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[wordvalkyrie 0]

Hello, everyone!

My name is Emma.  I'm a Hearing college student living in Southern California, in my third year of studying American Sign Language and Deaf Culture.

My interest in ASL and Deaf Culture began with a childhood fascination with Hellen Keller and her incredible life story.  Though I was raised in a Hearing family, when I was very young my mother taught me to fingerspell and the ASL signs for the primary colors.  However, she never extended my education further, and I eventually lost interest.  Once I hit college, I was unsure about what I wanted to do and took ASL 1 to satisfy a humanities requirement for my General Education.  My Deaf professor, Jamie, helped me to completely fall in love with the language; I came home raving about how beautiful and fun ASL was to learn and my parents encouraged me to do some research into careers in ASL.  As soon as I realized I could major in it and make it a career by becoming an interpreter, I never looked back.

Today, I am preparing to apply to transfer to California State University, Northridge to obtain my Bachelor's degree in Deaf Studies, with a concentration in ASL-English Interpretation.  I also plan to become certified with the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf.  My eventual career goals are to work with Deaf children in mainstream schools or in hospitals.  I truly believe that the number of interpreters available in health care and educational institutions in the United States is woefully low, and while I may not be able to change the world, I can definitely change the lives of the people I work with.

I look forward to getting to know more of you in this community and learning more about Deaf Culture!