John J Costonis Scholarship

My life goal is to become a PreK-12 educator, assisting and teaching students looking to learn English as a second language. In addition, a closely connected goal that will assist my life goal is to become a polyglot, a catalyst for translating and helping students with their non-language subjects as they excel at learning to speak, read, and write English. While deaf and hard of hearing students can also benefit from an English as a second language teacher, implementing my ever-growing knowledge of Sign Language into my career will also be beneficial. For many children in the deaf community, English is not their first language, and American Sign Language (ASL) sentence structure differs from that of English. I would be able to teach ASL as a first language for students to read and write in English. ASL will allow me to communicate better with special needs students who rely on it as a form of communication. Finally, becoming certified in education can allow me to become an evaluator for homeschooled families that need end-of-school-year evaluations for their children. From age two, I studied American Sign Language (ASL) and Spanish at age four. In elementary, I developed a love for words (especially pronunciation and grammar) in addition to a fancy for languages. My siblings and I would watch cartoons in Dutch, Polish, German, and other foreign languages and enjoyed trying to figure out words from each language. For six years, from third to ninth grade, I took Latin at a homeschool coop, where I learned that many languages have roots in the old Latin language. The homeschool co-op I attended from age six to high school is where I now teach Beginning ASL to a diverse age range of students. I took a beginner's Japanese class at Community College of Philadelphia as well as ASL 102 and am looking to finish the College's final Spanish 202 class this Fall. Additionally, I began searching for different learning platforms that suited my learning style and studying Japanese and Spanish at my own pace. One of those platforms was the infamous Duolingo. Their learning program offered a person-to-person format allowing me to connect with other Japanese learners and natives looking to learn English. I also take advantage of the opportunity to engage with Spanish speakers in my community, learning the history and culture from friends and neighbors. My initial plan was to acquire an Associate's degree in American Sign Language interpreting and then transfer to a four-year college to earn a bachelor's in a PreK-12 discipline. However, I had to change my plans. The department changed the curriculum, and graduating in two years became four. Although I love the ASL language and culture, four years at a two-year institution was a little too much. So, I changed my degree to liberal arts focusing on classes that will transfer toward Bachelor's degree at a four-year institution. As of this Fall, I will have graduated within one year as I was a dual-enrolled high school student and had already acquired 12 credits before dual enrollment. I still plan to graduate from a four-year institution with a PreK-12 degree in education and have not given up on my desire to learn ASL. As my passion is to communicate in several languages, I found online communities for the deaf, hard-of-hearing, and ASL learners. The possibility of teaching and assisting deaf students is still obtainable. After graduating with my degree, I will obtain the National Interpreter Certification and take the Educational Interpreter Performance Assessment.