Back to School

September only means one thing. Back to School. Hooray.

I am officially done with my first days of classes for my undergrad college years ever. It's an awesome feeling. Even better when I will be at that point when I'm 5 weeks away from graduation in May. It's weird to think I'm already a senior. College flew by. I have many regrets that I didn't live up the years, but yet have good memories that I will hang onto.

Ok, my first day of classes on Monday & Tuesday were interesting. Why? One of my classes for Monday & Wednesday is Deaf Arts & Cinema. My professor for that class is deaf, with a mainstreamed class of hearing and deaf students. Majority of hearing students are usually the interpreter major students. I have had this kind of class with a deaf professor with mainstreamed classes for second time now. It's interesting perspective for hearing student to be enrolled in that class because they're the ONE who needs interpreters. Imagine that! I think every single hearing person should have that kind experience at least once, because that's what the deaf community is faced with on daily basis. What a better experience than to put themselves in deaf people's shoes? I also have a night class on Mondays. I am the only deaf person in that class with a team of 2 interpreters that changes every 15-20 minutes (it can be challenging to sign for 4 hours straight). I always feel awkward to use sign language even through the students are familiar with deaf community's existence on the campus but yet I still feel that feeling every single class I have took in college.

Tuesday's classes are different from Monday's (Monday's class is only every Monday & Wednesdays... Tuesday's is every Tues & Thurs). I had three classes on Tuesday. First class was Irish Step Dance. I always wanted to take that to learn my heritage (Irish) dance. I cannot tell you how difficult it is for interpreters in P.E. courses. P.E. courses are usually physically moving with exercising in some kind of forms, right? Dance often have 'steps' that are counted. I cannot look at the interpreter to see what count, because I have to look at the instructor and follow what she's doing. It is challenging for me in P.E. classes. Some deaf people don't even request interpreters for P.E. classes due to that challenge, they do mostly focusing on the instructors. I want to learn every possible thing so I don't want to miss a single thing which is why I have an interpreter.

My other two classes were criminal justice courses for my major on Tuesday. Both classes are mainstreamed with team of interpreters just like Monday's night class. This is the usual setup for the majority of my classes at RIT. I noticed something interesting in comparison of the professors in both classes. The first class- the professor had handouts to the students of the syllabus. Interpreters usually want a copy to be aware of what the professor will be discussing about. I was impressed that the professor handed them a copy. Meanwhile, the professor in second class did not. That would give me the impression of which professors are more helpful to the deaf community like I would be more comfortable to ask for help or whatever else with the first class's professor rather than the second class. Little things like that can build up my comfortability level with professors, people, etc.

I had several professors that were either very deaf friendly, somewhat friendly, or not at all. It was challenging to be in the courses with not so deaf-friendly professors. Deaf-friendly is when someone is aware of the deaf's needs in the classroom, work with the access team (interpreters, notetakers, etc), and work with the students with no issues of communication. Not so friendly professors would basically ignore deaf students the whole class term. I had classes when professors never would call on me which I liked but the problem is, it would take away participation for the grades. It was difficult to be in these kind classes because I would have to make the effort to participate. I even faced a class when every time I raised my hand to participate, the professor would ignore me or call on me if students call out to him that I had something to say. Humiliating. It makes me feel horrible about myself but it's really the professors. Just because RIT has large deaf community doesn't mean everyone likes deaf people.

Coming next: The ultimate role model of what all professors should be at RIT.