I apologize for the lack of blogging in the past 3 months. I was busy with the job hunting. In July, things began to look up for me. I landed about three interviews in one week for positions such as residential counselor, teacher's aide, and office assistant. I had an interview at American School for the Deaf in West Hartford, CT for residential counselor position for PACES program (will explain further about PACES later) for the summer. I still remember the day of the interview because I was so nervous and excited. I had hopes for this job as it is in deaf culture which mean efficient communication for me as well a chance to develop social life with people my age that knew sign language.
I showed up to ASD campus on the day of the interview, which was a beautiful campus despite the construction mess, and went to the location of the interview. I was interviewed by three staff which two were Crisis Invention Specialist (CIS) for PACES program and the third person was a counselor for the PACES students. I felt that I was confident in the interview and left there with even higher hopes of getting an offer.
Sure enough, the day after the interview I received an e-mail with a job offer for the summer term. I was thrilled. I also started the job the following Monday (I got the offer on Thursday or Friday) so it was in a short period of time.
Now this is the irony part, I was excited about the job to have something to do beside sitting around in my apartment job hunting - I still wasn't entirely excited because I didn't see myself in that position in the long run. In the first two weeks of the job, I still had that opinion.
After two weeks passed by, I started looking at the positive aspects of working at ASD. I really enjoy working with staff who knew sign language, it was really simple to communicate to anyone on campus. The students are deaf, which I have always carried the passion to help kids with disabilities so after getting to know them - I gained more passion to help these kids. We obviously have the common understanding of the deafness so I feel that helps some of them to have someone like me there. Most of the residential counselors are hearing people who knows sign language. They are wonderful people who also help out the kids. Growing up, I always had hearing people around me but never a deaf person. I always wanted a deaf role model to see that I can succeed in the future. That's what I want to be for those kids at ASD.
It is rewarding to be in this job at ASD working with the kids in PACES program. It can be challenging because PACES program is specifically for kids with emotional or behavior issues. They aren't blended in with other deaf kids who are in a traditional education setting because of their special needs that needs to be focused on. The PACES students are in their own classroom instead of the grade level - they are separated by the age ranges which is under 13 and 13-21 years old. I am working with the 13-21 years old range students. I am assigned to three female students which I am responsible to know their whereabouts, help them to control issues such as anger, etc. One thing I enjoy about the job is that I have to expect the unknown every day. I never know what will happen. That is one thing keeping the job interesting. If you want further information about PACES program - it is available on the American School for the Deaf website: http://www.asd-1817.org/page.cfm?p=351
And here I am, a week away from the end of the summer job. That idea makes me very devastated because I don't want to leave the wonderful friends I made with the staff and especially the students. I grew to love American School for the Deaf. It also have been a long time since I was happy to be in the deaf world as you all have read my past blogs about my deaf identity issues which deterred me from being involved in the deaf world. I never imagined that being back in the deaf world at ASD will make me as happy I feel right now. I feel like I belong again. I have already asked Human Resources at ASD to consider me for a permanent job in the same position for the school year so wish me luck!
