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Parent Talk
Stories from Other Families
Stories from Deaf Kids and Adults
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Going to School
October 7, 2003
I am known as the energetic and curious Mavis, who was born profoundly deaf. I am currently a traditional college student planning to graduate in May 2004 with a double major degree: Biology-BA and Biomedical Physics-BA. Also, I am taking extracurricular math classes…enough to be minoring in math, but I didn't bother to make it official. I am planning to get a doctorate from a Biomedical Engineering graduate program or something close to it.
I want to be "playing" all my life in a career I love and I feel that where I am heading is the right direction.
Going to a mainstream high school
I attended a state school for the deaf for 16 of my first 18 years. But, I did mainstream part-time at a local high school two miles away from my deaf school throughout high school. By graduation, I had completed 2/3 of all my high school courses at the mainstream school-and I was glad I did. The local high school was the only one in a town of 3,000 people and about 10,000 cows/cattle or so. Thus, this local high school was not like the academic high schools in bigger cities. However, I got plenty of challenge at that local high school, which I credit for my success at a mainstreaming state college in a city of 17 million.
College was tough at first...
When I first entered my college, I was grateful for what I experience back in 9th grade, the time when I took my first and only class at the local mainstreaming high school. The first college semester was another awakening for me. For 9 straight weeks out of 15, all I could remember was riding my bicycle full speed back and forth between classes and my dorm.
At my dorm, all I could remember was that I was studying. I did lie down, but I studied lightly when I did so. None of this studying was "overdoing"; I barely memorized the materials for my exams. I had expected college to be harder, but not like THIS!
Without my experience at a local high school providing all kinds of challenges I honesty didn't find at my deaf school, I probably won't have passed some of my classes with a C or above that first college semester. Worse, I probably would have been discouraged due to the college blow being unexpected.
... but with extra work I'm proving myself
Today, I am in the top 10% of my class and still improving. Also, I am now doing more than just learning the material for some classes. I put a lot of energy into going the extra mile to acquire in-depth understanding of subjects that I enjoy.
Next: Getting help in high school and college
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