problem being critical and saying something
when they were not pleased with my ASL. It was very useful to hear from actual Deaf people
what theyd like to get out of an interpretation. I was a little surprised at some of the things they
took issue with; just because my interpreting choices were grammatically correct and preserved
the meaning of the source didnt make it true ASL in their eyes. One correction in particular that
stands out was when I tried interpreting a lecture on depression for Cedrick. The speaker said
that other diseases, like cancer, could be uplifting because of the resulting outpouring of support
and love, but the experience of having depression makes the positive feelings that usually come
from love and support impossible to access. Cedrick had me try to interpret this passage quite a
few times and the interpretation that he was finally happy with was very different from the
(probably mostly) technically correct interpretation I had given initially. I like that they have
always been straightforward and they have given me a lot to think about as far as expanding on
English source material and showing rather than telling.
Mentoring with Terry was also a good experience and I feel we forged a good personal
bond. I think the time we spent during our sessions helped me to grow socially as we spent a
good portion of most sessions just chatting about what was going on in our lives. He also taught
me a few regional signs he knew from his time in New York. My conversational fluency,
including feedback signs and nms were much improved by our time together and I got to learn a
little bit more about the Deaf experience which should make me a better ally in the future.
I think my favorite volunteering experience was helping out at JMS fall festival last
year. seeing all those child signers probably prepped me a little bit for the educational
interpreting class this semester. Apart from being a generally good time, it was also another
chance for me to get out and be seen in the community and meet new people.
The volunteer interpreting experience that I think I learned the most from was going to a
cochlear implant support group at the Deaf center. I put support group in quotations because
the presenter was really a representative from a CI company and the meeting was as much sales
pitch as anything else. A Deaf person I know asked me to go though and I accepted, though I
was not able to find anyone else to team with me. That hands on experience definitely gave me
some insight I could not have grokked without being in the hotseat. I made sure the Deaf person
was aware of my skill level, but they assured me they would prefer me there to having to read the
CASE since they have a vision impairment - though the CI company probably should have paid
for an interpreter. Anyway. The importance of a team became more clear to me. I had to
interpret for almost 3 hours with no break and I could feel the quality of my interpretation
declining as time went on and I became more physically and mentally exhausted. I also saw
audism first hand in the Deaf center of all places. All but two or three of the attendees had lost
their hearing well after childhood and seemed to view deafness as primarily pathological. Some,
when they found out I was there to interpret made snide or derisive comments - which I was very
surprised at. It was definitely a reminder of how little those in the mainstream hearing culture
have really been exposed to Deaf people and Deaf issues. Disappointing as it was, I think this
realization was a good reminder of the importance of being an ally and challenging unfounded
beliefs when we come across them when possible - though I did not do so that day.
Doing the service learning project for Sego Lily was a positive experience for me and I
think my contributions were appreciated and hopefully meaningful to members of the Deaf
community. I think I was most useful in the exploratory phase, when small groups from the
class went off to ask different Deaf community organizations in the area how we might be
able to serve them. Going to meetings with Ayas was a good experience for me too but I wish I
had been able to add more to those meetings and volunteer interpret with him. Despite a few
hiccups, I was able to rally a number of volunteers before the event as the cheerleading
coordinator and also did a good deal of publicizing the event in the SLCC ASL classes.
While I was eventually relieved of the cheerleading position for not being a woman, I got to
spend time in ASL classrooms getting to know the next generation of ASL students and
getting them excited about community involvement.
Before we had chosen as a class to work with Sego Lily, Nicole, Shannon and I went to
the Salt Lake City office for the Sego Lily Center for the Abused Deaf and met with executive
director Stephanie Mathis and northern utah advocate coordinator/case manager Erin Kelly.
