It had always been my dream to
study at Gallaudet University, an academic institution known for its prestige
as an institution committed towards excellence in Deaf education and the first
and only Deaf University in the world. My dream finally came true
when I became the first Filipino to be awarded the World Deaf
Leadership Scholarship to study at Gallaudet in 2012. I completed a master's
degree in Deaf Studies: Cultural Studies and graduated in May 2014. I would
like to share a brief story with you on how I lived and survived the academic
challenges at Gallaudet as a graduate student.
Ana received the University diploma with Gallaudet University President Dr. T. Alan Hurwitz
My initial expectation about
Gallaudet is that it is just like my school in college from our home country. I
was surprised to find out that Gallaudet had all these video relay service
booths, round tables in the cafeteria, and that the University is an
ASL/English bilingual environment. The University's facilities from the
cafeteria to the classroom were all the way of deaf beings. The University is a
wide campus of accessibility for deaf, deaf-blind, hard of hearing and deaf
students with disabilities. I did not expect that there would be a lot of written assignments and
projects. I lived in the campus dormitory for four semesters and I saw
that everyone including the staff, faculty, and students use sign language. I
felt like I am one of those who belong to the majority because I did not
experience any communication barrier. I also learned that hearing students are
accepted in some programs such as Deaf Studies and Interpreting undergraduate
programs as well as other graduate programs in the University but they have to
learn sign language because professors in all courses taught students in American
Sign Language (ASL). If I may exaggerate a bit, speaking people or those who use
verbal communication in the campus are frowned upon by Deaf students.
My fellow MA classmates
Two things I found difficult to
adjust to were the new environment and American culture where I
experienced a cultural shock. In the past four semesters, I reflected on
why I choose to study there. I had to learn ASL, adjust to the new
academic environment, educational system and American culture. Being a new
student in a diverse, multicultural academic institution, I had to do
self-reflection and learned to embrace and appreciate other diverse
cultures. I also learned a lot of new perspectives on social justice and
listened to people of color’s voices, which led me to teach “Dynamics of
Oppression” course for my graduate internship under my South African professor
Lindsay Dunn who had experienced in his Social Justice movement.
South Korean Seung Shin, Ana Arce's classmate and South African professor Lindsay Dunn
From Left to Right: Allara (Chad), Dae-Kun (South Korean), Ana, -Kun's friend, Ikumi (Japanese) and Dana (Mali)
In graduate school, writing
academic papers drove me crazy, plus a big project like the MA thesis. There
were tons of scholarly articles, journals, and other publications from the
course requirements I have to read to write papers and other written
assignments. I fell in love with the Gallaudet library and archive and
frequently visited them to do reading, writing assignments and projects.
Time flew fast, and I now completed the two-year graduate studies. Before
the end of the program, I had mixed feelings-happy for I am now armed with an
M.A. degree but sad because I left the campus, a place where I lived and learned
and where signing is a way of life. I benefited a lot from the program,
seminars/workshops, mentoring and trainings at the University. I also acquired
a deeper appreciation and understanding of the Deaf ways-of-being. I went home
with the aim to help improve the lives of the Filipino d/Deaf in my home
country. The count down began after my graduation.
Graduate Class of 2014
In the University’s Graduate
Hooding and Awards ceremony, I was totally surprised to receive two awards
– the George W. Veditz Award, which recognized the impact I have
made and will continue to make in the field of Deaf Studies and the
Graduate Writing Research Award for having completed an outstanding
research study in my academic program. Both awards were presented by the
Department of ASL and Deaf Studies and Graduate School. I told myself,
“Incredible, I made it, dint I?” with my
big eyes when receiving the awards. I also joined the University’s
Sesquicentennial Commencement Exercises and marched proudly carrying the
Philippine flag.
Ana received two awards - George Veditz and Graduate Writing Research Award.
Ana Arce received a Master's hood from the Department of ASL and Deaf Studies.
