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kristy2078

kristy2078

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This is Kristy, born and raised in New Hampshire. Hi ho!

I was found to be deaf when I was three and my brother to be hard of hearing when he was five. We live in the middle of nowhere, so my mom looked into various options for me (i.e. Manchester Deaf and Hard of Hearing Program, quite a few deaf schools in VT, ME, and MA). She didn't like the MDHHP director's attitude ("Oh Kristy will never go to college") so she didn't send me there. She didn't like how awful education was at Austine, so I didn't go there. I didn't go to the other deaf schools, either (I guess the primary reason was that commute would have been at least two hours). So, I was mainstreamed.

Even if my district was really small (I graduated with 75 other students in 1998), there were several other deaf and HH students. My BFF is deaf, too (though she has a lot of issues with her identity). I had PSE and ASL interpreters straight from Head Start through high school plus several iterinerant TODs. My mom also went to University of New Hampshire to take up ASL classes.

After graduation, I went to Indiana University of Pennsylvania for a bachelor's degree in Deaf Education and Biology Education. After that, I worked as a substitute teacher at WPSD for three years. I also went to University of Pittsburgh for a master's in Deaf Education during these years, though I didn't get the degree because I failed the Comp Exam (I just couldn't regurgigate information on that kind of test).

I moved back to New Hampshire in 2007 and worked for the Manchester program for two years. I was laid off in 2009, because the DHH student population was shrinking due to five seniors graduating and the sixth had died and because I was at the bottom of the list of seniority. There were also no students in the middle school for a year after that. Fortunately, I had my Walmart job (that I started in 2006) on which to fall back.

This fall, I will be going to UNH for a degree in Medical Laboratory Science. After that, everything's a mystery :)

EDIT: I guess I was worried about turning this intro into a tl;dr post so I forgot to mention what type of hearing loss I have--bilateral sensorineural profound hearing loss with one HA for the right ear (having a left HA didn't work out because I couldn't hear the mid to high sounds even though the chart shows that shouldn't be an issue plus turning up the volume just a bit made for a case of ants in my ear).
 
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Welcome to AD!

Your career path has had some interesting twists and turns, hasn't it? How long will it take you to get the degree in Medical Lab Science? Do you plan on staying in NH afterwards?

That is a lovely area. I used to ski in NH years ago when I was living in Boston. Beautiful place.
 
welcome to AD!
maybe you can get a CI for your left ear though or try a stronger pair like the Naidas.
 
Wow Kristy, you lucked out with being with other dhh kids even thou you were mainstreamed! Have you looked into teaching at Austine or the other Deaf Schools? Surprised you didn't look into RIT for grad school......I'm from MA and was mainstreamed too....*shudders*
 
:welcome: to AllDeaf forum. Enjoy reading and posting all the threads here. See you around here. :wave:
 
Beach girl said:
Your career path has had some interesting twists and turns, hasn't it? How long will it take you to get the degree in Medical Lab Science? Do you plan on staying in NH afterwards?
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I can transfer a lot of credits from my IUP degree, so it's looking to be four semesters of classes plus one summer of internship plus a semester of more internships. So, could be 2 1/2 to 3 years. Yes, I do plan to stay in NH, but if there are job prospects elsewhere that I like, I will consider them.

Sarfarigirl2011 said:
welcome to AD!
maybe you can get a CI for your left ear though or try a stronger pair like the Naidas.
Click to expand...

I am not interested in a CI. I don't think I can benefit much more from a stronger hearing aid or even a digital aid; I currently have a Unitron that I bought in, like, 2008.

deafdyke said:
Wow Kristy, you lucked out with being with other dhh kids even thou you were mainstreamed! Have you looked into teaching at Austine or the other Deaf Schools? Surprised you didn't look into RIT for grad school......I'm from MA and was mainstreamed too....*shudders*
Click to expand...

Yes, I did get lucky. It was a small town district at that, too! I know that some deaf people grew up being the only one.

I did think about teaching at Austine, but from what I have witnessed and heard about, education is so bad at Austine. Not the teachers' fault, but due to a lot of factors. I did look at Scranton and they had a chemistry position, but I had the feeling that PA schools are being pressured to hire teachers that had degrees relevent to the courses they are to teach. Even when I was subbing at WPSD, there were opportunities I wanted to take but never got them. So I left after three years.

When I was looking at grad schools, I decided I already got a sub job at WPSD, already have a place to live in that's close (and on a major bus line that that went straight to campus!), so I thought why lose the job and a decent place when there's a grad program for Deaf Education right there? I have been thinking a lot about this--do we really need a master's degree in order to be a good teacher? I did recently apply to BU, but then I decided to drop it and go into science. Plus, there were many small factors that have made me reconsider being a teacher. I could go back into teaching years later if I want, though.
 
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