Part 3: American School for the Deaf

Part Three of the challenges of employment for the Deaf series. Read Part One here and Part Two here.

The summer of 2012, I applied to a residential counselor position at American School for the Deaf (ASD) in West Hartford, CT. ASD is an institute for deaf students from K-12. Some students commuted daily to the school on the school buses. Some students stayed at ASD in the residential dorms since they lived in NYC, New Jersey, all over Connecticut, or Massachusetts. The job I applied for was to supervise these kids who stayed in the residence halls.

It was definitely the easiest interview I had. I didn’t need to worry about asking for an interpreter. I felt like because of the deaf culture, with me being deaf, it was an automatic hire. They’re always looking for deaf role models for the deaf students. I did get the job and worked through the summer while the students attended summer programs. It was the only job I had in my life where I felt no frustration with communication.

Throughout the employment at the school, everyone I spoke with knew sign language. Not all of my coworkers were deaf but there were also many hearing who knew ASL. The students all were deaf. It was such a relief for me when I got the job, in a deaf world among people who spoke my language. I enjoyed it a lot in the beginning. It was so easy to communicate with anyone.

Although the communication was easy, there were still challenges. I noticed it was hard for me to be accepted. Yes, despite being around my OWN kind of people, I wasn’t accepted. The deaf community is very protective of preserving their culture. I came across as a deaf person who was “not deaf enough” with my mainstreamed background. It was a challenge for me to make friends among the coworkers. I felt really lonely. I noticed that I was close with the hearing coworkers, whom I loved but I craved to have more deaf friends in my life. I missed the deaf friends, the deaf community in Rochester, NY and having friends who understood me.

Despite the challenges of being accepted by some deaf coworkers, I loved being immersed in the deaf world where everyone signed. I ignored that I felt lonely among my own peers, but at least I had people to sign with. The students looked up to me. I was so motivated to stay there as long as I could. I finally felt like I was at a job that I would be at for years. I didn’t see myself in the residential counselor position in the long term so I started looking into getting a master's degree in education. That Fall, I applied to Gallaudet University, hoping to pursue the goals of being a teacher at ASD. The master’s degree program allowed me to stay with my employment at ASD, while taking the courses online. I would only have to go down to Washington D.C. for 6 weeks for one summer. The term didn’t start until the following Fall so I still had another year before I could start on the master’s degree.

At the same time, during that Fall, it quickly got difficult to work at ASD. There was a lot of workplace politics starting to affect many people. It created a toxic environment. It was difficult to maintain a positive attitude, but the students motivated me to keep going. I worked there as long as I could. Unfortunately, it got to be too much so I had to resign in the winter. I was really disappointed that they couldn’t recognize the importance of having deaf role models for the deaf students. A month later, I received the acceptance letter from Gallaudet University. I put that plan aside since ASD was the only local deaf institute where I could work at. There were deaf institutes in Massachusetts and Rhode Island but it would be a super long commute. I didn’t have the flexibility to move.

I missed the deaf students terribly when I left. Despite not being accepted by some coworkers, it still was a slice of heaven to be in my world for a while. It was difficult to accept the loss after leaving the deaf community in Rochester, NY. I felt that all over again. It took a long time for me to recover and get back to the reality of working again in the hearing dominant world.

Stay tuned for Part 4.