avannah Brown
MONTGOMERY BLAIR HIGH SCHOOL AFTER GOING TO A SMALL SCHOOL WITH OTHER DEAF STUDENTS THROUGH EIGHTH GRADE, Silver Spring’s Savannah Brown was up for a challenge. She wanted to take more rigorous classes, such as organic chemistry, and that meant transferring to a public school. “It was really scary,” Savannah says, to go from a school of 100 students to being the only deaf student among over 3,200 at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring. Initially shy and feeling isolated, Savannah says she found friends with similar interests in science and joined several clubs. “Now I look at people and feel like we’re exactly the same—except I was not born with the ability to hear.” Savannah, 17, who has been deaf since birth and whose parents are deaf, has sign language interpreters alongside her all day. She gives a short presentation at the beginning of classes each semester to dispel myths about deafness (her brain is the same as everyone else’s), share her tips on ways to communicate (texting or gesturing) and break the ice with humor (we do not bite; deaf people are cool). “She was not afraid to address that subject in front of every-
one in a funny and practical way. It was endearing,” says James Demma, Savannah’s Advanced Placement biology teacher. He describes her as smart, social, confident and a leader in class. “She made me realize deaf people can do anything—and she can do anything she wants,” Demma says. Savannah will have taken 11 AP classes by the time she graduates this spring. She is active in the Health Occupations Student Association, which promotes biomedical and health-related careers, and was ranked fifth in the state for her achievements in a biotechnology competition. In college, Savannah plans to double major in global health policy and biomedical engineering. To encourage more students like her to consider pursuing science, she organized a STEM fair for deaf students this winter. Savannah has shared her experience with families of deaf students as part of a countywide Montgomery County Public Schools panel since she was a freshman. “I explain to them what I’m involved in to reassure parents that deaf children can be successful if you give them the right tools,” she says. —Caralee Adams
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