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FresnoBee.com: Local: Two deaf students among Fresno City College stars
Their names and honors will be announced tonight at Fresno City College's graduation, but Trisha Houston and Diane Dorais won't hear the words.
Houston and Dorais -- winners of Dean's Medallions, the college's highest honor -- are deaf. They are the first deaf students to win the award, college officials said.
"It is significant because it shows that deaf people can do anything but hear," Houston said, using American Sign Language.
Added Dorais in American Sign Language: "To be rewarded as a hardworking woman ... is a great honor, and I'm thankful for that."
Both women assertively say they see themselves as little different from other college students.
"I'm making my own choices specific to my education," Houston said. "I don't want anyone's pity. I don't need labels."
Dorais agreed.
Houston, a 29-year-old mother of three, wants to be an attorney. Dorais, 42 and single, earned a bachelor's degree in deaf studies from California State University, Northridge, in 1992. She wants to work in the health information field.
They and nearly 1,500 other students who earned associate degrees from City College are eligible to participate in commencement at Selland Arena. Five other graduates also are Dean's Medallion winners -- each from a different division at City College.
Deans interviewed students who applied for the honor, and winners were selected based on academic achievement, community service and overcoming obstacles.
At least 15 students with disabilities have received the awards since 1986, said Robert Fox, vice president of student services and dean of students. Forty deaf students are among the 1,850 disabled students at City College this year.
Houston, who graduates with a 3.8 grade-point average, and Dorais, who has a 3.448 GPA, enrolled in regular classes where interpreters translated lectures into American Sign Language.
Dorais also took many online courses. She can read lips, but didn't want to rely on that in courses.
Dorais wears hearing aids but can't hear much with them.
Houston, who doesn't use hearing aids, overcame one instructor's doubts that she could succeed in a creative writing poetry class because the rhymes and rhythms of poetry are sound-related.
"Her poems were very imaginative, and her sense of language was very strong," said the instructor, Jim Ewing.
Ewing told Houston about his doubts at the beginning of the semester. She shrugged, smiled and went on to prove him wrong, Ewing said.
Houston, who lives in Fresno, will major in English -- with a concentration in British literature and poetry -- at University of California at Los Angeles in the fall. "I have a deep passion -- a love -- for reading," she said.
Her husband, who also is deaf, and their three children -- who are not deaf -- are moving with her to Southern California. Houston was born deaf to deaf parents.
Dorais -- who was born deaf to hearing parents; her mother had measles during the pregnancy -- majored in health information technology.
She is a determined and diligent student, said Sarah Edwards, an instructor in City College's health information technology program.
"She always asked good questions and was very interested in understanding the depth of the curriculum," Edwards said.
Dorais -- as part of her course work -- was an intern at Community Regional Medical Center, where she had an interpreter and did "a great job" of learning the hospital's health information processes, Edwards said.
Dorais, who lives in Clovis, previously did billing for a private business and helped find jobs for the deaf through a nonprofit organization. She now plans to volunteer and look for a job.
For now, though, she and Houston are savoring their success at City College -- and the inscribed, golden medallion each will wear at graduation.
"It's just exquisite," Dorais said. Interpreters for the deaf will translate at the ceremony.
"It will be bittersweet," Houston said of graduation. "Everything I've done -- the struggles, the growth -- will all be there in that moment when my name gets called. Maybe I'll cry and maybe I won't."
Their names and honors will be announced tonight at Fresno City College's graduation, but Trisha Houston and Diane Dorais won't hear the words.
Houston and Dorais -- winners of Dean's Medallions, the college's highest honor -- are deaf. They are the first deaf students to win the award, college officials said.
"It is significant because it shows that deaf people can do anything but hear," Houston said, using American Sign Language.
Added Dorais in American Sign Language: "To be rewarded as a hardworking woman ... is a great honor, and I'm thankful for that."
Both women assertively say they see themselves as little different from other college students.
"I'm making my own choices specific to my education," Houston said. "I don't want anyone's pity. I don't need labels."
Dorais agreed.
Houston, a 29-year-old mother of three, wants to be an attorney. Dorais, 42 and single, earned a bachelor's degree in deaf studies from California State University, Northridge, in 1992. She wants to work in the health information field.
They and nearly 1,500 other students who earned associate degrees from City College are eligible to participate in commencement at Selland Arena. Five other graduates also are Dean's Medallion winners -- each from a different division at City College.
Deans interviewed students who applied for the honor, and winners were selected based on academic achievement, community service and overcoming obstacles.
At least 15 students with disabilities have received the awards since 1986, said Robert Fox, vice president of student services and dean of students. Forty deaf students are among the 1,850 disabled students at City College this year.
Houston, who graduates with a 3.8 grade-point average, and Dorais, who has a 3.448 GPA, enrolled in regular classes where interpreters translated lectures into American Sign Language.
Dorais also took many online courses. She can read lips, but didn't want to rely on that in courses.
Dorais wears hearing aids but can't hear much with them.
Houston, who doesn't use hearing aids, overcame one instructor's doubts that she could succeed in a creative writing poetry class because the rhymes and rhythms of poetry are sound-related.
"Her poems were very imaginative, and her sense of language was very strong," said the instructor, Jim Ewing.
Ewing told Houston about his doubts at the beginning of the semester. She shrugged, smiled and went on to prove him wrong, Ewing said.
Houston, who lives in Fresno, will major in English -- with a concentration in British literature and poetry -- at University of California at Los Angeles in the fall. "I have a deep passion -- a love -- for reading," she said.
Her husband, who also is deaf, and their three children -- who are not deaf -- are moving with her to Southern California. Houston was born deaf to deaf parents.
Dorais -- who was born deaf to hearing parents; her mother had measles during the pregnancy -- majored in health information technology.
She is a determined and diligent student, said Sarah Edwards, an instructor in City College's health information technology program.
"She always asked good questions and was very interested in understanding the depth of the curriculum," Edwards said.
Dorais -- as part of her course work -- was an intern at Community Regional Medical Center, where she had an interpreter and did "a great job" of learning the hospital's health information processes, Edwards said.
Dorais, who lives in Clovis, previously did billing for a private business and helped find jobs for the deaf through a nonprofit organization. She now plans to volunteer and look for a job.
For now, though, she and Houston are savoring their success at City College -- and the inscribed, golden medallion each will wear at graduation.
"It's just exquisite," Dorais said. Interpreters for the deaf will translate at the ceremony.
"It will be bittersweet," Houston said of graduation. "Everything I've done -- the struggles, the growth -- will all be there in that moment when my name gets called. Maybe I'll cry and maybe I won't."