Rebecca Olsen has lived most of her life here in the beautiful state of Utah. As a child she couldn’t wait to go to Utah State University and later fulfilled her dreams earning a Bachelor degree in Family Consumer and Human Development, her emphasis in Child Development, and a minor in American sign language. Her love of both fields drove her too soon after receive her Master degree in Deaf Education through Utah State’s bilingual bicultural program. Rebecca’s educational background has solidified her passion for helping each child and family find the right services, resources, and skills to support individual development especially in regards to language.

Outside of work Rebecca is an avid reader, hiker, and animal lover. Growing up on a small hobby farm consisting mainly of cats, sheep, donkeys, dogs, and chickens has left her with a love for anything that moves.  

rachele@usdb.org 

Rachel was born and raised nearby Chicago, Illinois and is the 5th child, the youngest in her family. In 2016, she moved to Utah and attended Utah Valley University for higher education.

In Rachel’s experience with K-12 education, she experienced through mainstream schools for the majority of her youth. Through mainstream schools, she had the opportunity to participate in a self-contained classroom and access with an interpreter in a hearing based classroom.

During her childhood, Rachel was very active and participated in several activities; Girl Scout, church, Deaf Performance Arts, Academic Bowl and dance. She also participated in sports such as cheerleading, and volleyball. 

Her primary language was SEE, which expanded to Signing Exact English. However, she learned and picked up ASL (American Sign Language) through a non-profit program called International Center on Deafness and Arts (Theatre and Dance) at the age of 13. Through this program, she was able to gain new friends from various mainstream education backgrounds and role models. Rachel learned through her role models that Deafness doesn’t prevent her from doing anything she wants to do.

The purpose of becoming a Deaf Mentor is because of the lack of Deaf mentor that did not exist in Rachel’s state and had greatly impacted her. She never heard the role of a Deaf Mentor until her move to Utah. Rachel had many questions that could have benefited Deaf children to receive access to language at such a young age. She decided to become Deaf Mentor to assist the family after researching about the program.