Happy December Everyone!

Hello faithful friends and family!!
I am not sure that I can catch you up on everything that has happened here since my last post on here. Here’s a few pictures to show you!

The view of the pretty autumn leaves from my window

My boyfriend, Zack, here in DC with me in the autumn

My classmate, Jackie, and I working on a research project using a nasometer

My friends and I watching CNN on Election Night! We all had too much work to do so we did not venture out into DC towards the White House (sadly)

Several of my fellow Speech Girls and I having a Thanksgiving Dinner together before we went home for the real dinner!

My friends Charlene, Allie, and Wyatte on a typical Friday night in the dorms (watching a movie)

I also went home to Southern Pines for Thanksgiving. I took an Amtrak train (about 8.5 hours home and 7 hours back) and jumped off the train into my parent’s arms! I had a great time relaxing and just being with my family at home. It is so nice and I’m so appreciative that I have such a great place to go home to.

So this week is FINAL EXAM WEEK! Yikes! As you can tell, I am procrastinating studying and writing reports by posting on my blog. It is much more fun to answer your questions than answer questions about the respiratory system or spirometers. Here are some answers to more questions that I received!

The major adjustments you have had to make 'in your head' about being a minority on campus. Are there those that treat you differently because you can hear? Do you feel a need to keep that fact to yourself? If so - why?
It has been interesting being a minority on campus (because I am hearing). There are certainly people that may treat me differently because I am hearing, but for the most part, they understand and know that I am here to learn and be a part of the culture. I get asked a lot by deaf people why I am in the speech program here and what I want to do with it. I explain that I think speech is interesting and that I want to work with deaf people. They ask, sometimes with a strained look on their face, whether I want to teach all deaf kids to speak English. I tell them that I will help people if they want to learn, but I also encourage people to learn sign language. I am not here to take away anyone’s culture or language. I obviously support sign language or I would not be here!! They seem to appreciate me more and have a better understand of what I’m doing here at Gallaudet.
I know that many of us hearing students do fake being deaf. We will hear loud sounds or people screaming and not turn around. I’m not quite sure if we’re doing it to hide the fact that we’re hearing, or if we’re just lazy and know that people do not expect you to turn around when there is a loud sound. My roommate and I have been playing a game that we made up here called Who’s Hearing? We will hear loud sounds and look around to see who else looked. It is always interesting to see who turns because you know that they are either hearing, hard of hearing, or wearing good hearing aids!

When groups of hearing and non-hearing students are sitting together, as in the cafeteria, how do you communicate?
This is an easy one to answer: American Sign Language. Always.

Is the cafeteria noisy or quiet?
The cafeteria varies. People tend to think that a deaf school would be quiet. I think the only noisy thing that differs between a mainstream school and a deaf school is people walking around on cell phones. Deaf people can be loud. They make sound (whether they can hear it or not) when they talk, eat, walk, etc just like everyone else. They can be quiet, but they can be loud too. It depends on their personality and mood. I think the cafeteria can be quiet noisy. We also have TVs in there that make it louder!
I know that your mom has mentioned that you shouldn't talk on your cell out in the open campus. I want to know more about things that you have to do at school or make a point of not doing that you didn't have to worry about before and you do it that way at Gallaudet.
So I was told not to walk around on my cell phone here on campus. I understand the reasoning, other peope may find this offensive. They come to a deaf school knowing that they are in their element with people of similar cultures. Walking around on your cell phone just isn’t appropriate most of the time. I have good friends here now that I don’t feel weird around when I answer my phone. They know I’m hearing and know that I need to talk to my parents, boyfriend, friends, etc. I rarely answer my phone in the cafeteria or in the Student Academic Center. It just isn’t appropriate. Other things that I make a point to remember are signing at all times (except when just in my room or something private), wearing gloves instead of mittens (it is very difficult to sign in mittens!! you need your fingers!), and being able to see everyone’s faces and hands when sitting at a table. I'm sure there are other things but I can't think of them off the top of my head.

