Texas girl with a ton of questions! :)

meganv218

meganv218

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Hello, My name is Megan and I'm from Texas. I'm a junior in high school.

My school offers an ASL program and the teacher has been amazing, I've only learned about 50-100 signs so far, but I'm in LOVE with ASL and the Deaf Culture in general.

I've had a lot of issues with "mean girls" in school and I haven't found that with any of the deafies I've met. :) I've recently looked into potential colleges/majors and I came across something - Deaf Studies/American Sign Language as a major?

Heres some questions I had!
Is there a good job outlook for translators/interpreters?
What kinds of careers can you go into with a Deaf Studies degree?
How do you feel about CSUN, SFA, TCU, or Baylor? Do you recommend any other schools? I do know about Gally and RIT, but RIT is way out of budget and I do not think Gally would accept me, since I'm not fluent.
Is the Deaf culture accepting of hearing people? Am I going to come across opposition going into this area of study?

I just love the concepts of ASL, of the amount of expression in it with everything from facial expressions and slight movements and whatnot. It really has become a passion for me.

Some other notes - I'm in my third year of Spanish and would be interested in that, too. Can I combine ASL and this in an interpreter program? hmmmm... :)
Other interests: I nanny and love kids. hmm, I'm good at soccer :)

So nice meeting all of you, in advance! :wave:
 
You weren't joking. I would suggest you talk to a school counselor or a teacher to answer most as I am sure that deaf people don't look for jobs concerning deaf studies or interpreters.
 
InfamousMacBook said:
You weren't joking. I would suggest you talk to a school counselor or a teacher to answer most as I am sure that deaf people don't look for jobs concerning deaf studies or interpreters.
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My counselor at school is not helpful at all, I feel like I'm a pain to her. I have gone in a few times and she basically just tells me a degree in Deaf Studies or ASL is "Garbage" and that I shouldn't "waste my time" and that I should just go get a business degree. :shock:
 
Nope, I typed this all up and hit submit and got a blank page. Thought it didn't go through..hit "back" and sumbit again. Then noticed it posted twice. I don't know how to delete it. Sorry.
 
meganv218 said:
My counselor at school is not helpful at all, I feel like I'm a pain to her. I have gone in a few times and she basically just tells me a degree in Deaf Studies or ASL is "Garbage" and that I shouldn't "waste my time" and that I should just go get a business degree. :shock:
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Your counselor is "garbage". Complete and utter "garbage". Just roll her into a trash bag and dump her at the nearest recycle bin. No, seriously.... Okay, maybe not.

If anything, you need to realize that high school is not about OBEYING the principal authorities (which does require itself of all students when necessary) all the time. High school conforms all high school students to the line of thinking that raising your hand, being quiet, hardly asking any questions or giving answers with a remarkable intellect, or naturally questioning what is right or wrong even if the person is an authority figure at school. You're to obey left, right, backwards and forwards when in that school. What i mean to say is that you have the right to think, speak, believe, desire, and dream. If you really really want to be an ASL interpreter, please do not follow Miss Garbage down the path of what she thinks you should become.

On a secondary note, what she said reeks of discrimination, though she may not be doing this to you; it sounds like she is very obnoxious, superior, arrogant, and quite condescending that deaf people are to be left alone, not to be bothered, and forced along a path that the "authorities" of the deaf world claim to know what is right or wrong for them. These authorities end up being idiots on all accounts; take a look at the Board of Trustees at one school who claimed to know what is right for Gallaudet in the 80's. You'll see the surprising end result both reported by the defunct Mosiac TV station (signing news reporting agency) and by students who led the protests.

I believe you need to realize that you are at the cusp of following your dream. Do not rely on others to mold your beautiful dreams, no matter how big or small they are. You have potential in whatever you do in life. You are not defined by ability alone. You're defined by your own individual talents, abilities, intellect, and have more to show for than just a business degree. If you believe and dream of ASL interpreting for the rest of your life or a part of your life, do go for it. Did you just forget that once a person messes with a Texan, they're actually messing with Texas? :P

ASL Interpreter's degrees are often Bachelor's and Master's. You can find some community colleges that offer ASL Interpreting for an Associate, then work your way up to a better college. One example of a college that offers ASL Interpreting comes from Corpus Christi, my hometown; take a look at the major on the website as an example, not the only go-to college in all of Texas: ASLIP Program. One prepares you to be an ASL interpreter teaching you the basics of ASL working your way up to the 5th level. The other can help you get a Master's Degree since this is one small baby step toward your dream degree: Deaf Studies.

