[Narr.] The deaf education program at the University of Science and Arts represents one of Oklahoma’s
most valuable degree programs, and one of the school’s most unique education
opportunities.
The students who graduate from the department are considered “highly qualified.”
That means that they are able to teach in deaf education,
pre-k through twelfth grade, or they can teach in regular education,
early childhood, elementary, or secondary. So they are qualified to teach
pretty much where ever they want to. Our students are very marketable.
There’s a real shortage of teachers for deaf children
Not just in Oklahoma, but country-wide. We’re the only
state-supported university in Oklahoma to offer this program.
[Narr.] Deaf education teacher preparation coordinator Judy Brawner
explains that the department has been preparing teachers for
the unique challenges that exist in specialized deaf classrooms
since its establishment.
[Brawner] We’ve been here since 1945, one of the first to be founded
west of the Mississippi. Of course, like all other kinds of
education, most things started on the east coast, but we
were one of the earliest to bloom in this part of the country.
Not only does the program offer unique and exciting opportunities
for university students, but it also shares facilities with a specialized
deaf education pre-school.
It’s a satellite school the Oklahoma School for the Deaf operates.
Currently, it’s just a pre-school but they’re hoping to expand up to 3rd grade,
and this school serves deaf and hard of hearing children in the
surrounding areas. Although it’s run by the Oklahoma School
for the Deaf, it serves as a lab school for our program, also,
and we’re all housed in the same building now. The building,
Canning Hall, was renovated just to be a deaf education
building, so we have the pre-school downstairs, and the
college students upstairs.
[Narr.] Canning Hall, the program’s current home, was built in 1935
as a dormitory for the Oklahoma College for Women. Its
function changed over the years and, in 2008, the building
was redesigned to house the USAO Deaf Education department along with the Oklahoma School
for the Deaf satellite program. The school was recently
renamed in honor of the Jane Brooks School for the Deaf, which
was housed on the campus from 1953 to 1970.
All of this is new to Shaylee Kimbro, a recent transfer student
to USAO who was drawn in by the deaf ed department.
Everything about it was so appealing to me, so I decided
to transfer. There’s not many deaf ed departments in any
school. My ultimate goal is to go into deaf ministry. I just feel
like it’s my calling. You know, not many are out there.
[Narr.] One USAO deaf ed major, Mary Rios, was recently crowned
Miss Deaf Oklahoma.
Mary, a senior Deaf education major from Lawton, transferred
after seeing what the USAO Deaf Ed program had to offer.
Whether giving future teachers important experience working with ASL or providing deaf and hard-of-hearing
students a community in which to learn, USAO’s Deaf Education
department is the product of a decades-old legacy that has
touched countless lives.
The program fits in perfectly as part of the University’s wide
and growing range of educational opportunities.