What is it like to hear at Gallaudet? Your parents told me that it is unusually loud there. Do you wear earplugs sometimes to get away from the noise?
I just got noise reduction ear molds about a month ago. I get them at a reduced price because I work in the Hearing and Speech department; one of my friends who is here for Audiology helped me get the molds and mail them off. I love them because I can block out sounds when studying or sleeping. The weekends tend to be noisy times because the students go out and party to enjoy the time off from class; there are many loud parties that occur in the undergraduate dorm that is adjacent to my room. Remember that the music must be turned up much higher for some people to hear it! I love my ear plugs!

I will be finished with my school work on Thursday (as long as everything goes according to plan!). I will be heading to Chapel Hill for a few days to see my friends and celebrate the end of the semester! I will be heading home to Southern Pines after that to spend most of the rest of my Winter Break. I am so fortunate to have a LONG Winter Break! I do not start school again until the day after Inauguration Day! I cannot wait to spend time with my family and friends and NOT do schoolwork!

All 12 First Year Speech-Language Pathology students here at Gallaudet University
(these girls are my family here in DC!)
Back row L-R: Caryn, Melissa, Erica, Heather, Rachel, Nada, Jill
Front row L-R: Cheryl, Carolyn, Jackie, Meredith, Erin

Update: it was pointed out to me that I neglected to put any photos up of the National Christmas Tree Lighting that I attended last week on the Ellipse in front of the White House. It was a grand ole affair with the President of the United States (not Obama, yes Bush) and his wife. There were several singers there including a chorus group from Enterprise, Alabama. There was also a little4 year old girl that was on America's Got Talent that sang (name: Kaitlyn Maher). It was all quite exciting, especially when Santa showed up and Mrs. Bush lit the Christmas tree. It is HUGE! I read in the pamphlet that it is almost 42 feet tall and is a living tree that spends most of it's days in Pennsylvania. This is the 30th year that this exact tree has been lit in front of the White House. Here are some photos from that wonderful adventure!

The President of the US watching and listening to the chorus in his glass box
The National Christmas Tree!

A few answers to your questions!!

I’ve gotten a lot of questions and loved getting emails from people! I will attempt to answer all of the questions, but will have to divvy them up so I don’t end up with the longest message ever! I have put them all in categories to make them flow together as best as possible.

Where are your classmates from?

There are 23 girls total in the Speech-Language Pathology program. 11 Second-year girls and 12 first-years (I am a first-year). Our hometowns span the world, yes, the world! I am the only one from North Carolina, but other girls are from the following places: Connecticut, New Jersey, Saudi Arabia, Caribbean, New Hampshire, Virginia, California, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Arkansas, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, West Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and Maryland.

Here are several girls in my program all gathered together!

Other people in graduate school here are from all over. I've met a LOT of people from New York and California, but there are many places represented here.

How much interaction is there between grad students and undergrads?

There is some interaction between grads and undergrads. I definitely know a LOT more grad students, but know a few undergrads as well. We all intermingle in the cafeteria, football games, and other campus events. I’d imagine it’s pretty similar on most other campuses.

Do you have undergrads on your dorm floor?

Sort of related to the last question…I do not know of any undergraduate students on my floor. The way my dorm is set up there are 8 floors total (I live on the top! 8^th floor!). The floors are split into 2 parts, North & South, with the elevators and stairs in between the parts. The 6^th, 7^th and 8^th floors are designed to be graduate students with the 1^st-5^th being mainly undergrads. I do have a good friend who lives on the 2^nd floor, but she’s a minority grad student on her floor.

Here is how the halls are organized. The 7th and 8th floor South comes together!

Are you living with hearing or deaf suitemates?

My suitemates are all hearing. We might be one of the only all-hearing suites though. My roommate is Nicole and she's from California. My suitemates are Desiree (my former roommate) and Kristina. Desiree is from Nevada and Kristina is from Scotland! The floors are co-ed, both guys and girls living on the same floor, but in separate suites. There are deaf people that live on my hall.

Are all undergrads and K-12 students deaf or hearing deprived?

This is a good question, though the term “hearing deprived” isn’t the technical term. Hard of Hearing and Deaf are the official terms used for students here. In order to go to school here, you have to have a certain hearing loss. I’m not sure what the exact numbers in decibel levels are, but I think they have gotten slightly lower throughout the years. I do know that if you are a deaf adult with a hearing child, your child may not attend school here. I also know that there are some Hearing Undergraduates (called HUGs). I don’t know the exact specifications, but they must be fluent in American Sign Language because all of their classes will be sign only (no interpreters).

Are many students training to work with children?

It depends on the program/major that they are in. In the Speech-Language Pathology program, you will work with all ages. I currently have a 3-year old hearing client and a deaf adult client. I know other girls have elderly people as well. Many in the other programs do not have clients yet, but many want to work with children, like me. My roommate is in the Deaf Education program here, with her speciality being Family Centered Early Education. She wants to work with families that have hearing parents with deaf children, and planning the best way to raise their child.

Are you picturing yourself in a career yet or too busy in the learning aspects?

I like this question! If you had asked me this during the first 2 weeks of school here, I would have said that I’m too busy learning to see myself as a Speech-Language Pathologist. Since week 3, I would say that I definitely picture myself in a career. We started with clients our 3^rd week here at school. Yes, I am taking 7 classes, but I also have 2 regular clients and 1 client that changes every other week. I see my 2 regular clients twice a week each, for 50 minutes each. They are very different but a lot of fun. My “other client” I work with in a team. This is someone that comes in for diagnostic testing. They come in and my team and I have looked over their file and determine what we need to test and observe. After we assess their skills and interview them (or their parents) we determine what they need, whether it be speech therapy, a stimulation group, or just more access to a good speech and language model. I will not lie to you and say this is the best semester of my life, because it has not been. I have never been this overwhelmed and stressed in my whole life. I don’t feel like I have a lot of time to chill and hang out, but as the semester progresses, I feel better. I like doing therapy more. I like classes more. I’m enjoying myself more because I have better learned how to manage graduate school as different from undergrad school. It is very different!!! I love it here and love what I’m doing so far, it’s just very hard!

Update: My brother!!!!!!!

Just a quick update!!

My brother, David, is ENGAGED to be married!!!

He has pictures of the actual moment that she said "YES!" Go to his website here or on the right side panel!



On an unrelated note, thank you to everyone that has sent questions for me for my next full blog! Keep on sending them!!!

Need Your Help!

So things have been verrrrrry hectic lately! I haven't even had time to BREATHE lately! Yikes! Lucky that I love what I'm doing and where I'm heading, right?!

Just wanted some feedback from ya'll. I wonder if you have questions for me. They could be about ANYTHING (e.g. life, Speech-Language Pathology, Gallaudet, my friends, Deaf culture, American Sign Language, my future, etc). I would really appreciate some emails or comments on this blog. My email address is melissa.perryman@gallaudet.edu I would like my next blog to be the answers to some of your questions!

I'm sure people have some similar questions and it would be quite easy to answer a lot of them on this website. Feel free to ask me anything!

Here are a few photos from the past few weeks! They are definitely the more fun moments and not the studying and preparing lesson plans!

This is Nicole (my roommate) and I at the Gallaudet University Football Game on 9/13/08
GO BISON!!


Most of these lovely ladies are First Year Speech kids like me!! I can't believe we all fit in an elevator together!

Another photo of many of the First Year Speech girls (with a few roommates and boyfriends thrown in the photo too!)

Again, please send me questions as I hope to write my next blog centered around your questions! I still love DC and love being a part of something like this. There is ALWAYS something to learn!



My mom had chemotherapy last week, so to catch up on her life, please visit her website: http://caringbridge.org/visit/mwperryman

All We Have Is Now

It has been a busy two weeks since I last posted. Sorry for the delay!

Classes have been going well. I'm still not completely sure of my schedule because some classes and clinics and such have still not begun. The classes that I am currently taking are:

HSL 713 Advanced Topics in Normal Language Development
HSL 714 Advanced Topics in Speech Science
HSL 763 Clinical Procedures for Communication Disorders
HSL 765 Seminar in Diagnostics in Speech-Language Pathology
HSL 774 Clinical Practicum: Speech-Language Pathology
HSL 746 Clinical Applications of Sign Communication
ASL American Sign Language II

It is quite a schedule, unlike any other semester I have ever had in high school or college. There are always things to be done! I enjoy taking these classes but it has hit hard and fast these first few weeks and there is no sign of slowing down! I begin working with my first client next Tuesday (which excites and scares me!). It is all one big adventure!

Also during the first week of classes, I switched roommates. My previous roommate, Desiree, and my suitemate Kristina were becoming fast friends with similar schedules while myself and my other suitemate, Nicole, were becoming good friends. It just seemed right to switch roommates and all enjoy each other! It was a mutual decision from all 4 of us, and it is working out really well!

We all still really enjoy being suitemates, but the scheduling and morning/night people are in their respective rooms.

This picture is of Nicole (my new roommate!) and I. We moved all the furniture around and have it set up pretty nicely. Here are a few photos of our room and suite! We have matching bedspreads! My bed and desk are closest to the window while Nicoles bed and desk are closest to the closets and doorway.

Above is a view from our doorway

Above is a view from my desk corner


Above is our suite hallway (with our amazing new fridge--Thank you Mark & Marsha Matthews for helping with that crazy adventure!!!)

In reference to the above caption, I ventured out to Walmart with my roommate, Nicole, and two of my friends from Speech to find a fridge and other necessities. I drove us all to Alexandria, VA because it said that it had our fridge in stock. We bought all our goods...but then could not fit our new refridgerator into my car!! What a mess! I ended up calling my beloved cousins, Mark & Marsha Matthews, and they helped bring my fridge back in their Explorer. Without their help, I'm not sure the day would have turned out nearly as well!! THANK YOU!!!

I continue to enjoy meeting new people and learning more about the new friends I have made here. We have a wonderful common lounge area that tends to draw everyone in every evening for TV, movies, or Nintendo Wii. It is still a blast to just sit around and talk (typically using only Sign Language).

Speaking of American Sign Language, I feel that I have learned a million new signs and have become a faster and clearer signer than I was when I first arrived on campus. Everyday I learn new signs and feel more confident. It is so nice to have everyone supporting each other no matter what their abilities. I start my Clinical Sign Language course tomorrow and my regular ASL class on Tuesday. This will definitely kick it up tothe next level! I think I will learn very quickly! Living on campus was one of the best decisions!!

As I said in a previous post, the building that houses my classrooms and clinic is brand new. It is called the James Lee Sorenson Language and Communication Center. It is a huge, beautiful building that I feel very honored to be a part of. They had the grand opening ceremony this past week. Gallaudet President Robert Davila spoke and welcome everyone to the new building.

To the left is a photo taken from the second floor (where the clinic that I will be working in is located) down to the ground level. It was designed by deaf people and made especially for deaf and hard of hearing persons. It open areas and glass walls provide easy access to communication. There are three floors each housing different things; classrooms, clinics, offices, conference rooms, etc.

They had cake at the opening ceremony too! DELICIOUS!


I am having a lot of fun here, but learning a lot too. Classes are interesting and helpful, but the require a lot of time outside of studying and reading to understand what is going on.

I welcome any visitors who would like a glimpse of my life to come visit me for a day. It is really a different experience than I have ever had. I was just saying last night to Nicole that when we go off-campus and see people speaking English, it snaps you back into reality that most people speak with their mouths and voices and not with their hands! A few of the older graduate students warn me of the jarring experience of going home for Thanksgiving or Christmas and not signing and not having anyone around that understands sign! I'm sure it will be strange not to respond to people in sign!

Nicole(Deaf Education), Charlene(Audiology), Allie(Audiology), Me(Speech), Jackie(Speech)
We all live in Carlin Hall together too!!

I love it here!

I Survived My First Day of Classes!

Just wanted to let ya'll know that I survived my first day of classes!!

Here are a few of us "Speechies" just before our first class!
(From L-R: Me, Heather, Jill, Jackie)

What signs have you learned today?

Hello!!! I am loving Washington, DC and Gallaudet University. This is a totally new experience that I'm not sure is easy to comprehend unless you are here living it. This week has been Graduate School Orientation (GSO) all day from Monday-Friday. We have had lots of lectures, speakers and gatherings to get to know the campus, school politics, and each other! We have mainly met in the large group of First-Year Graduate Students with one day devoted to Departmental orientation.
This picture on the on top is of a few girls in my program (Speech-language Pathology) and one girl from Audiology. This is on the pond that is outside our dorm (Carlin Hall). There are ducks that live in this pond! The picture on underneath is my dorm!

I did not take pictures of us sitting in lectures (mainly because those wouldn't be informative to you nor exciting) but I tried to take photos of more fun activities this week. Just as a note, some of these photos have been taken from friends here!
We decided to break out my Nintendo Wii and celebrate on-campus living by playing Wii Sports together on Tuesday night. We had a lot of fun!!! It was a nice ice-breaker to get to know one another!
We have also had most of our meals together (mostly in American Sign Language...very little spoken English ever on campus!) I have learned an incredible amount of American Sign Language (ASL) in the last week and feel MUCH more comfortable on campus and meeting people. I have made many friends (hearing, deaf, and hard of hearing).




I'm not sure that I've told many people, but my program (and many other programs) are moving to a new building this week!! We are VERY excited to have such nice accommodations! It is called the James Lee Sorenson Language and Communication Center.


A few of us have been out around in Washington, DC! We visited the National Mall, National Archives Museum, and just walked around town! We have had a lot of fun. I'm not sure that I need to describe what is happening in all the photos or who everyone is, but here is a collage of my fun activities this week and weekend!


Classes begin Monday. I have an 8am class every weekday this semester which will be quite an adjustment. Hopefully I can figure out how to wake up my brain so early in the morning.

I truly love being here so far. What a crazy experience!! I will try to update ya'll as much as possible. I hope to take more photos (and have more fun) while also getting a great education!






I miss everyone a lot!

Hello from Washington DC!!

Hello everyone! My parents and I successfully drove the 6 hour trip from our house to Gallaudet University on Friday. Thankfully we had a Garmin GPS to help us navigate the long drive and tell us exactly where to turn. (My sense of direction is lacking, so a GPS is a very good tool!) We stayed at the Kellogg Conference Center on campus on Friday night. It is a very great place to stay and very close to my dorm. We ventured out into DC only once to grab dinner at Union Station. What a busy, chaotic metro station! (Schools and Universities are moving students in this weekend)



We moved into Carlin Hall (my dorm) on Saturday morning and met up with my new roommate. Her name is Desiree and she is VERY nice. I think our personalities will fit together nicely. She is from Nevada and has many degrees already. She is here at Gallaudet University (henceforth known as GU) to attain two more degrees in Deaf Education. She has worked as an interpreter for a while, which I find to be very helpful since I still do not feel comfortable with my signing level.
My parents did not have much time to hang out and enjoy the campus on Saturday because of the long drive back to North Carolina. It was very emotional for my mom (and I think my dad, too. He hides it better.). We had a lot of fun together and they made it home safely after stopping in for dinner with my brother in Raleigh on the way home.

Her parents took us to Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Staples once my parents had left. We stocked up on all the little things that she and I could not fit into our luggage. She only had a few suitcases since she and her parents flew here (the suitcase laws inhibit bringing too much for school). Her parents are staying in DC until Tuesday morning to tour around and see the hot spots.

Walking around on campus is still a bit unsettling considering I do not speak the language here very well. I have also noticed that I tend to freeze up when someone signs to me. I need to learn to just sign a few things to them to make them slow down and help me out. I will get plenty of practice living on campus. I'm excited to learn such a beautiful language, I just wish I could download the language into my brain for faster results!!

I said bye to several of my friends this week which made it seem much more real. It was hard saying bye to my boyfriend and other friends in Chapel Hill and realize that they are starting classes back at UNC and I will not be there. I will always be a Tar Heel at heart.

I found out my mailing address! It is a box on campus, but I'm not sure yet where it is. I hope they will tell me Monday when Graduate School Orientation begins.

Melissa Perryman
Gallaudet University
#358
800 Florida Ave NE
Washington, DC 20002-3695

Just copy that exact address to anything you need to send me!

I will begin Graduate School Orientation Monday morning. It will last all week long with classes starting the following week. I'm really excited to begin such a challenging adventure. I know my family is a bit worried that I will not fit in (I'm a minority here and do not speak the language yet) but I'm strong enough to survive. These first few months will be daunting, but I learn quickly so I know I can adapt and have fun too!

