CARLOW UNIVERSITY HELPS STUDENT BRIDGE HEARING AND DEAF WORLDS Danah Richter
WHEN DANAH RICHTER visited the Carlow University campus, she saw the same potential that many students see when visiting the college that will become their academic home for the next four years. “When I was on the campus tour at Carlow, I saw the ability to be part of the Carlow community and that gave me a hope to succeed through all the challenges,” says Richter, who is from New Kensington, Pa. “I chose Carlow to give myself challenges and prepare myself for the real world after I graduate from college.” However, the challenges Richter arrived at Carlow with are greater than those of the average college student, and the barriers to becoming part of the Carlow community were a good bit higher. “Communication and writing English as a second language
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are the most difficult things for me as a deaf student at a hearing college because no one knows how to communicate with my first language—American Sign Language (ASL)—and writing in English was an extreme struggle for me to learn,” says Richter, who is a junior social work major. Students whose first language is ASL often have difficulty with Standard Written English. Despite the early struggles, Richter has found Carlow to be everything she thought it could be when she was on that campus tour. “Because of our roots and our Catholic heritage, we are welcoming to all,” says Siobhan DeWitt, the campus minister at Carlow. “Catherine McAuley served everyone in the Dublin community when she founded the Sisters of Mercy. Through Carlow’s connection to the
Danah Richter Participates as a Young Leader in Pennsylvania, National, and Canadian Conferences ANDREW G. WILSON
Sisters of Mercy and our Catholic heritage, we are here to serve everyone in our community.” Welcomed into the Carlow community, Richter has begun to excel. She has been named to the Dean’s List for the past two semesters. “Danah is a student who is dedicated to success,” says Bridget Ponte, director of the Center for Academic Achievement at Carlow University. “I believe she can accomplish anything that she puts her mind to.” One of the things Richter put her mind to is being better at comprehending and writing Standard Written English. As part of her studies, she took an independent study course for the past three years focused on Standard Written English for students whose first language is ASL. “[Communicating and writing English] was an issue that Danah recognized in herself,” says Jackie Smith, a writing consultant in the Center for Academic Achievement and the Disability Services Representative at Carlow. “Danah has an amazing attention to detail and a mature self-determination. She is willing to ask for help and to help others when needed.” This willingness to both help and be helped has led Richter to recognition as a leader beyond the Carlow campus. She was invited to participate as a “young leader” in the Pennsylvania Society for the Advancement of the Deaf (PSAD) conference held in Pittsburgh in September 2013, and the National Association of the Deaf’s (NAD) National Leadership Training
conference in Omaha, Neb., in October 2013. She has also been invited to participate in the second annual Inspire Virtual Symposium, an online conference at the University of Calgary in Canada, for disabled students of varying abilities to present papers that challenge “ability expectations.” Richter differentiates between “deaf” with a lowercase “d,” referring to the condition of being non-hearing, and an uppercase “D” that refers to the Deaf Culture. Almost 29 million Deaf people live in America and about 300 million Deaf people live in the world. “Our ‘Deaf’ voices grow louder,” says Richter. Being invited to represent Pennsylvania—and by extension representing both Carlow and Pittsburgh—is just one more step in helping Richter achieve her goals. “I always search for more challenges,” says Richter. “My next destination is working with children with autism because I find autism to be a very interesting topic to work with. In five years, I hopefully might graduate with two master’s degrees: one in social work and a second in mental health counseling at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. In 10 years, I hope I will be able to work with hearing and deaf children and deaf adults in mental health services and/or organizations.” If Richter’s academic career at Carlow is any indication, she is well on her way to achieving her goals.
CARLOW UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE