Gallaudet University May 10, 2010 Interview for Admission

I went to interview at Gallaudet University in the heart of Washington DC on May 10th. It was a fantastic experience. I was nervous, but determined to do my best. I knew I had people rooting for me, and I felt pretty good about things.
I stayed with my sister, Suzanne and her family while in DC. That was great since I didn't have to pay for a hotel! I stayed on a couple extra days to visit, which was a lot of fun.
Anyway, Suzanne drove me to Gallaudet the morning of my interviews. I could've taken the Metro to a stop nearby, but I was nervous enough already, and I think my sister knew this, so she offered to take the morning off and drive me directly to the building I needed to go to for my interviews. Yay sis!
So, I arrived and waited for my interview in the Conference center. There were many people there for various conferences....all hearing. I thought that was strange until I learned that's how Gallaudet makes a lot of money...inviting groups of all hearing status to use their conference center. It's very large and beautiful. But did I take pictures of the building and campus? No, it totally slipped my mind! Go to www.gallaudet.edu if you wanna see the campus.
Finally, the time arrived and a man came out and signed my name while looking around. I flagged him down and signed I was Matthew and we went into his office where there was a lady waiting inside. This was the selection committee...just two people. I thought that was weird. I thought there would be more.
The whole interview was in ASL. I knew that would be the case and was prepared. I warmed up my fingers and got into the Deaf mind-set before going in. The interview consisted of about 9 questions ranging from "Why do you want to come to Gallaudet?" to "Your ASL skills are pretty good, and you are hearing....if we allow you in to Gallaudet, will you act like a big shot, show off, and think you're better than everyone else?" HUH? How about that question? I literally sat back in surprise. I signed an emphatic "No...No!" and went on to explain that I'm entering as a hearing person in a Deaf world, and I need help. I'm going to rely on the Deaf people around me, both in the classroom and outside the classroom to teach me things so I can be a great interpreter. If they complain about it, I can tell them that they really should help me because I may interpret for them someday, so teach me now!
They loved that answer and that made me happy. They appeared to like all the answers I gave except one. The question was "Suppose you're the only hearing student in a classroom and the teacher is hearing. The teacher is speaking and signing at the same time (Sim-Com) and signs something incorrectly. A Deaf student pokes you and wonders if you'd interpret that wrong sign for him so he can write the correct thing in his notes. What would you do?"
I said I'd flag the teacher down and ask him/her to please repeat what he/she just said and hope that they sign it again correctly, or I would tell the Deaf person I'd tell them later. This was "thinking on the fly", so that's what flew out of my mouth. I should've thought this through a bit more, and I did with the subsequent questions. Anyway, the head of the Interpreting Dept. interrupted me and signed "No, no, no....that's not right."(realize that the Deaf community is blunt...not rude, but blunt and this is a normal response)
He went on to explain that the Deaf person would from then on would depend on me to explain things to him/her instead of taking the initiative themselves to ask questions. I should've said I would tell the Deaf person "Ask the teacher yourself". Now, in the hearing world, that would be rude, but in the Deaf world, it would not be rude at all. So, you need to think culturally what would be appropriate. Interesting, huh?
So, that interview went well except for that question. I wasn't too worried about it.
The next interview was the ASLPI, or the ASL Performance Interview. I knew this was going to be tough. This is the set-up: You walk into a small room and there is a video camera on one wall, a tv and recording device on the adjacent wall, and two chairs..one on either side of the room. My chair is facing the camera. This is recorded so they can analyze it later for evaluating my performance.
So the lady giving the interview came in and was very nice. We chatted for a few moments, and then she pushed "record" on the camera and we began the interview. First, she asked me what I did this morning, and what I had for breakfast. Very general, basic questions...then she sped up her signing and fingerspelling as we went on and increased the difficulty of her signs and included idioms, etc. Eventually, I had to ask for clarification and repeats because I didn't catch what she said or what she fingerspelled. She complied and that's fine to do, no points "taken off" for that. They expect that at some point during the process. They want to see where you're limits are in ASL. So, she came back down to my level and we chatted a bit. I would go into detail about what she asked and what she wanted from me specifically, but it's all ASL jargon...boring. I'll just tell you it was as I expected.
I think I did well on this interview. I really don't know though. I usually am pretty down on myself after things like this, but I actually felt good about my performance. We will see. I will get the results in a couple weeks along with a letter stating whether or not I've been accepted into Gallaudet. Wish me luck!
Oh! I almost forgot. The neighborhood around the campus....scary. That's all I can say. My sister said it's come a long way from like 5 months ago, so I'm looking forward to more improvements in the area. It's strange though...the neighborhood is crappy, but once you enter the campus, it's beautiful...the grounds are imaculate, and the historic buildings are beautiful! I hope I get accepted!!! It will be such a great challege!