Also, I'm pretty sure I have one of the best views of Washington DC from my window! I am so thrilled to be living in a big city! I can see the National Cathedral, Washington Monument, GU football field, GU baseball fields, several major buildings of GU, Robert F. Kennedy Stadium (where the Redskins played until 1997 and now the Washington Nationals and DC United teams play!), and the beautiful landscape of surrounding DC.

Welcome to my Journal!

Hello all! Welcome to my new online journal. For those who remember, I kept a blog (short for web log) during summer 2007 throughout my journey in Europe (click here to see it). I really enjoyed letting everyone know what I was doing without having to spend oodles of money to call each family member and friend or stress my parents out by having them update everyone. Knowing the ease and flexibility of using a website as a journal it just makes sense for me to start a new one as I begin a new chapter in my life.

As many of you may know, I just graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on May 11, 2008. I had a whirlwind 4 years of undergraduate schooling and playing with a nice NCAA Men's Basketball Championship thrown in there (GO HEELS!). I still don't quite believe that I'm not returning there in a few weeks to start another round of linguistics and communication studies classes. Maybe when I drive up to a different school it will all hit me. So you may be wondering (or perhaps you already know) what's next for this bright-eyed, educated college graduate. I've typically heard the question phrased, "So where are you going to work now?" Well...I did work this summer at one of the best jobs I've ever had (Audiology of the Sandhills...thank you Kate!!), but that is not where I'll be this fall. I'm taking the other road (possibly the road less traveled?) to graduate school. I just can't seem to face the real world yet. I trekked through a lengthy application process with several schools in North Carolina, Virginia, and Washington DC but I decided upon the one that not many people have heard of: Gallaudet University. I quote the school's website: "Gallaudet University is the world leader in liberal education and career development for deaf and hard-of-hearing undergraduate students." That seems interesting, huh? They have a phenomenal graduate program, undergraduate program, secondary school, and elementary school, all designed around the deaf and hard-of-hearing. You're thinking, "But Melissa, you're a hearing person." Well, luckily, I realized this early on and found out that they take some hearing students too.

The next question always follows, "So, you know sign language?" Well, no. More accurately, I'm not fluent by any means. I took a beginners American Sign Language course at Durham Technical Community College this past Spring (for no college credit) and learned the basics (just enough to make me not look like an idiot). I should be taking an American Sign Language (ASL) class this fall while taking my masters classes. I hope to be fluent (or just pretty daggone great) by the time I graduate.

So what am I going to graduate school for? I will be earning my Masters of Science in Speech-Language Pathology. My undergraduate majors were Linguistics and Communication Studies. I'm excited and nervous to be taking on such a great adventure, but I'm super excited.

The question that everyone wants to ask, but only family members will ask (most especially, my father): "How are you going to pay for a private school, graduate education?" This is where I really feel blessed. I spent many days pondering how I could get to my dream graduate school but not end up several thousand dollars in debt. I applied for a few scholarships and grants when I found out I was accepted to Gallaudet not thinking much would come out of it. Well, BOY was I wrong! The Presbyterian Women of my church here in Southern Pines, Brownson Memorial Presbyterian Church, have honored me with 2 fantastic scholarships and I also received a U.S. Federal Grant that will pay ALL OF MY TUITION!!!! This grant is called the Pediatric Aural Rehabilitation Emphasis and only a select few graduate students receive it each year. My graduate schooling and work afterwards will focus primarily on children with aural rehabilitation (hearing rehab). This still sounds too good to be true! I pray every night that this is not just a dream, but reality. I feel SO blessed and honored to be the recipient of such wonderful, generous offerings.

Now that I have pinned down a bit of background, I hope you're intrigued. The title of this blog is a quote from Helen Keller, a woman I have done many reports and presentations on in middle school (funny how that works out, huh?).

I have lots of information about Gallaudet on the right side. There are also several links to other important websites and news on the right side. Commenting is welcome and encouraged. You can leave comments by click on on the work "COMMENTS" just beneath each post. You do not have to log in, sign in, create an account or anything to leave me a message. You should leave your name though, so that I know who is writing me! Once you click the COMMENTS button, click OTHER and fill out your name. If this all seems to complicated, just email me ( melissa.perryman@gallaudet.edu ). I love having messages waiting in my inbox!

I will update as I see fit and can find time. I will try to include lots of pictures so you can imagine being on campus with me!