kristy2078
New Member
- Joined
- Sep 9, 2010
- Messages
- 259
- Reaction score
- 0
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).
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).
Last edited: