Halloween!

There has been a month of build up to Halloween but it is finally here! Halloween is an important celebration on campus and I think I have seen everything now. Ghosts, unicorns, and a nun riding a scooter past my office window.

Halloween decorations and treats

Carved pumpkins appeared everywhere around campus

Inara (aka Dawn), Kaylee (aka Kate), and Wash (aka Ethan) at a Halloween Party

Halloween work day

ASL Lecture Series: Robert Sirvage

The RIT ASL and Deaf Studies Community Center (RADSCC) organizes community, national, and international leaders in ASL and Deaf culture and heritage to present free lectures at RIT for the benefit of students, staff, faculty and the community. 

Today's lecture was presented by Robert Sirvage and titled From stimulus to shared representation: Non-representational convergence as a foundation. The abstract for his presentation was "How and when are linguistic and other kinds of shared-representations formed? How does individual sensory stimulus lead to a shared-conceptualised world? This presentation will discuss these questions with a blend of insight gained from DeafSpace research and dialogue with DeafBlind communities about pro-tactile philosophy". Robert presented fascinating insights into the different ways that hearing, Deaf and DeafBlind people navigate space and how the requirements of representations of space (for example on a map) differs for sighted and blind people. You can see more about Robert's work in his TEDx Gallaudet talk An Insight from DeafSpace.

As a side note - it was amazing to see so many types of DeafBlind communication at the event. These included ASL, hand over hand communication, close proximity interpreting, and Pro Tactile ASL which is a new and emerging language within the North American DeafBlind community.

Diwali with DISA

The Deaf International Student Association (DISA) at RIT celebrated Diwali tonight with presentations about the meaning of the festival, dance performances, and Indian food. DISA events are a great way of fostering international collaboration among the culturally and linguistic diverse students at RIT.

Dance Performance

DISA President Hamid Yussif encouraging students to learn about each others' cultures

Sharing Australian Cuisine

Today I shared the secret recipe for 'Fairy Bread' with the team at the Center for Education Research Partnerships. 

Incredible Journey of a World Adventurist

I was privileged to be able to attend the Rochester School for the Deaf for the 24th annual presentation in the 'Adventures in Education' series. The Adventures in Education program  is an opportunity for students at Rochester School for the Deaf to meet with and learn from inspirational Deaf and hard of hearing adults. The annual, public presentation is an opportunity for members of the Rochester community glimpse the experience and knowledge of remarkable individuals.

CJ Jones is the invited guest for the program in 2016. CJ was one of seven hearing children born to Deaf parents in Missouri, however he later lost his hearing due to spinal meningitis. He graduated from the National Technical Institute for the Deaf and toured with the National Theatre of the Deaf. CJ has worked extensively in the entertainment industry as well as founding Sign World TV. 

CJ provided a hilarious recount of his experiences as a 'world adventurist' in ASL, voice, mime, and rap (yes - bimodal rap). Full communication access of the fast-paced performance was provided by a team of interpreters and a real-time captioner.

CJ Jones and Rochester School for the Deaf Superintendent Antony A. L. McLetchie 

Deaf Education in Zimbabwe

Barbra Nyangairi was at NTID today giving a talk titled "The Zimbabwe Context: Sign Language and Education for Deaf Children".

Barbra is a human rights activist, mother of a deaf child, and co-founded the Deaf Zimbabwe Trust (DZT) that aims to advance the rights of deaf people in Zimbabwe. Barbra described the cultural stigmas, lack of resources, and lack of awareness that mean Zimbabwean deaf people are marginalised and unable to access to education services and vocational opportunities. She also spoke of the moves that are being made to increase awareness of the potential of deaf people in Zimbabwe and described the inclusion of Zimbabwe Sign Language (ZSL) as an official language of Zimbabwe in its constitution.

A Taste of Ethiopia

We attended an educational and fundraising event to benefit the Deaf community in Ethiopia tonight. The event was hosted by Nazareth College and we heard about the involvement of the Speech-Language Pathology faculty and students in outreach work in schools for the deaf in Ethiopia. There were many speeches, including one by our friend Solomon Yigzaw who dressed in traditional garb for the occasion. There was much great Ethiopian food and good company.

Kate, Solomon, and Afomia

I met some lovely young Deaf and hearing children from Ethiopia who was fascinated by how different American and Australian sign languages were and we spent a lot of time swapping signs and helping them to master the Australian two-handed fingerspelling.

Solomon had a great time being able to speak with people in his first language, Amharic, and be understood. We had an amazing time communicating where Solomon would speak in Amharic, Afomia (hearing, non-signer) would explain what was said in English and give her reply, and Dawn or I would sign her responses in ASL so that Solomon and our other Deaf friends could understand. It was an amazing experience in multilingualism.

Rochester's Abandoned Subway

Between 1927 and 1956 a light rail system operated in the Rochester City Center. These days, the subway tunnels are abandoned, but open to those brave enough to walk through them. On Sunday Adam and I went exploring the graffiti art. While signing in torch light did have its challenges we had a great time exploring.

Rochester Subway Route

I later brought out my parkour skills get on top of the shipping container 

The view of the Genesee River from the top of the container

Adam and I at the subway exit

Homecoming: Day 3

Homecoming weekend wrapped up with the annual Brick City Homecoming 5K run on Sunday morning. RIT is affectionately known as Brick City due to the exterior of most buildings on campus being made from the same colour of brick. At last count, in July 27, 2010 there were 15,194,656 bricks on campus (RITpedia). The 5K run is a popular event and winds around and across campus.

Start line

I ran with my friend Valerie, her daughter, and her two labradors and Albert and Walter. Part way through the course we found the Zamboni dumping ice and Albert and Walter had a fun time!

2016 Brick City 5K Finisher

Homecoming: Day 2

Day two of Homecoming is packed full of exciting events all over the university. I started having breakfast with the Pep Band, their family and band alumni.

I then went to watch the Pumpkin' Chunkin' competition with my friend Quintin and his family who had driven all the way from Cleveland, Ohio to visit. The purpose of the Pumpkin' Chunking' was for the engineering students to build structures which would propel a pumpkin as far as possible. The piece of pumpkin to get closest to the target was measured and recorded as the team score. It was a lot of fun to watch.

Pumpkin' Chunkin'

Next stop was the Family Fun Zone where the ice surface of Ritter Arena had been covered over to allow the installation of jumping castles, children's rides and arcade games. We all had a go at 'brain painting' which used brainwaves instead of hands to create art work.

Creating Brain Art

Later in the day I was able to see a presentation by Brandon Stanton, created of the blog Humans of New York. He spoke candidly about his experiences and the importance of persistence, following your passion, and the role of failure in creating success.

Brandon Stanton presenting in the Gordon Field House

The day ended with a sequence of Pep Band events that involved playing on the steps at RIT's Global Village for the Hockey Send-Off, travelling on a yellow school bus to Blue Cross Arena in Rochester City, and then playing in a packed arena while RIT Tigers played against the University of Connecticut Huskies. The atmosphere was amazing with the stadium looking like a sea of orange as the crowd was dressed in the RIT colours. The Pep Band greatly swelled in numbers as alumni came back to join the band for the game.

Pep Band flute section

RIT Pep Band

Homecoming: Day 1

"Homecoming is an annual tradition in the United States. People, towns, high schools, and colleges come together, usually in late September or early October, to welcome back alumni and former residents" (Wikipedia, 2016). 

RIT prepares to welcome alumni and families

This is Homecoming Weekend at RIT and it's a big deal. My events start on Friday night with Pep Band playing on the steps of the Gordon Field House for guests attending the RIT President's Ball. This was followed by "Build a Tiger" (not Build a Bear) where I was able to make my very own stuffed RIT mascot. There were also food trucks at the Sentinel so I was able to purchase some poutine, which is one of my favourite Canadian foods!

My RITchie the Tiger

Very, very, very good poutine

Study 1: Data collection

Our Study 1 questionnaire were live today and we have been inundated with students volunteering to participate. Participants are required to complete an online questionnaire and then come into the lab for four additional questions to which they respond to 'through the air' in their chosen communication mode/s (e.g., sign, sitcom, speech, fingerspelling) and languages.

Study setup for 'through the air' responses

Bow Wow Wellness

Every month live RITe at RIT organises a Bow Wow Wellness session. Therapy dog owners from the Rochester area volunteer their time to bring their dogs to campus. The goal is to help students destress and to maybe feel a little less homesick for pets that they have left at home when they came to college. While the goal might to be to help the students, there were certainly no complaints from the dogs who were adored, fussed over, and had an endless stream of volunteer to scratch them just the way they like it.

The 90 minute event was very well attended

Cycling to Addis Ababa

My friend Solomon got his bike this week so we took advantage of the good weather to ride from RIT to Rochester City along the beautiful cycleways - the Lehigh Valley Trail, the Erie Canalway Trail, and the Genesee Riverway Trail. Solomon arrived at RIT the week before me and is enrolled in the Masters of Secondary Education (MSSE) program at NTID/RIT. Solomon is the first Ethiopian student to take a graduate degree at RIT. We have become good friends and while we are both learning ASL, we get by communicating in a mixture of Ethiopian, Australian, and American Sign Languages.

Solomon and Kate

Solomon Yigzaw crossing the Genesee River

We rode to the restaurant Addis Ababa in Rochester City Center to share Ethiopian food and chat with friends Dawn (US), Hamid (Ghana), and Lual (South Sudan). 

(L-R) Solomon, Kate, Lual, Dawn, and Hamid