Rising senior Ella DeCardona will serve as one of the leaders of the American Sign Language Club.
The American Sign Language (ASL) Club, formerly led by Nicole Ranile ’22 and Henry Morrissey ’22, brings awareness and inclusivity to the deaf community. This upcoming fall, Ella DeCardona ’23 will step up as a leader to continue to embody the GA Mission by teaching members ASL.
The story of American Sign Language began when Dr. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet dedicated himself to teaching his neighbor’s deaf daughter to communicate. Since Dr. Gallaudet had little success, he realized it was essential for him to study the methods of accomplished deaf educators in Europe.
He later founded the first school for the deaf in 1817, which is now known as Gallaudet University. While approximately 4% of the US is deaf, around 500,000 Americans are fluent in ASL and encourage others to learn the language. ASL is spoken not only by people who are completely deaf, but also by people who have partial deafness in one ear, individuals with hearing loss, or people who cannot communicate verbally due to another disability or injury.
In DeCardona’s freshman year, she joined ASL Club, immediately seeing it as the “perfect opportunity to not only enhance [her] own understanding of the language but also show others the practicality of learning ASL.” DeCardona’s interest in ASL came from her aunt and uncle who were born deaf, causing her to become immersed in the language at an early age.
DeCardona goes on to say, “At family gatherings, my aunt and uncle would teach my sister and me different signs such as thank you, please, and water, as well as the names of different family members. As I grew older, I became more aware of how their disability impacted their ability to feel included at family events. Thus, I felt it was my responsibility, as their family member, to learn ASL so we could communicate genuinely rather than through lip reading or finger spelling.”
Additionally, DeCardona is able to use the connection she has with her immediate family to teach others. While participating in ASL Club, DeCardona noticed that leaders used music videos to make it easier to learn ASL. DeCardona stated that, by memorizing signs from popular songs, they were able “to make learning more fun.”
While DeCardona will continue to implement these videos as a learning method, she also observes that “these videos have helped me a lot, personally, because they not only demonstrate how to do a certain sign, but they also show you what expression you should have on your face to make your communication more effective.”
In terms of future plans for the ASL club, DeCardona hopes to raise awareness about the importance of ASL and why “it is so vital in our society.” DeCardona also plans on exploring more ASL phrases with the club so that members can practice conversing and applying their knowledge to real-world situations.
Lastly, DeCardona emphasizes the awareness and inclusivity that the ASL Club brings to the deaf community by promoting the idea of how ASL should be an integral skill for Americans. DeCardona concludes, “Language as a whole is very important to me; I believe that being adept in more than one language can have a great impact on making people feel more comfortable and included.”