Check around Del Mar on that page and look up career opportunities. I'll list the various places you can work in: with the police department to communicate with deaf suspects or witnesses; deaf centers to communicate with clients; to interpret for elderly clients (which I work with) at hospitals, doctor's appointments; work with other deaf people through politics; communicate between a deaf businessman and a hearing businessman (does happen since we do have deaf-owned businesses in Austin and Houston), communicate between teacher (deaf or not) to students (hearing or not; I have experience in this area since one of my teachers is completely deaf and required an interpreter to voice for him), etc. These are just some of the jobs you can think of doing though there's a lot of demand for it.

As for the pay, I am not so sure but let me lay down a fine adage my father incorporated into my life. If you love doing what you are doing at a job, don't stop. It is your dream job and the job of your life. If you don't love doing it but consider the pay and how much you'd be worth five years down the road, it's not really your job. Yes, you need pay to help give you a better lifestyle, I agree on that account; but you have to weight out the pay and the desire to help assist with other deaf people or at least be able to bridge both the hearing and deaf world through a job you may like doing or see yourself doing.

I hope this helps and if not, at least I wrote worth a try. :) By the way, don't worry about the double-posting. I have had experiences in that and it really ticks me off sometimes. I had to copy and then re-edit my first post from the second post then delete my second one. What a headache.

By the way, everyone on this forum needs to be less aggressive when a newcomer comes by and makes a mistake online. Give her a break. When you think you know sarcasm, she might not know it. When you think she is being rude or mean, she may be sarcastic.

Good luck in all your endeavours, meganv218.
 
Thank you Huscurian, that helped a ton. :aw: Just another step to being comfortable with a huge step in anyone's life. It means a lot!
 
Wirelessly posted (droid)

I remember waiting to escape from high school. If Houston is an option, Lone Star has a program and I've met a lot of students who like it. U of H has a new program. I think that HCC has a program, too.
You seem like a bright girl and you'll be fine whatever you choose. Now is the time for you to try different things. Don't listen to negative adults. Seek out supportive people and ignore the rest.
 
meganv218 said:
Thank you Huscurian, that helped a ton. :aw: Just another step to being comfortable with a huge step in anyone's life. It means a lot!
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No problem. :) I'm glad I helped you a ton with the information I gave you. I sincerely hope you work your way toward that dream and make it happen; to truly affect other people's lives with compassion and kindness. More goodness should come into this world more than evil does.

You're welcome and I'm already happy that you're now taking the next step being comfortable with what you want to do.

To Your Future,

Huscurian
 
:welcome: to AllDeaf forum. I hope you are d/Deaf. If you are, you are not alone. I had gone through in mainstream school which allow no ASL lessons for me to learn and to get an interpreters in my hearing classes in high school (elementary school only offered special education meaning no hearing classes except in gym only). I had struggled years of trying to understand hearing students and hearing teachers without the aid of ASL interpreters. The principal refused to give us help and thought that we are doing fine without the aid of ASL interpreters. :ugh: I hated that back then. It was a very trying time to understand what they say but gawd, I managed to graduated from high school in 1966 with a low grades. I never had the highest grades and some I failed because I could not understand what the teachers taught us.

Lipreading is not accurate anyway. That is why we need the interpreters to make us understand what they said. We need them badly for every place we need to go like meetings, plays, churches, doctor's offices, courts, classrooms whether at high schools or colleges, and many other places where we need the ASL interpreters to help us cope with understanding.

Many hearing people thought and still think that we understand by listening just because we have hearing aids and Cochlear Implants devices which was and is still not true at all. Listening is not our way as we don't have normal hearing like them.

If you want to become an ASL interpreter or if you prefer not to sign, you can become a Spanish interpreter. Just do what you want and go for it. Good luck. :thumb:

Have fun reading and posting all the threads here. See you around here. :wave:
 
Your counselor is wrong. Deaf Studies isn't "garbage". The world could use more people like you. :)
 
hey my name is Molly. I live in Binghamton, NY and I am in the same boat as you are (sort of). I am 25 years old and will be a junior in college in the fall. I would love to chat with you sometime and help you with your ASL. I have been taking a summer course in ASL for about 3 months (it ends Thursday and I am gonna miss it). It seems like I know a bit more sign language than you, but that's ok. would love to talk to you; you can message me on Facebook (just search me by name, Molly Nekut), or on Skype (my name on there is mollz28). Hope to hear from you!
 
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