I am deeply thankful to the Nippon Foundation of Japan and
Gallaudet University for the WDL scholarship. It is an amazing opportunity for
me to prove my worth studying at Gallaudet to further enhance my skills and
help improve Filipino d/Deaf lives – in education, employment and preservation
of deaf culture in our home country.
International Coordinator of WDL team Danilo Torres presented the certificate of achievement to Ana Arce from Nippon Foundation of Japan making me part of the Nippon Foundation Group Alumni Society.
I also wish to thank Dr. Rosalinda
Ricasa, my WDL mentor and Dr. H-Dirksen Bauman, thesis adviser and
graduate academic advisor for the awesome mentorship.
World Deaf Leadership (WDL) mentor, Dr. Rosalinda Ricasa (first Filipino sign linguist) who mentored me in my WDL project for the Philippines to improve lives of Filipino d/Deaf people.
My parents, Ana Arce and Dr. H-Dirksen Bauman, chair of the Department of ASL and Deaf Studies
My special thanks to
my friends Seung Sook Shin, Thuy Tien Nguyen, Lindsay Dunn, deaf Friends, Arlyn Penaranda, Peter
Ji, Le Toudjida Allara, professors of Department of ASL and Deaf Studies, fellow
WDL scholars, WDL team of Gallaudet University, my parents’ friends Gani
Penaranda, Leny Santos, Victoria Vaughan and Jeffery Bowden for their wonderful
encouragement and support.
My fellow MA classmates, MA Cohort 2012-2014
Ana Arce with Dr. Gemma Gabor (former SDEAS teacher)
My deepest gratitude to my loving parents, Ramon and
Vilma Arce for their wonderful support and inspiring me to strive for
excellence in everything I do.
From Left to Right: Tita Leny (my mom's best friend), Ana, Ramon, and Vilma (my parents).
Ana Arce carried the Philippine flag that represented the "Proud Filipino" and wore the special graduation stole with the national flag and Nippon Foundation logo.
Last February 13, 2012, Monday, theAwards Ceremony of The Duke of Edinburgh International Award for Young People was held at 3:00pm at the ARG Theater, 5th floor, De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, Taft Campus.
The Awards Ceremony and the Awardees
81 awardees from the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde School of Deaf Education and Applied Studies, the Girls Scouts of the Philippines, and Ticket to Life will be receiving their Bronze awards. Bea Francisco will be receiving her Gold award and Ana Arce will be receiving her Silver Award along with 8 Bronze awardees from the Deaf community. The Girl Scouts of the Philippines has 52 bronze awardees while Ticket to Life has 19 Bronze awardees. These young people are the first batch from their organizations to receive such distinction.
Miss Mae Paner, aka Juana Change, will keynote the event with National Youth Commission Chairman Leon Flores III as special guest and speaker. Sue Walker, Executive Director, as well as Rob Oliphant, Programme Manager for the International Awards Association Asia Pacific Region, will be present to give their certifications.
The Award Programme in the Philippines
The Award in the Philippines is slowly gaining ground. Independent Operators include the Girls Scouts of the Philippies, Boy Scouts of the Philippines, Ticket to Life, De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde School of Deaf Education and Applied Studies, British School Manila, Luciano Memorial School of Arts and Trade, Green Valley College/One Young Mindanao, and Cor Jesu College-Br. Polycarp Institute for Community Development Foundation, Inc. Very soon, South Hill School, Los Banos will also be joining the award programme.
The Duke of Edinburgh International Award for Young People The International Award is an exciting self-development programme available to everyone with ages 14 to 25 years old. It equips them with life skills, builds their confidence, and engages them with their communities. Over 7 million young people worldwide have taken up the Award challenge. The Award is tough but it is about individual challenge, not about reaching specific standards set by someone else. Young people design their own Award Programme, set their own goals, and record their own progress. The only person they compete against is themselves by challenging their own beliefs about what they can achieve. The Award transforms lives. Some of the Programme’s participants include young offenders, street kids, youth and children in conflict areas, and young people with disabilities. The award can prove a decisive turning point, not only in their lives, but also to people around them.
