On February 19th, 2018, I was able to meet with the American Sign Language (ASL) club president, Loren Stoller, and ask her some questions about what she does while being the top executive. Loren is a senior at Florida State University and is a science and disorders major. She has been learning in ASL since high school and has taken all the offered courses at Florida State. She plans on working in speech pathology and then hopefully working with young deaf students, helping them get the best education possible.
During the interview, we were able to talk about the activities the club participates in, if they do any volunteer work, and what happens at a typical club meeting. She didn’t have too much to go off of considering the club is only two-years-old, however; the club seems to be making a lot of progress in their short time.
Me: “What is the purpose of the club?”
Loren: “Being able to help students learn sign language and be comfortable conversing through sign. Also teaching the history and culture of sign language.”
Me: “What does a typical club meeting look like?”
Loren: “Putting on social events, getting together without talking (only signing). All our events are no voice and our meetings are no voice out of respect for the deaf community. One of the upcoming events we are going to is at University of South Florida. They are putting on ‘ASL Idol’ where different groups will perform songs in sign language. It is a weekend event in March and there will be schools coming from all over Florida. We are hoping enough people will want to go; transportation will be a lot easier that way.”
Me: “What type of volunteer work are you apart of?”
Loren: “We don’t really do any right now. There isn’t much of a deaf community in Tallahassee so we’re very limited to where or who we can contact. That doesn’t mean that were not looking though. We do put on ‘Signing Seminoles’ events which are student to student silent social interactions. We meet once a week somewhere around campus for about an hour.”
Listening Loren talk about how little the deaf community in Tallahassee is was interesting to hear. It seems the only people around the area that are involved in ASL are the club members at Florida State. According to Loren, the club does seem to be working hard in trying to make the best of their situation.
I am glad I got to know more about Loren and the ASL club. Listening to her talk about sign language, you could hear how passionate she felt about the culture and community. She wants nothing but the best for this club.
Moving to Florida State, I knew I wanted to join any organization that was involved in sign language. With a lot of question asking and personal connections, I found the ASL club. I will be going to the next meeting and hopefully be as involved as I can be.
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