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Senior Class President At School For Deaf Learned To Forgive -- Courant.com
Some college-bound teens boast of knowing advanced physics and math.
Caraleigh Hawkinson, born deaf with a severe cleft palate, is proud of learning how to cope with being picked on.
Hawkinson, 19, gave a glimpse of her life story as she welcomed families and friends to the American School for the Deaf's 191st commencement, held Wednesday afternoon in a steamy campus gymnasium.
Like many of the speakers at the graduation, Hawkinson, the senior class president, used American Sign Language that an oral interpreter translated for hearing members of the crowd.
Hawkinson said she was several weeks old when her mother abandoned her at a police station in South Korea.
She lived in orphanages until an American family adopted her when she was 4, but serious obstacles remained, she said.
When she attended a mainstream deaf program in Illinois, an evaluator wrote in an academic progress report that Hawkinson was incapable of being educated.
The family, refusing to believe it, moved to Simsbury at the end of Hawkinson's fourth-grade year so she could attend the American School for the Deaf in West Hartford. As in Illinois, other kids made fun of her cleft palate.
But over the years, Hawkinson said, she changed her attitude and classmates changed theirs.
"I decided not to hold grudges against those who have hurt me in the past — instead, I faced those people and tried to teach them what I know," she said.
"My experiences of feeling excluded made me stronger each day ... and I learned the value of just picking myself up and starting over, like my mother would often say to me. I also learned the values of standing up for myself and standing up for others, being brave."
Her senior classmates — 24 graduates from cities and towns in New England and New York state, and one from Bermuda — endured similar life lessons.
"Possibly, other people made fun of us because of our appearance, our sexual identity, our nationality, and the list goes on," Hawkinson said. "We continue to learn not to be harsh toward others based on what is on the outside."
After the graduation, Hawkinson stood in a reception room with friends in black and orange gowns, taking pictures. On May 13, she underwent a sixth surgery to repair her cleft palate. In August, Hawkinson starts her freshman year at Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, where for now she plans to major in graphic arts, with a minor in criminology.
"It's amazing what love can do, you know?" said Kathleen Hawkinson, Caraleigh's adoptive mother. "And that's the biggest thing is the fact that people can be so much when surrounded with love. She's such a hard worker and deserves every good thing that comes her way because she never gives up."
Other graduates in the Class of 2008 are Kaneisha Alexis, Seymour; Paul Babineau, Ayer, Mass.; Zeven Bailey, Somers; Stephanie Benson, Waterbury; Megan Burgess, Pembroke, Bermuda; Darren Clapper, Pittsfield, Mass.; Sean Cullen, Copiague, N.Y.; Ross DeMars, Grand Isle, Vt.; Fernando Dias, Danbury; Sadia Fodderwala, Farmington; Ashley Hoffman, Chicopee, Mass.; Christopher Knight Jr., Weatogue section of Simsbury; Andrew Millefoglie, Gloucester, Mass.; Andrew Norse, Colchester; Guadalupe Ojeda, New York City; Bryam Ricart, Stamford; Adam Rodgers, Bloomfield; Lymarie Rodriguez, New Britain; Fatu Sheriff, New Haven; Agnieszka Skrzypek, Farmington; Angelina Streppa, Colchester; Byron Tomlin, New Britain; Michael Vogel, Adams, Mass.; and Nichole Woods, Waterbury.
Some college-bound teens boast of knowing advanced physics and math.
Caraleigh Hawkinson, born deaf with a severe cleft palate, is proud of learning how to cope with being picked on.
Hawkinson, 19, gave a glimpse of her life story as she welcomed families and friends to the American School for the Deaf's 191st commencement, held Wednesday afternoon in a steamy campus gymnasium.
Like many of the speakers at the graduation, Hawkinson, the senior class president, used American Sign Language that an oral interpreter translated for hearing members of the crowd.
Hawkinson said she was several weeks old when her mother abandoned her at a police station in South Korea.
She lived in orphanages until an American family adopted her when she was 4, but serious obstacles remained, she said.
When she attended a mainstream deaf program in Illinois, an evaluator wrote in an academic progress report that Hawkinson was incapable of being educated.
The family, refusing to believe it, moved to Simsbury at the end of Hawkinson's fourth-grade year so she could attend the American School for the Deaf in West Hartford. As in Illinois, other kids made fun of her cleft palate.
But over the years, Hawkinson said, she changed her attitude and classmates changed theirs.
"I decided not to hold grudges against those who have hurt me in the past — instead, I faced those people and tried to teach them what I know," she said.
"My experiences of feeling excluded made me stronger each day ... and I learned the value of just picking myself up and starting over, like my mother would often say to me. I also learned the values of standing up for myself and standing up for others, being brave."
Her senior classmates — 24 graduates from cities and towns in New England and New York state, and one from Bermuda — endured similar life lessons.
"Possibly, other people made fun of us because of our appearance, our sexual identity, our nationality, and the list goes on," Hawkinson said. "We continue to learn not to be harsh toward others based on what is on the outside."
After the graduation, Hawkinson stood in a reception room with friends in black and orange gowns, taking pictures. On May 13, she underwent a sixth surgery to repair her cleft palate. In August, Hawkinson starts her freshman year at Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, where for now she plans to major in graphic arts, with a minor in criminology.
"It's amazing what love can do, you know?" said Kathleen Hawkinson, Caraleigh's adoptive mother. "And that's the biggest thing is the fact that people can be so much when surrounded with love. She's such a hard worker and deserves every good thing that comes her way because she never gives up."
Other graduates in the Class of 2008 are Kaneisha Alexis, Seymour; Paul Babineau, Ayer, Mass.; Zeven Bailey, Somers; Stephanie Benson, Waterbury; Megan Burgess, Pembroke, Bermuda; Darren Clapper, Pittsfield, Mass.; Sean Cullen, Copiague, N.Y.; Ross DeMars, Grand Isle, Vt.; Fernando Dias, Danbury; Sadia Fodderwala, Farmington; Ashley Hoffman, Chicopee, Mass.; Christopher Knight Jr., Weatogue section of Simsbury; Andrew Millefoglie, Gloucester, Mass.; Andrew Norse, Colchester; Guadalupe Ojeda, New York City; Bryam Ricart, Stamford; Adam Rodgers, Bloomfield; Lymarie Rodriguez, New Britain; Fatu Sheriff, New Haven; Agnieszka Skrzypek, Farmington; Angelina Streppa, Colchester; Byron Tomlin, New Britain; Michael Vogel, Adams, Mass.; and Nichole Woods, Waterbury.