ASL Aspirations: A Humans of NIC Feature

Humans of NIC is a new series featuring randomly selected members of the NIC community. The inspiration behind the series is to share the story of community members of the college on the lake.

“When I was about 15, I saw a YouTube video [about sign language]. It was something I had never seen before.  I didn’t know what it really meant to communicate via the hands, so I did a little bit more research and investigated American Sign Language (ASL). That’s when I found out that it’s an actual language and you can study it in college. 

“Around 17 I started looking into it because it was about time to start thinking about that dreaded senior project, and that’s when it hit me.  I knew what I was going to do. I had the perfect subject, the perfect idea. The project was going to be about ASL.

“I wrote a whole paper, I did a whole presentation on it, got a perfect score from my judges.

“It was cool because it was something they had never seen before.  They had seen or heard a lot of things before, but my judges were unfamiliar with it [ASL].  I could tell they were really interested in what I had to say.

“I practiced my speech from about 30 minutes up to an hour a day, for about four days a week, for four months.  I estimated the amount of time I needed versus what I put into it and I think I did about 500% over what would have passed me.

“It wasn’t about passing.  I was really, really interested and very motivated to do a good job with this project.  I had my notecards during the approximately ten minute speech, and I never used them.  I didn’t need them because it was all up here [in my head].  I knew it in and out.

“A unique experience I had with ASL was here [at NIC] in 2015.  I was a second year student and we had deaf actor John Maucere bring his sketch comedy show to NIC.  As it was all weekend long, I took the weekend off from work and would help set up and tear down. It was an all-day event. 

“That night we went to Deaf Coffee Night, which is a weekly thing we do still at NIC to this day. There were around 80 people in attendance at the old Java coffee shop on Sherman Avenue that evening, and we had an amazing time. The next morning I arrived back at NIC around 7 in the morning and left around 10 or 11 at night.

“I didn’t realize this till later, but I went three straight days that weekend without using English, because I was signing with people.  At home I would wake up and head out in the morning and my parents and sister would still be asleep.  When I returned late at night, they would already be in bed.

“That’s when I realized that as a student, I had been able to rely on my signing skills. It’s a lesson I teach to my students because it’s what will set you apart.  That was the key to my success. I wasn’t just relying on doing well in class, I was always getting involved with the activities, the events, Deaf Coffee Night.”

ASL Instructor Jeffrey Furey is from Coeur d’Alene & is now in his third year of teaching at NIC.

Article was updated on Friday, February 16, at 12:33 p.m.