Brother President Victor Franco FSC, Vice Chancellors, Assistant Vice Chancellors, Deans, Administrators, Faculty, Parents, Sign Language Interpreters, Guests, fellow graduates, and the Benildean Community, Good Morning.
Let me begin my speech with this passage from the Holy Scriptures, found in Jeremiah 18, and I quote …”And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it”. In pottery, the potter places a mold of clay on a table and the potter turns it around carefully. Using his hands, the potter will repeat the process several times until he gets the perfect shape. As hands are important to a potter, hands are also important to us, Deaf persons.Our main source of communication is through the use of our hands, we talk and express ourselves through them.And just like the potter whose hands make the perfect creation, we also hope to get the best if not the perfect performance for ourselves using our hands. With our hands, we can go places, change lives and make a difference.
I was born Deaf, and when my parents discovered this, like most hearing parents of Deaf children, they felt that the only way for me to survive was if I learned to speak and so they enrolled me in different oral schools where I had to wear hearing aids and learn how to lip read.I was enrolled in four different oral schools and we tried to find something workable that would fit.I tried my best in these schools but still it wasn’t easy for me to adjust.And then my parents thought of trying it out in a school for the Deaf and they enrolled me at the Philippine School for the Deaf where sign language is used as the medium of communication.I quickly adjusted and started doing well in my academics, and received several awards in grade school and I was also the class valedictorian of my batch.I was also an achiever all throughout high school and even if I transferred to a Deaf private school during my senior year I still managed to finish with academic honors.
And then came College, during my first year I was enrolled in another college where Deaf and hearing college students were together in class.I found the experience to be more saddening than exciting.I often cried because my hearing classmates would exclude me in meetings and group projects, maybe because they thought I will not be able to understand them and communicate with them.I struggled to adjust and tried to show my hearing peers what I can do but they never gave me a chance to prove myself to them.Do you want to feel useless?I’m sure you don’t and neither do I or any other Deaf person for that matter.I tried to think that maybe my classmates were doing this because they have big hearts and are trying to understand me and make things easier for me, but I ended up frustrated and I was the one left trying to understand them.Before the end of the first semester, I had set my mind to move to another school, this time, one that offers a program for Deaf students.
And so it was through the efforts of my mother that we found DLS-CSB’s School of Deaf Education and Applied Studies.At DLS-CSB, SDEAS especially, not only did I find an academic institution, but I also found an environment where teachers and other members of the community welcomed us.I felt loved and cared for, and I felt that the school was like a family. I learned that I am a Deaf person; the word, Deaf, being spelled with a capital D, which means that I am identified, not merely as a person who cannot hear, but as someone who is part of the Deaf community, partaking in its unique culture and natural sign language.And with that, I believe that one of the best fruits of education is our ability to understand and change people’s attitude about the Deaf and other Persons with Disabilities, and that is what SDEAS’s education has given me.Our Benildean education has developed us Deaf persons into persons of dignity, integrity, and with a deep sense of spirituality, and we are now being given the chance to become productive members of society.
If you go around the different high schools for the Deaf I am sure that all of the students there will say that they all wish to go to college.However, very few schools offer quality education and those that do, are expensive schools, and most of the Deaf cannot afford to pay the high cost of tuition and fees.And aside from that most people, sad to say even some parents of Deaf students, assume that because we are Deaf we cannot succeed in college so better not send us to school.For students like us, going to school is no walk in the park.We often need to rely on kind-hearted teachers and interpreters to understand the lessons.Getting an education is a big challenge for us.
And so I am thankful to DLS-CSB for opening its doors and welcoming the Deaf regardless of our disability. We have learned so much from this school and we can now proudly say that we are complete Deaf persons and we now embody the teachings of Saint Benilde Romançon.
I especially wish to thank Br. Vic for his utmost concern for the Deaf and his big heart by increasing the number of slots for Deaf scholars from 30 to 60 students starting the school year of 2008-2009. My sincere thanks and appreciation to all of you hearing students for your willingness to interact with us and for making us feel that we are not an isolated group and that we can also be active participants in school activities and be a useful bunch of interesting students. That we, the Deaf students, are your peers…your equals.
