Miss-Delectable
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Charleston Daily Mail
Allen Winfree is making history at West Virginia University as the first deaf student to graduate from the MBA program, but earning his degree is not what he is most proud of.
The greatest obstacle the Campbell's Creek native has overcome repeatedly throughout his life is convincing people that he is a normal person who can accomplish just as much as any other person.
"It seems like people are afraid to communicate with deaf people," he said through an interpreter in a telephone interview. "They feel like deaf people are not capable of doing what hearing people can do."
Winfree graduated from Capital High School in 1997 and began college, but he dropped out to begin working at One Valley Bank in May 2000. When BB&T took over One Valley Bank, Winfree's position was moved to North Carolina, but he took another position for a year until he started back to school in January 2004.
He graduated with a technology management degree from West Virginia Tech in May 2006.
For Winfree, the son of Gary and Marsha Winfree, learning to function in a hearing world has always been a challenge. He was born with severe hearing impairment. He can hear loud roars, such as airplanes or cars. He is also able to hear people's voices to a degree but comprehends their words by watching their lips.
The 28-year-old began learning to read lips as a kindergartener in speech therapy. Watching television shows with closed captions also made for good practice.
"I watched General Hospital every day over the summer with my mother," he joked. He quickly learned to read lips as a student at Dupont High School. He did not have an interpreter provided until he transferred to Capital, where he had a note taker for his history class.
Through his years of lip-reading, Winfree has found women easier to understand than men because they move their lips more.
"Men tend to mumble," he said.
The road to Winfree's success has not always been smooth.
He's had difficulties with tasks that seem simple for other students. Working in groups, for example, has been a struggle.
"It was very difficult for me to understand several people talking at once, so I had to find different ways to become an efficient member of the group," he said in a news release.
When he was an undergraduate student at West Virginia Tech, Winfree had to pay attention carefully during class and watch his teacher's lips or copy what was written on the board.
Because of smaller classes with only about 25 students, it was easier for professors at Tech to make sure Winfree understood the material.
Not everything has proven as complex in Winfree's life as a student at WVU.
Winfree decided to seek a master's degree from WVU because he is a "huge Mountaineer fan" and because he noticed how nice people on campus were, he said.
But perhaps the most convincing factor for Winfree was the school's ability to provide him with a transcriber.
The transcriber would go to class with Winfree and enter classroom dialogue into a computer.
In some finance classes, numbers and equations were difficult to show on a laptop, so Winfree instead would be accompanied by a sign language interpreter.
Every American MBA student is required to travel internationally, and Winfree chose to visit China. An interpreter accompanied him on the trip.
Because of his struggles to communicate throughout his life, Winfree actually felt he had an advantage over the other 30 students during the 17-day trip.
"I was able to communicate with my hands better than the hearing students," he said.
China proved to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for Winfree.
"It's the best learning experience I ever had in my life -- just having that experience and experiencing that culture," he said.
So far, the path to finding a job has proved rocky.
Winfree has applied for jobs and is waiting to hear from companies.
"I have a lot to offer, but it is very hard to get employers to think about hiring deaf individuals," he said.
"I know several deaf college graduates that are well qualified, but have yet to obtain jobs in their field. A graduate degree will provide me with another advantage, but I need an employer that will look beyond my disability and give me a fair chance in the workplace."
For Winfree, it is not as simple as picking up a phone for a quick call to a potential employer. Instead, he usually relies on e-mail.
But interviewing for positions is a different story -- he prefers to do that in person because it is easy for him to read lips. Winfree can also talk back more easily. With practice, people can understand him well.
After working with Winfree for more than a year, Bonnie Anderson, associate director of graduate programs in the college of business and economics, easily communicates with him and wishes more people could be aware of the deaf community.
"While I think he is a huge asset to our program, I think he would be a huge asset to a company," she said.
"Allen has been a delight to work with, and we've been so pleased by his involvement in the program. He faced many of the same challenges that any student would have in an accelerated program like this, but I think we've all learned from the process, and he's helped us better serve hearing-impaired students."
Winfree is hoping to find a job in commercial or investment banking in a larger city such as Charlotte, N.C., or Washington, D.C. He would like to return to work at BB&T in corporate leadership development.
Winfree wants to live in a city with a large deaf community, and at a place such as a bank where he could communicate with others with hearing impairments.
"There's that trust among deaf people," he said.
When he communicates with other deaf people, Winfree uses American Sign Language. Some people use Estonian Sign Language, but ASL is more common in the United States, Winfree said.
He hopes his story encourages others who are in the same situation as him.
"I would like to see more deaf people step up and set an example to others by showing that their disability is not something that should keep them from being what they want to be," he said.
"I want to show other deaf people that through hard work and determination, they can achieve their dreams."
Allen Winfree is making history at West Virginia University as the first deaf student to graduate from the MBA program, but earning his degree is not what he is most proud of.
The greatest obstacle the Campbell's Creek native has overcome repeatedly throughout his life is convincing people that he is a normal person who can accomplish just as much as any other person.
"It seems like people are afraid to communicate with deaf people," he said through an interpreter in a telephone interview. "They feel like deaf people are not capable of doing what hearing people can do."
Winfree graduated from Capital High School in 1997 and began college, but he dropped out to begin working at One Valley Bank in May 2000. When BB&T took over One Valley Bank, Winfree's position was moved to North Carolina, but he took another position for a year until he started back to school in January 2004.
He graduated with a technology management degree from West Virginia Tech in May 2006.
For Winfree, the son of Gary and Marsha Winfree, learning to function in a hearing world has always been a challenge. He was born with severe hearing impairment. He can hear loud roars, such as airplanes or cars. He is also able to hear people's voices to a degree but comprehends their words by watching their lips.
The 28-year-old began learning to read lips as a kindergartener in speech therapy. Watching television shows with closed captions also made for good practice.
"I watched General Hospital every day over the summer with my mother," he joked. He quickly learned to read lips as a student at Dupont High School. He did not have an interpreter provided until he transferred to Capital, where he had a note taker for his history class.
Through his years of lip-reading, Winfree has found women easier to understand than men because they move their lips more.
"Men tend to mumble," he said.
The road to Winfree's success has not always been smooth.
He's had difficulties with tasks that seem simple for other students. Working in groups, for example, has been a struggle.
"It was very difficult for me to understand several people talking at once, so I had to find different ways to become an efficient member of the group," he said in a news release.
When he was an undergraduate student at West Virginia Tech, Winfree had to pay attention carefully during class and watch his teacher's lips or copy what was written on the board.
Because of smaller classes with only about 25 students, it was easier for professors at Tech to make sure Winfree understood the material.
Not everything has proven as complex in Winfree's life as a student at WVU.
Winfree decided to seek a master's degree from WVU because he is a "huge Mountaineer fan" and because he noticed how nice people on campus were, he said.
But perhaps the most convincing factor for Winfree was the school's ability to provide him with a transcriber.
The transcriber would go to class with Winfree and enter classroom dialogue into a computer.
In some finance classes, numbers and equations were difficult to show on a laptop, so Winfree instead would be accompanied by a sign language interpreter.
Every American MBA student is required to travel internationally, and Winfree chose to visit China. An interpreter accompanied him on the trip.
Because of his struggles to communicate throughout his life, Winfree actually felt he had an advantage over the other 30 students during the 17-day trip.
"I was able to communicate with my hands better than the hearing students," he said.
China proved to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for Winfree.
"It's the best learning experience I ever had in my life -- just having that experience and experiencing that culture," he said.
So far, the path to finding a job has proved rocky.
Winfree has applied for jobs and is waiting to hear from companies.
"I have a lot to offer, but it is very hard to get employers to think about hiring deaf individuals," he said.
"I know several deaf college graduates that are well qualified, but have yet to obtain jobs in their field. A graduate degree will provide me with another advantage, but I need an employer that will look beyond my disability and give me a fair chance in the workplace."
For Winfree, it is not as simple as picking up a phone for a quick call to a potential employer. Instead, he usually relies on e-mail.
But interviewing for positions is a different story -- he prefers to do that in person because it is easy for him to read lips. Winfree can also talk back more easily. With practice, people can understand him well.
After working with Winfree for more than a year, Bonnie Anderson, associate director of graduate programs in the college of business and economics, easily communicates with him and wishes more people could be aware of the deaf community.
"While I think he is a huge asset to our program, I think he would be a huge asset to a company," she said.
"Allen has been a delight to work with, and we've been so pleased by his involvement in the program. He faced many of the same challenges that any student would have in an accelerated program like this, but I think we've all learned from the process, and he's helped us better serve hearing-impaired students."
Winfree is hoping to find a job in commercial or investment banking in a larger city such as Charlotte, N.C., or Washington, D.C. He would like to return to work at BB&T in corporate leadership development.
Winfree wants to live in a city with a large deaf community, and at a place such as a bank where he could communicate with others with hearing impairments.
"There's that trust among deaf people," he said.
When he communicates with other deaf people, Winfree uses American Sign Language. Some people use Estonian Sign Language, but ASL is more common in the United States, Winfree said.
He hopes his story encourages others who are in the same situation as him.
"I would like to see more deaf people step up and set an example to others by showing that their disability is not something that should keep them from being what they want to be," he said.
"I want to show other deaf people that through hard work and determination, they can achieve their dreams."