by Julia Gardner

While Wesleyan doesn’t (yet!) have an full department dedicated to American Sign Language (ASL), many students have done amazing work in ASL and Deaf Studies during their time at Wes, taking advantage of the coursework offerings as well as other opportunities such as independent research that delves deeper into their interests within the field, being a Course or Teaching Assistant to support students who are newer to ASL study, and immersing themselves in the language in Sign House. Last year, the Fries Center for Global Studies launched the Recognition for Advanced Achievement in ASL and Deaf Studies Award to give these students credit for their dedication and the deepened understanding they’ve gained through all they’ve accomplished here at Wesleyan. This year, we’re excited to announce eight new recipients of the award! 

Graduating seniors Ella Spitz, Julissa Cruz Bautista, Jasmine Luu, Bailey Nadeau, Elana Abrams, Eliana Bloomfield, and Jesse Herzog will receive the recognition, in addition to Thais García Bagué ‘23, who first took ASL in her senior year and has continued her study through auditing courses during her two years as the Fries Center’s Global Language and Outreach Fellow.

Each of our recipients has taken their interest in ASL and Deaf Studies outside of the classroom in unique ways. Many of them have contributed to the ASL learning of other students in the Wesleyan community. Bailey and Ella have both served as Teaching Assistants in addition to extracurricular passion projects, such as the weekly ASL-practice lunches that Ella organizes and the ASL crash course student forum that Bailey teaches. Eliana has taken advantage of her own interest in teaching to engage with the local Middletown community, teaching classes at the Middletown Senior Center. Meanwhile, many of our recipients have organized their own events; in particular, Thais worked to ensure that ASL was represented in Wesleyan events during Power of Language Week and International Education Week, including an ASL game night that Bailey hosted.

Julissa, in addition to immersing herself in ASL by living in Sign House for two years, has pursued her own independent research projects on accessibility and Deaf rights, such as exploring ways to improve communication between Deaf drivers and law enforcement officers. Ella also conducted her own research, using her senior thesis as an opportunity to explore ASL poetry.

While our recipients arrived at studying ASL in different ways– Ella and Elana both mentioned the TV show Switched At Birth as an inspiration, while Julissa’s bilingual upbringing drew them to the idea of communicating across languages in a new way, and Eliana’s longtime interest in language sparked curiosity about nonverbal language– for all of them, ASL has been not only a subject of study, but a way of forming community. The class communities are tight-knit, with friendships extending beyond the classroom– Elana even met two of her roommates through ASL classes, with whom she has shared fun moments like baking together while only communicating in ASL.

The students recognized that the closeness of their ASL cohort is due in part to the great environment fostered by their professors, Pedro Pascual Villanueva and Leslie Warren. Pedro Pascual Villanueva, Assistant Professor of the Practice in ASL, began teaching at Wesleyan in 2022, though he has been teaching sign languages in the United States, France, and Spain since 1995. Leslie Warren is an interpreter and leader in the Deaf and ASL interpreting space. She is the CEO of CoSignCT, an ASL interpreting service, and was awarded with the Forbes 50/50 Impact Award in 2021. She has been teaching as a Visiting Instructor in ASL at Wesleyan since 2015.

When it comes to learning ASL, our recipients encourage interested students to take the plunge. For all of them, their experiences have been deeply rewarding, changing the way they themselves think about language as well as contributing to the project of creating a more accessible world. 

As Eliana puts it– “Do it!! You will make so many mistakes, but so will everyone.”