At this point, allow me to make an appeal to all the hearing students and guests of this occasion. We may be Deaf persons but we can also do anything you can do, except hear. Communicating with our hands should not make a difference. We live in one country, one world. That means we also long for respect, inclusion in accessibility, and acceptance with dignity. We are not a different breed because of our disability.We also want to live in a society where people will not stare or frown at us or treat us differently. We are also human beings and we are similar regardless of our disability. Please allow us to show you what we can do; please, believe in us too. Let us prove to you that yes, the DEAF CAN.Dear fellow graduates, I hope that when you have established yourselves in the companies you are working for, or if you have successfully put up your own business, please remember the Deaf Benildeans who may need your help in advocating our skills and capabilities, remember us and other Deaf graduates who may have the talents and potentials to be a part of your companies and contribute to its growth.
To all our teachers, you are part of this achievement we are reaping today. You painstakingly taught us all the tools we would need to make us productive individuals and showed us the way towards academic independence. You instilled in us the core values of upright citizens and we will forever treasure our years with you in our hearts.To our parents, thank you for your patience and perseverance, for your selfless understanding of our endless needs, and your unconditional love and care that carried us through our countless years of struggle to get the degree that we received today. My utmost gratitude go to my own parents, Ramon and Vilma Arce, who loved, cared, and gave me all the support that enables me to stand before all of you today. We, the Deaf students, also wish to offer our sincerest thanks to all our interpreters with generous hearts, who are willing to serve the Deaf in assisting us inour communication needs.
I would like to enjoin my fellow graduates, especially my hearing batchmates, to always keep the Benildean Core Values in our hearts. Guided by these values, we can definitely scale to great heights. Let us never forget the people who made our presence here possible. Let us always remember the values of sharing and selflessness so that when we look back, we can proudly say that we lived a meaningful life and we made a difference in the lives of other people.
Graduation is not the end. It’s only the beginning of another journey towards a higher level of learning.Don’t be afraid to dream, for it can be the first step to achieving our goals. Always remember that with patience and hard work, success will be within our reach. The biggest challenge for all of us is to overcome our fears and uncertainty.
For those of you who still have doubts about your potentials, let me and my Deaf batchmates be the living testament of what we can all become despite our limitations. In previous years, only a handful of Deaf students would graduate every year. Today, 25 of my Deaf batchmates received our diploma, the biggest number so far, and this is a testament of our four yearsof struggle to attain our academic degree. I am probably the first Deaf Filipino Magna Cum Laude graduate, and I am not saying this to brag about my achievement. I am humbly sharing this with you to thank God, my potter, for molding me, His clay, into a wonderful human being. I believe we can reach our maximum potentials no matter what challenges we face in life, because God is our potter and we are his clay.
To all my fellow graduates, Congratulations and Good Luck!Remember to always be Proud To Be Benildeans and to always live Jesus in our hearts.
Thank you and good day.
-------------------------------------- Ana would appreciate your comments.
De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB) recognized twelve (12) School of Deaf Education and Applied Studies (SDEAS) students who were consistently part of the Benildean Honor Roll from first to third term of School Year 2007-2008 during the Honors Convocation held at the School of Design and Arts (SDA) Building last July 25, 2008.
The 12 students who were recognized (ranked from highest to lowest) are: Ana Kristina Arce, Raymond Manding, Raphael Domingo, Anaditha Angcay, Nadine Calagos, Jocelyn Tamayao, Aaron Bernard Jao, John Alexis Abad, Jerene Justiniano, Mark Jay Bilaro, Katherine Arjona, and Felice Noelle Ferido.
Arce is a trailblazer in the history of SDEAS when she ranked 9th overall among the Honor Students of DLS-CSB. She had a grade point average (GPA) of 3.75. This is the first time that an SDEAS student became part of the Top 10 students with Academic Honors in the whole DLS-CSB. edited by: Marina Viktoria De Los Reyes
