ODYSSEY 201776

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My son Emmanuel wants to go to medical school. He is currently in histhird year of college. Already he is amassing an impressive vita,studying for the Medical College Admission Test, working in clinicalsettings … and hoping.

Emmanuel was born deaf with a hole in his heart. Both of these statistically unlikelycharacteristics have brought unexpected richness to his life, and perhaps the heartsituation was the one that caused us the most grief. We have learned that the heart ofevery fetus has a small hole. This allows the blood from the mother, with its richoxygen content, to enter the small growing body inside of her. At birth the hole(blood vessel) generally closes, but in his case this didn’t happen. This resulted in aheart problem called, as Emmanuel reminds me, patent ductus arteriosus and requiredheart surgery to resolve it.

Emmanuel went to the hospital for the operation when he was 10 years old. Hepeppered Dr. Rachel St. John, whom we had known for several years, with questions.He wanted to know about his condition, and he wanted the details of the surgery. Heasked so many questions that Dr. St. John told him he should become a doctorhimself. He made up his mind right then. He would do it. He would become a doctor.Emmanuel has never deviated from this goal.

From the first days, Emmanuel was a top student. I had read to him when he wassmall, and he began to read on his own while in Kendall Demonstration ElementarySchool, on the campus of Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. He readeverything he could get his hands on. After his conversation with Dr. St. John, hisreading accelerated and deepened, a pattern that continued when he entered theModel Secondary School for the Deaf (MSSD), also on the Gallaudet campus.

In both schools, Emmanuel won multiple awards. Some of the awards were cash,and we put the money away to cover college costs. At MSSD, he joined the DiversityClub to learn more about his African American identity and to show interest in hiscommunity. He became more outspoken about what he believed was right and the

Brenda Perrodin,MA, is a teacher in theParent-Infant Programat the Laurent ClercNational Deaf EducationCenter’s KendallDemonstrationElementary School(KDES), on the campusof Gallaudet Universityin Washington, D.C.With a bachelor’s degreein early childhoodeducation and a master’sdegree in family-centered early educationfrom GallaudetUniversity, Perrodin hasworked at the ClercCenter since 1996. Sheis also a mentor with theShared Reading Projectat KDES. Perrodinwelcomes questions andcomments about thisarticle at brenda.perrodin@gallaudet.edu.

By Brenda Perrodin

COMMUNICATION ANd LANGUAGE

EXPOSURE KEY TO SON’S SUCCESS:

A MotherReflects

Photos courtesy of Brenda Perrodin

2017 ODYSSEY 77

importance of appreciation for others and fordiversity in our American society. His desire toparticipate in his community led to his workin the Student Body Government.

As a sophomore, Emmanuel joined MSSD’sAcademic Bowl team, which competed in theNational Academic Bowl for Deaf and Hard ofHearing Students, and he and his team earnedsecond place. During his junior year, hebecame the team captain. While the team lostin the regionals that year, Emmanuel remainedcaptain. The following year, he led his schoolto victory in both the regional and the nationalcompetitions.

When Emmanuel graduated from high

school, bothGallaudetUniversity and the Rochester Institute ofTechnology (RIT) courted him; both schoolsseemed ready with scholarships. Emmanuelsaid he chose RIT because it had the best pre-med program “with a record of success.” Healso wanted to live away from home for awhile, and to experience a Deaf communitythat was different from the one in which hehad grown up.

As an RIT student, Emmanuel competed inthe National Association of the Deaf’s CollegeBowl. With him on its team, RIT won for thethird year in a row.

Clockwise from left:

Emmanuel (left) at KDES;

Perrodin helps her son

with schoolwork;

Emmanuel and his

Academic Bowl team with

MSSD principal Mindi

Failing; Emmanuel (holding

Emma) and Perrodin check

MSSD’s Academic Bowl

team’s standing.

ODYSSEY 2017

Parents Make the CriticalDifferenceParents often marvel at Emmanuel’ssuccess and even ask me how “I” did it.Of course I did not do it; he did.However, this doesn’t mean thatparenting was irrelevant. In fact, as aperson who works with young deaf andhard of hearing children and theirparents every day, I know that parentingis critical. Parents often ask me what ismost important—if there is a specialkey—to enabling their deaf and hard ofhearing children to achieve academicsuccess and self-fulfillment. I tell themthat absolutely there is a special key:Language exposure. I was a single momfor a while, but I always made sure thatwe—Emmanuel, my daughter Emma,and I— talked with each other. I alwayshad books in our home, and every week Iwould whisk Emmanuel and Emma tomuseums and other cultural events. Wealso credit success to the ease ofcommunication that occurs whenparents and children use the samelanguage, in our case (American SignLanguage). There were nocommunication barriers. Wants, needs,stories, and jokes were easily shared.

