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Mother of 12 wins alumni award - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
The Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill established DePaul in 1908 in Brookline; the current campus is in Shadyside.
The school currently has 81 students from Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
Funded by government and private grants as well as corporate and individual donations, the school is free to the students.
Born without hearing in 1938, Rita Mae Calvaruso grew up in a society that saw her as a "poor deaf child."
Her perpetual smile shifts to a determined grimace as she recalls that well-intentioned but misplaced pity.
"I would never want anyone to feel sorry for a deaf person," said the Regent Square mother of 12. "We do everything. We enjoy life. Don't feel sorry for me."
A 1954 graduate of the DePaul School for Hearing and Speech, Calvaruso, 68, will receive the Shadyside private school's first Distinguished Alumni Award during an Oct. 12 dinner.
Administrative Director Dave Williams said Calvaruso was the clear favorite when school officials and alumni started talking about who should receive the first award.
"She really is just a very unique person," he said.
When Calvaruso began attending DePaul at age 4, the school spent as much time teaching children good habits and life skills -- such as sewing, washing clothes and attending church -- as it did teaching literacy, lip reading and other ways to communicate with the rest of the world.
"DePaul was good about teaching kids how to clean, how to get up and go to church," Calvaruso said with a laugh.
Medical and technological advances since have given the school a new focus on developing children's ability to hear. Hospitals now check newborns for hearing problems, and doctors can put in cochlear implants when a child is 18 months old. The devices convert sounds to an electrical signal that the auditory nerve can use -- bypassing damaged parts of the ear.
Calvaruso said technology also has benefited people like her who are too old for the implants. In particular, the Internet and e-mail have broadened their communications.
"It's so much better than it was before," she said.
Calvaruso graduated from DePaul at 16, and took a two-year office machines course at Irwin Avenue Girls' Vocational High School on the North Side. The high school faculty picked her for the school's top award for character, superior work, perfect attendance, trade ability, personality, dependability and honesty.
Despite the accolades, the new graduate had difficulty finding work. "You would go looking for a job as a deaf person, and there were none," she said.
She finally found a job doing office work for a department store where her boss went from dubious to impressed with her ability to run things.
"I worked there for 2 1/2 years. Then I got married and had baby after baby after baby," she said with a laugh.
Seven of her 12 children were born deaf and attended DePaul. Her children have gone on to become teachers, contractors and administrators.
Resistance to hiring people with impaired hearing has lessened over the years as society has come to accept them, she said.
Her main message is that she and her friends -- deaf and hearing alike -- are just people.
"We danced. We had a good time. We grew up like young people do," she said.
The Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill established DePaul in 1908 in Brookline; the current campus is in Shadyside.
The school currently has 81 students from Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
Funded by government and private grants as well as corporate and individual donations, the school is free to the students.
Born without hearing in 1938, Rita Mae Calvaruso grew up in a society that saw her as a "poor deaf child."
Her perpetual smile shifts to a determined grimace as she recalls that well-intentioned but misplaced pity.
"I would never want anyone to feel sorry for a deaf person," said the Regent Square mother of 12. "We do everything. We enjoy life. Don't feel sorry for me."
A 1954 graduate of the DePaul School for Hearing and Speech, Calvaruso, 68, will receive the Shadyside private school's first Distinguished Alumni Award during an Oct. 12 dinner.
Administrative Director Dave Williams said Calvaruso was the clear favorite when school officials and alumni started talking about who should receive the first award.
"She really is just a very unique person," he said.
When Calvaruso began attending DePaul at age 4, the school spent as much time teaching children good habits and life skills -- such as sewing, washing clothes and attending church -- as it did teaching literacy, lip reading and other ways to communicate with the rest of the world.
"DePaul was good about teaching kids how to clean, how to get up and go to church," Calvaruso said with a laugh.
Medical and technological advances since have given the school a new focus on developing children's ability to hear. Hospitals now check newborns for hearing problems, and doctors can put in cochlear implants when a child is 18 months old. The devices convert sounds to an electrical signal that the auditory nerve can use -- bypassing damaged parts of the ear.
Calvaruso said technology also has benefited people like her who are too old for the implants. In particular, the Internet and e-mail have broadened their communications.
"It's so much better than it was before," she said.
Calvaruso graduated from DePaul at 16, and took a two-year office machines course at Irwin Avenue Girls' Vocational High School on the North Side. The high school faculty picked her for the school's top award for character, superior work, perfect attendance, trade ability, personality, dependability and honesty.
Despite the accolades, the new graduate had difficulty finding work. "You would go looking for a job as a deaf person, and there were none," she said.
She finally found a job doing office work for a department store where her boss went from dubious to impressed with her ability to run things.
"I worked there for 2 1/2 years. Then I got married and had baby after baby after baby," she said with a laugh.
Seven of her 12 children were born deaf and attended DePaul. Her children have gone on to become teachers, contractors and administrators.
Resistance to hiring people with impaired hearing has lessened over the years as society has come to accept them, she said.
Her main message is that she and her friends -- deaf and hearing alike -- are just people.
"We danced. We had a good time. We grew up like young people do," she said.