ASL MENTORSHIP
Throughout the semester, I hosted drop-in office hours to help lower-level students feel plug into the ASL community at Yale and feel comfortable and confident in their signing abilities. I experimented with various communication methods to find the most effective way to get students involved, yielding over 20 lower-level student volunteers.
These flyers were shown in L1 and L2 classes. Students could scan the QR codes to access simple Google Forms and sign up to help with different events. They would then receive an email from me with further details, and I would be available for questions.
Dani, Uyen, and Kiara researched Nicaraguan Sign Language and its similarities and differences from American Sign Language. Throughout the semester, I helped them find artifacts in the Yale data base, brainstorm the outline of their poster, and feel confident in the signed portion of the presentation.
10 hours of drop-ins + planning + presentation creation = over 14 hours of service!
Future Directions
- visit lower-level classes in person multiple times a semester to build relationships, advertise volunteer opportunities, and better understand their needs
- create an mass GroupMe or email list of all lower-level students for easy communication
- Encourage more upper-level students to find places in their service projects for teaching, mentoring, and training of lower-level students
- introduce lower-level signers to more members of the Deaf community in New Haven and Greater Connecticut