Over the summer I had the opportunity to take a crash course class from Dr. Nelson about deafblindness. I loved the class, and learned so much more than I ever thought I would. It was kind of a further testament to me that I really am doing what I'm supposed to be doing, and really love the field I'm in.
Throughout this class, I had the opportunity to have some fun with the class and the teacher. The teacher announced the fellowship to the class one day...giving me the eye every single time she made an emphasis on "a MASTER'S STUDENT" This is because I was the only one in the class who would be able to do it due to what year I was in the program, being a master's student and my major. So I talked to her after class, and she explained the fellowship to me (which I will do later). After asking Bryan during break whether I should apply for it or not, I decided to do it. There is no negative reason to doing it whatsoever, and I felt it was something I could and should do. After informing my teacher that I would love to take this opportunity, she immediately informed that she would write a letter of recommendation herself, even though we'd only known each other for three days. Talk about a little boost to the self-esteem!
So I applied, and got an e-mail on Wednesday from the secretary of the fellowship program. Turns out, I got the fellowship! I'm a 2009-2010 Helen Keller Fellow! I'm really excited. The basics of the fellowship, the requirements and the reason are all below, if you don't care to read about it, you can stop here :)
Basics: we need more qualified people to work with deafblind students. The fellowship helps train individuals. 10 people are selected, 1 from each university that participates in this program, and the universities are located all over the U.S. I will be going as the candidate from the University of Utah.
Reason:
There's a huge shortage of teachers, period. Imagine what kind of shortage we have for students with disabilities, especially for those students with not so common disability, such as deafblindness. In the past, people have tried to have a hearing impairment specialist and a vision impairment specialist work together to meet the needs of a deafblind child. Unfortunately, this didn't work as being both deaf and blind presents several unique challenges. A deafblind specialist is needed in order to meet the needs of the child. The goal of this fellowship is to increase the number of qualified teachers to work with deafblind children. The emphasis on qualified.
The fellowship program will help me understand and learn how to meet the needs of a deafblind child, and learn how to be a leader in the field to help others meet the needs of a deafblind child.
Anyone who completes the program receives a 10,000 stipend, and will not have to pay it back if they complete two years of instruction in a special education field after the fellowship (any field, especially sensory impairment). I will already be working off 6 or 7 years of working in a sensory impairment field due to the grant I receive for grad school, so this works out really well, as I can do it at the same time.
Requirements (6 of them):
1. Attend the Helen Keller Fellowship orientation. It's in Michigan, Oct. 1-3.
2. Attend 5 webinars. Basically they are seminars that are on the web, and allows all 10 of the fellows to interact and learn from the professionals presenting the seminars.
3. Attend the annual conference presented by the National Consortium for DeafBlindness (location and time unknown right now).
4. Attend a three day leadership and systems thinking seminary immediately after the conference mentioned in #3.
5. 2 week internship in my home state deafblind technical assitance team that allows me to see a variety of enviornments (poverty, rural and urban) that have deafblind students.
6. Complete 2 years of special education teaching.
Sounds good to me! When I'm done I'll basically have documented proof that I'm a qualified professional to be involved in the education of deafblind students (a certificate).
That means, when I graduate I'll have my MEd, with a license for Early childhood special education, a license for early childhood hearing impairment education (0-3 years old), a license for K-12 hearing impairment education (3-21 years old), and the Helen Keller Fellowship certificate.
All this after I've already got my state of Utah Early Childhood Education teaching license, and my BS in Early Childhood Education.
I think I might be done with school after I finish in Fall 2010....
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