ASL Club:
Making An Impact

What sparked your interest in American Sign Language (ASL)?​

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Zoe: I found ASL really fascinating and unique compared to other languages. When I started thinking about what I was going to take in high school, I wanted something a little bit different than the standards. I always wanted to take ASL, so that's when I took the leap.

 

Part of my motivation to continue learning was that my home school co-op started offering an ASL class. Then, I met my boyfriend in high school, and his family uses a bit of ASL. 3 out of 5 of them are hard of hearing, so learning became useful in everyday communication.​

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Sam: My high school did not have sign language until I was a junior in high school, our district didn't classify ASL as a foreign language. There was a lot of convincing that had to be done for ASL to be a language integrated in our district. When the approval did happen, it was already something that I had been really passionate about.

 

One of my really good friends was dyslexic, so she had a really hard time learning a new language. Sign language was something that my friend and her mom fought for. That's where my interest came in.

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​Sam, you mentioned you and your community fighting for ASL to be a foreign language within your school. How were you able to fight for its integration?

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Sam: When my friend with dyslexia was in sixth grade, her mom started fighting for ASL. I didn't know her mom was doing this until I hit seventh grade. We started talking between us and between our friends. We started expressing interest. We started a bunch of petitions.

 

By the time we got to high school, we got more of a voice, promoting ASL through the school to teachers. ASL started being brought up in our sophomore year at board meetings by two students and their mom. By the end of sophomore into junior year, ASL was put into the district as a foreign language.

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How did you feel after finally securing ASL as a foreign language at your school?

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Sam: I was really happy. Since I am not the greatest at English and our high school had the requirement of having two years of a foreign language to graduate, talking another language was really stressing me out.

 

Then, I found out sign language was similar to English in the way it's written. There's some words that are similar, and there's some words that are taken out of the grammar. I found this really, really interesting. ASL became something I thought about more in terms of supporting me during high school and something I can continue to do after high school.​​​

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We started talking between us and between our friends. We started expressing interest.

We started a bunch of petitions.​

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​How did you fight for ASL to be recognized at Carthage?

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Zoe: Since Sam and I started here at Carthage last year, even though the club wasn't going yet, we were just talking about ASL with our friends. We would teach our friends signs over dinner. By the time we got approved to start the ASL club this fall, we already had a big, solid group interested and motivated to join just from word-of-mouth. So that's really helped us get up to the membership we have now.

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​What struggles have you faced in creating a club at Carthage?

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Zoe: Getting people to attend is the biggest thing. The Involvement Fair went wonderfully – we gained over 100 members in 90 minutes. It was so inspiring talking with people, hearing why they were interested, and seeing how excited they were that we were hosting an ASL club. Then, our first meeting didn't have as many people show up as we expected. We're still adjusting in how we communicate with the club and pass knowledge about our meetings and expectations.

 

Since our club is based around a language, a lot of people think they have to attend every meeting. That it's going to be more strict. We really want to emphasize that our ASL club is a casual environment. We want to be fun for everyone.

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​What are your ambitions for ASL club this year?

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Zoe: I want to make an impact. We want to make ASL club one of the clubs you hear about all the time. Whether you attend or not, we are people to know that we are something the school offers. When I was touring colleges, I asked every single one, "Do you have an ASL club here?" None of them did. That's what pushed me to want to create my own club.

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​By making our club well-known with a lot of members, hopefully within a couple years, we can get the college to take notice. Our goal before we both graduate would be to get Carthage to start offering American Sign Language as a course. I think that would be wonderful.

 

We want to collaborate with different organizations, such as Education Club and the Carthage Association of Nursing Students. Teaching basic signs for those public professions, especially with children, would be really beneficial. We also want to draw up a petition to get the ball rolling on ASL becoming offered as a foreign language.

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Sam: We want to keep it super fun and super engaging for everybody. Sign language is a visual language – if it's not visually interesting, people aren't going to want to learn it. We want to play a bunch of games with people since games are one of the best ways to learn sign language. For what I have experienced in classes and being around deaf people, learning through games is so much more interesting.

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We also talked about having guest speakers. I know people in my hometown who have already said they're willing to do Zoom calls with the club to talk about the deaf culture. As students, we can teach people signs and help them communicate basic conversations, but we can't really teach people the culture because we are not deaf ourselves. Having an outside speakers to teach our club about deaf culture gives students a new perspective into a part of this world.

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When i was touring colleges,

I asked every single one:

 

 

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 none of them did.​​

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that's what pushed me to create my own club.​​​​

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​Do you feel intimidated at being the leaders of ASL club without being a part of that culture?

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Sam: I don't think so. ASL is something we're both so passionate about. That passion overrides any fear of Oh my gosh, I am in charge of this whole massive club that people are talking about. I want people to learn the language. I want them to feel comfortable that if they're ever put in a situation of having to use sign language, they have the comfort and knowledge to do it.

