JEREMY SCHULZE, FOUNDER, S.I.G.N. CLUB:
The summer before S.I.G.N. Club started, I worked at Pizza Hut, and there was
this deaf family who came in and I had to write everything down with them, but they
could communicate really fast and their faces moved more than ours do when we talk.
I thought it was really interesting and I already had a firm liking for languages.
I just thought about how that’s one I don’t know and that’s one you can use in situations
where verbal languages aren’t applicable.
AARON RICE, HEAD TEACHER, S.I.G.N. CLUB:
My favorite part is inventing new games to help people remember the signs. It's
really fun to come up with new things that help people think they'll be fun, and
then even more fun to watch them actually do it.
ELISA RIVERA, CO-TEACHER, S.I.G.N. CLUB:
I really like Sign Dining because it’s a really good way to, first of all, meet
people that are in the club – and there are some really cool guys this year – and
it’s really good practice to apply the signs and to clarify any questions you have
and learn more signs that don't necessarily get covered in the lessons. So, it's
just a lot of fun and we’re always there until they kick us out at 7:00. It’s just
a good environment to learn.
ABE VIERTHALER, CLUB MEMBER, S.I.G.N. CLUB:
My favorite part of S.I.G.N. Club is the assortment of games we play to learn
the vocabulary. They do a really good job of integrating everything we’ve learned,
and they help us grasp the vocabulary a lot quicker than we normally would.
ELISA RIVERA:
On Wednesdays, we teach a lesson. We have a bunch of different categories, like
animal signs or school signs or weather, stuff like that. Then on Thursdays, we
take the signs we learned and we play a game with them, and that helps solidify
the stuff that we learned yesterday and the day before.
NATALIE KERR, REP MANAGER, S.I.G.N. CLUB:
After going in there, it was a lot more interesting than I expected it to be.
It wasn’t just signs, it was learning about facial expressions. It was stuff that
was completely new that I never really realized before, or thought about. That’s
why I kept going.
EMMA RIVERA, CO-TEACHER, S.I.G.N. CLUB:
I think I think everyone should learn it. It's really important because, otherwise,
we’re just completely cutting off a whole sector of our population. It's important
to include everyone and to be able to cross that language barrier.
SCHULZE:
Just come to any of our meetings – they’re on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 8:00
in Mills C – or you can come to Sign Dining which is where we all meet in the overflow
at the cafeteria at 6:00 on Mondays and we only use sign language. But if you can’t,
if you can’t do any signs you can still come and we’ll help you through it and teach
you whatever you want to know.