State High senior pushes for more opportunities for Pa. students to learn ASL

When Melody Sharp was in first grade, her teacher taught her class how to say “good morning” in sign language.

Learning this phrase sparked Melody’s interest in American Sign Language. Now a senior at State College Area High School, she has dedicated the past 11 years of her life to learning ASL with her mother, Kim Sharp.

Melody’s passion for ASL had to be pursued outside of the classroom, as her schools did not offer sign language courses during her academic career.

She wants other children and teens to have the opportunity she did not have. Through her Girl Scout Gold Award project, Melody advocated for the increased presence of ASL courses in schools and the ASL certification of teachers in Pennsylvania.

“I just wanted there to be more opportunities for people to learn about (ASL) and deaf culture,” she said. “To be able to raise awareness and bring hearing and deaf people together more.”

Her project specifically sought to raise awareness of House Bill 572, which passed in 2002 and recognized ASL courses as satisfying foreign language requirements for high school graduation, and the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s Certification and Staffing Policy Guideline 41, which set a clear pathway for educators to acquire ASL instructional certification.

Melody and Kim, a teacher at Bellefonte Area Middle School, distributed flyers around the state and on social media to increase ASL education awareness for the project. The flyers explained what ASL is, why ASL education is important and how teachers can become certified to teach ASL.

“I think if there were opportunities (to learn ASL), many people would take advantage of that,” Melody said.

She completed the project and received her Gold Award, the most prestigious award a Girl Scout can earn.

While ASL is recognized as a world language by the state, many schools do not offer ASL classes. In fact, only a handful of schools in the county — and across the state — offer ASL courses.

“(ASL is) an amazing language and an amazing culture,” said Kim, who teaches an ASL activity period at Bellefonte. “We wish there were more bridges between the hearing and deaf. It’s sad that (Melody) wasn’t able to take (ASL) as a world language like kids in other states.”

When Melody first expressed an interest in learning ASL to her mom, Kim had no sign language experience. But she wanted to encourage her daughter’s intrigue, and was interested in learning the language herself.

Kim enrolled in two sign language courses at Penn State and utilized online resources so she and Melody could learn the language. Their ASL journey continued as they began signing songs at church, attended a deaf camp in Maryland and lived with a deaf woman for six months.

When Melody was in fifth grade, she began teaching second graders sign language. She continued to teach students sign language in middle school.

In 2015, she began lobbying for the teacher certification policy that would become CSPG 41.

Since the beginning of their ASL journey, the mother and daughter have attended deaf plays, visited Gallaudet University, a university in Washington, D.C. for the deaf and hard of hearing, and built long-lasting relationships with members of the deaf community.

According to Kim, the Centre County deaf community is small compared to communities in Maryland, Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania cities like Pittsburgh and Scranton. Melody and Kim said they know members of the deaf community who left Centre County for places with larger deaf communities.

But through the promotion of ASL education, Melody hopes to foster a more welcoming community for deaf individuals across the state and encourage relationships between deaf and hearing individuals.

“(ASL is) a language you can use in this area. ... In high school, I learned German for my world language. I’ve never used it outside of the class,” Melody said. “I think it’s cool that you can go out into your own country and interact with people using this language.”

Ultimately, Melody’s project seeks to spread awareness across the state so ASL is treated like a world language in all schools. Additionally, she hopes that through her advocacy, more teachers will become certified to teach ASL, so students at a high school, middle school and elementary school level can learn sign language.

Looking to the future, Melody wants sign language and the deaf community to “always be a part” of her life.

While her project is officially complete, Melody and Kim plan to continue their advocacy for ASL education.

“We’re hoping now that there’s a pathway and it’s an equal language, it’d be great if more students could get excited about ASL, which would encourage them to think about being interpreters or working with the deaf,” Kim said, “or at least making connections with the community.”

This story was originally published January 1, 2020 at 3:14 PM.