Talking to them was a very eye opening experience as I had never thought about the problem of
abuse in the Deaf community or against Deaf people. When they told us about what a problem it
is and what services they offer, such as legal help, shelters, and training for similarly focused but
hearing-centric support organizations, it was clear that they do critically important work and that
this would be a very worthy organization for us to lend our support to. At the time they had at
least half a dozen events in the works we could have worked on, but the bike event seemed like
where we could be of the most service at the time and the class felt the same way later on. This
exploratory meeting was beneficial to me in a few ways. For one, I got to sit in a meeting
conducted in ASL and ran by Deaf people; this was a good opportunity for real world language
exposure and allowed me to meet two people very involved with the community. It also opened
my eyes to the problem of abuse and the large number of opportunities that exist to be part of the
solution. I hope the interest and show of support we showed in the meeting made it a positive
experience for Stephanie, but our substantive contributions to SLCAD and the community it
serves mostly came later. I am very pleased that we decided on SLCAD in the end and I like that
we took the more empowering approach of reaching out to a community leader to see what kind
of help theyd actually like most.
The contribution I made that I am most proud of is the publicity work I did at the college.
For several weeks prior to the event I went to ASL classes and let students know about the event
and encouraged them to participate either as racers or volunteers. My attempts at getting in
touch with high school ASL teachers proved fruitless, so I was glad for the chance to reach out to
students at our school. Doing that kind of publicity for other students is something I really enjoy
and I think my enthusiasm helped to get them excited - even though many of the people who said
they would go didnt show up, I hope and like to think that seeing me sign and seeing the fun I
had reaching out to them gave them something to look forward to. Im not saying that I think
Ive made it in terms of skill, but it was very rewarding to see ah ha! faces when I could get
someone to understand something they didnt at first. I benefitted by getting to use ASL in a
new context. The students that went to the event benefitted from language exposure. And I hope
the bump in attendance and the presence of a few volunteers that might not otherwise have been
there was heartening and helpful for the organizers.
I do not think the work we did or the experiences we had could be considered
competitive, it seemed very much to be a joint effort throughout. I was somewhat surprised at
how interested Ayas was in our input and how much he seemed to value our involvement. While
I wouldnt say there was any competitive element to the endeavor and that we were all definitely
working towards the same ends, I know I could have been more involved and do wish I had done
more to collaborate with the coordinating groups I was a part of.
Apart from being more involved in the collaborative group effort aspect of the project, I
also wish I had gone out to solicit donations with Ayas, been more persistent with the high
school teachers that did not initially respond and more diligent about getting to meetings, and I
would have liked to have done more to actually increase the fundraising dollars Sego Lily
received. I think its great that my classmates were able to go out and help get donations, but a
more concerted effort at getting more people to race as paying participants would have had a big
effect on Sego Lilys ability to provide much needed services too.
As I heard about Sego Lily from Stephanie at that first meeting and did my own research
later on, I knew that Sego Lily must be an amazing organization and the service they provide is
incredibly vital. The main goal of the bike event was to raise money so that they will be able to
continue to provide those services to Deaf community members in need. Sadly, I do not think I
was ever really directly involved with increasing fundraising dollars, but I hope my contributions
to planning, recruiting volunteers, and setting up helped to make the event successful and run
more smoothly. I would have liked to include my time volunteering at the aid station on that list,
but I dont know how much good in that capacity seeing as how no one actually passed our
station!
I think this project made me a more effective member of the Deaf community in a few
ways. For one, I have made contacts of Stephanie and Ayas - two people who do a lot for the
Deaf community here. I also got to meet a few Deaf people at the event and I think my
participation shows my willingness to be involved. Plus Ill be a familiar face to some of the
people that saw me there in the future. I also appreciated the language exposure and chances we
had to collaborate as a class and with the event organizers.. Increased opportunities for language
exposure was also a great thing.
Overall, I think the classs effort did help to make the event run more smoothly. We
helped take some stress of Ayas, Stephanie, and others at Sego Lily, we helped raised money for
abused Deaf people in our area by soliciting donations and doing publicity, we got some hands
on ASL practice, and we put ourselves out into the community. 10/10: Would service learn
again.