Six Concept Post Reflection

As I have reached the end of this Community Engaged Learning course, I can look back and reflect on all I have learned. In my first reflection on this course, I wrote, "I joined Civically Engaged Scholars to think outside myself and my academics... By serving and socializing with the Deaf community my knowledge is enriched and I am better informed about the social issues they face." I hadn't realized all the social issues the Deaf community was dealing with until I completed more research for each concept cue. Now I can see the issues and the many organizations that have been created to combat these issues and advocate for the Deaf community. 

The most challenging civic engagement concept was the Philanthropy concept. It was challenging emotionally due to the research I conducted about the history of oppression of the Deaf community. I found that 1 in 2 Deaf women and 1 in 6 Deaf men will be victims of domestic abuse in their lifetime. Thankfully there are philanthropic organizations like Sego Lily that have been established to help these victims. 

The civic engagement concept I related to most was the Community Engaged Learning and Research. I found some upsetting statistics related to the negative effects of early language deprivation. I am a mother and as a mother, I believe in fighting for the rights of children. Whether it be the right to safety, the right to education, and in the Deaf community's case, the right to language. Utah Schools for the Deaf and Blind (USDB) has been established to help these Deaf children. Providing environments conducive to learning in sign language shows Deaf children that they matter. 

After graduating from SLCC, this Community Engaged Learning and Research can be manifest as I work as an interpreter for K-12 students. In the early years of school, most Deaf children use interpreters as their language model if their parents do not use ASL in the home. This is an immense responsibility that I take very seriously. Ideally, all Deaf children would be able to attend schools for the Deaf, but since so many of them are mainstreamed, they need interpreters who are committed to them, their learning, and their language acquisition. I can also help these children by staying up to date on learning theories and Deaf community news and attending workshops focused on interpreting in K-12 setting.