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Zoe: Sam and I both agree on where the line is of what we can teach to people and what we cannot. With us having four years of experience learning the language, we know enough to be able to teach at a basic level. We both are really confident in our knowledge. We have a great list of people we're willing to pull in to help with the complex parts we are iffy on.

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While limited, we find some ways to educate about the culture without crossing that line. We start our meetings with a Deaf Community Update slide. If we hear anything in the news about improved accessibility of products and services for deaf people, we'll give them information about that. We let people know how new AI can help or hurt the deaf community. We want to educate people about the advancements that can possibly help that culture without overstepping into that culture. 

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What stigmas are there around ASL?

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Zoe: People like to brush ASL off as a signed version of English. It's not a signed version of English. There is Signed Exact English, but American Sign Language is a full language with its own syntax and grammar rules. It has its own slang and regional differences.

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For different cultural groups, there's a Black sign language that differs from ASL. Each language is uniquely complex and equally difficult to learn fluently. This oversimplification of ASL is the biggest thing we're trying to combat. We bring awareness to how diverse signed language can be in terms of its uses.

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There's also the misconception that ASL is just for deaf or hard-of-hearing people. Non-verbal, autistic people can communicate with ASL. People who aren't able to speak due to physical impairments can communicate with ASL.

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We had a conversation with Dr. Lavorata, an Engineering Professor and our new Club Advisor. She uses ASL with her three-year-old child who can't talk and only has one good hand. We're hoping to have Dr. Lavorata come in and talk about her usage of ASL, especially as someone who isn't deaf.

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​What would someone expect if they were to attend a general meeting for ASL club?

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Zoe: At the general meeting, we start by going through a couple slides. Since we don't expect people to attend every meeting, we like to brief members on what our club is about and our expectations. And then, we get into whatever the lesson is – it's never anything strict.

 

We've covered the alphabet, the numbers, and some basic phrases, such as emotions and greetings. We usually break out into groups and have people practice. It's really a community-based thing. It's a great way to meet people alongside learning some ASL.

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If someone was intimidated at joining this club, what would you say to them?

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Sam: We are a very, very low-pressure club. We have a lot of people who are starting very basic, just learning the alphabet, just learning how to sign their name. But then, we have people who have been in a couple years of sign language, but may be rusty. Even Zoe and I are continuing to learn sign language, continuing to learn new signs everyday.

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For someone who may be intimidated, I would say to them that they have nothing to be scared of. There's always somebody at your level. There's always going to be somebody who's going to help you. Nobody's going to judge you on how much you know about sign language. We don't expect anybody to know all of the words in the universe coming into this club. Learning is the whole point of this club – we want to teach people sign language.

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Zoe: We want to emphasize that this is not a class. You don't have to come to every meeting. It really is a space to just hang out and pick up some basic stuff. You can get as much out of it as you want. If you remember it, great! If not, it's not a big deal.​ We don't want to pressure people into having to care about this as much as we do. We want to be welcoming and fun.​

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  There's always

  somebody at your level. ​​​​

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There's always going to  

be somebody who's going  

to help you.  ​​​

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Who is your advisor? How have they helped the ASL club?

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Zoe: We first had Dr. Barnhart from the Psychology Department because he's a cognitive psychologist so he is interested in language. He's a really great guy who helped us initially, just getting the club off the ground. He was very supportive – always there for us if we needed anything specific – yet was generally hands-off.

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Currently, we are shifting our advisor to Dr. Lavorata after recently finding out about her knowledge and connection to ASL. Dr. Barnhart had a lot on his plate, so he was happy to step down from the advisor position. Dr. Lavorata will soon be our advisor, but will still be fairly hands-off. We are happy to run the ship by ourselves with our great e-board, but Dr. Lavorata will be there for the logistics of bigger events.

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How would you define success for ASL club this year?

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Sam: I see success as people starting to talk about our club outside of meetings. We want people expressing it to their friends and hearing it in classes. Genuine interest around campus is what I would like to see. It's really a telltale sign when people go and they're like, Oh my gosh, an ASL club! We did this super fun game in sign language, and I learned all of these signs, and I can sign this. You have to come to the next meeting.

 

That speaks success to me, especially for sign language.

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Zoe: Generating buzz outside of club meetings would be wonderful. It will be really rewarding to see people develop pride in their skills and have excitement about it. To have people want to come back – to have people excited to see what we're going to do next.

 

If someone was interested in contacting ASL club, where would they find you?

• Meeting Times: Niemann Theatre ever other Thursday at 8pm

• Zoe Email: zcapstick@carthage.edu

• Sam Email: slockhart@carthage.edu

• Instagram: @carthage_asl