Think Creative - Issue 1

a place in the classroom

“I want to improve my life, to study and progress and, in the end, to have a good job.”

-Shayra Morales, entering student at URACCAN in Bluefields, Nicaragua

here. In the Caribbean Coast region, there are few resources for children and youth with a hearing impairment. “Many of them drop out of high school,” says Largaespada of Aprendo y Emprendo, noting the effects of social isolation and a lack of educational support or interpreters. “We have also learned that they are sometimes victims of violence from their families or that they are abandoned.” Smith recounts the story of three deaf and hard of hearing people in her community who never got the chance to learn, including one young mother of three children with whom she can’t communicate. “She is a person inside herself,” says Smith. But the university has opened a new world of opportunities for Smith and her classmates, and they hope it will do so for future genera- tions of deaf and hard of hearing students. “Our feelings on being the first in the univer- sities...well, you feel chosen because you were able to finish high school,” says 24-year-old Juan Pablo Perez. “Sometimes we feel shy and some people are more advanced than us, but we can keep going.” Though they are just beginning their university studies, the group is already looking toward the future and graduating with technical degrees and skills they can use to secure jobs. “I want to improve my life, to study and progress and, in the end, to have a good job,” says 17-year-old Shayra Morales, among the youngest of the students. She knows firsthand the effort and grit it takes to reach this level of education as a deaf stu- dent, but she advises others to work hard, go to university and “do not give up your dreams.” n With reporting by Gretchen Robleto and Natalie Lovenburg from Bluefields, Nicaragua.

my and Development of the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua, which operates several technical and vocational training institutes. The course covers regulations on educational access, a history of challenges faced by the deaf and hard of hearing community, specific educa- tional techniques for deaf and hard of hearing students and hands-on sign language training. A new language for instructors, a shared goal In a packed room at Aprendo y Emprendo’s Bluefields office, 13 educators are communicat- ing back and forth, but the room is silent. With Nicaraguan sign language dictionaries on their desks, the trainees tentatively sign to their col- leagues, slowly getting more comfortable with this brand new language. “This is a new language we are learning so we can get to know these students and commu- nicate with them. They are very special and they have a different world. We need to know what they feel, so that we can help them,” says Francisco Dans, Director of Administrative Sciences and an instructor at URACCAN. Dans, 31, has been teaching for six years, but this is the first semester he will work with deaf and hard of hearing students, after completing his training. Since most of the students he will be welcom- ing into his classroom are older than the hear- ing students who are also entering university, they were glad to have the option to pursue a three-year technical degree, and eager to gain hard skills that can land them jobs. While learning this new language is a chal- lenge, Dans says he and his colleagues are committed to meeting the students’ needs and opening doorways to careers of their choice. “They want to study IT and so we, as a univer- sity, said we are going to open the university to

these students,” he says, noting that the school aims to expand course offerings to deaf and hard of hearing students further in the future. Like Dans, educators in this training say this is just the beginning of a big change in edu- cational access for deaf and hard of hearing students in their region, even in the most remote communities. Ofelia Suazo, an educator at a technical insti- tute supported by the Foundation for the Au- tonomy and Development of the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua, says she plans to bring her new skills back to her colleagues at their remote institute, a two-hour boat trip fromBluefields. “We are all committed to replicating this and repeating it, to pass it along to all of our co- workers because there is a huge need. We will have to grow our knowledge,” she says. ‘I can’t imagine’ life without education For the remarkable group of seven first-time university students who are paving the way for future generations of deaf and hard of hearing youth, the road continues to be uphill. “Now we are at the university, and there are some difficult things and we have to be very patient,” says 29-year-old Iris Omeir, a deaf student at URACCAN. “The most important thing is to keep going.” She jokes that her arm aches since she does most of the signing while her teachers are slow- ly learning her language. But despite this she is very optimistic. “It will be an experience for the future to prepare for other deaf and hard of hearing children.” When asked what her life would have been like without education, Omeir responds, “I can’t imagine.” In fact, stories like that of her classmate Cheysi Smith, who did not enter school or learn sign language until age 12, are common

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