We were lucky, too. We met Dr. St.John—the doctor who encouragedEmmanuel to explore the medicalfield—when he was only 2 years old. Myfamily was returning from a conference,talking on a plane as we headed back toour home, when a woman in the seatbehind us interrupted us. It was Dr. St.John. She was trying to set up a clinicfor deaf and hard of hearing toddlers atGeorgetown University Hospital inresponse to the Early Hearing Detectionand Intervention legislation thatmandates hearing testing of everynewborn in the United States. Shesigned beautifully, and she said that sheneeded some help. Would we beinterested in advising her? Of course!We worked with her for several years.This contact proved enriching both forher and for me and my son. She has sincemoved to Texas, but we keep in touch.

The summer before high school,Emmanuel had his first clinicalexperience. I have a good friend, JuliaEngram, who helped him find a jobworking with a doctor who treats theeye, foot, hand, and gallbladder at theSurgCenter of Southern Maryland inClinton. Soon after that, Emmanuel

sought out placements on hisown. When he learned thatmy sister (his Aunt Mary)had a fiancé who had a sisterwho was a doctor, he madethe contact and asked aboutshadowing her at workthroughout his winter break.

As a third-year collegestudent, Emmanuel is sobusy. This is his secondsemester working as ateaching assistant of organicchemistry. He works as partof a group of deaf teachingassistants who give weeklyworkshops and review

sessions for deaf and hard ofhearing students. He has two jobs oncampus, serving as an American SignLanguage consultant for interpreters andother access service providers in theDepartment of Access Services inRIT/National Technical Institute for theDeaf (NTID), and as student researcherin the NTID Center on Cognition andLanguage’s Deaf Health Lab. He joinedthe RIT Honors Program last semester.

Emmanuel also worked as a studentresearch assistant in the Department ofBiochemistry and Cellular andMolecular Biology at the University ofTennessee. That position culminated in apresentation at the department’s End-of-Summer Symposium. The topic of thispresentation? Trust me … my son’swork is so specialized that most peopledon’t even try to understand it, but hispresentation involved the effects of avirus that causes molting anddiscoloration of tobacco plants on otherplants. Titled “Integrative Effects of theTobacco Mosaic Virus on ISE2-Overexpressed Plants,” it was theculmination of seven weeks of researchin the lab under the supervision ofdoctoral candidates and post-doctoralfellows.

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Left: Salutatorian for MSSD’s

Class of 2014, Emmanuel (right)

addresses his graduating

classmates and the audience.

2017 ODYSSEY

Emma is interested in more “hands-on” experiences than her brother and sheis hard of hearing, so we are following adifferent plan for her education. Eachchild is different, and the differences areto be treasured. Of course both childrenhave our support—as I had my parents’support.

We are part of a large AfricanAmerican family that can trace its deafancestors back six generations. I amdeaf, as is my mom, six of my sevensisters and brothers, and severalextended family members. We wereraised in Grand Coteau, a small townnear Lafayette, Louisiana, known for itsCajun heritage. My mother grew upusing French within her family and istrilingual in French, English, andAmerican Sign Language. She went toschool during the days of segregation,and she was among the first AfricanAmerican students to integrate into theLouisiana School for the Deaf.

My mother never went to college, butshe instilled in her children the beliefthat we could achieve if we worked hard.When I wanted to go away to study at

Gallaudet University, she encouragedme. Gallaudet was an eye opener. Thereis no experience like it. I wanted to workwith young children and when Igraduated, and I stayed on campus to getmy master’s degree in early childhoodeducation. I’ve taught in the Parent-Infant Program—with the youngest deafand hard of hearing children who are justbeginning their lives and learning—atKDES for 20 years.

I’m so proud of both of my children.They are at different stages in their livesand excel in different areas, but for bothEmmanuel and Emma communicationand language exposure throughout theirearly years built the foundation for whatwe have today. At 19, busy with collegeand preparing for medical school,Emmanuel texts me daily and I texthim, too. Emma is moving ahead andmaking me proud. Language exposureand communication remain key to mychildren’s success.

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... for both

Emmanuel and Emma

communication

and language

exposure throughout

their early years built

the foundation for

what we have today.