Gilman Awardee: Studiare via Internet

In 2020, I was lucky to be awarded the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship. This award provides money to students that want to study abroad in another country. I planned to study abroad in Italy but due to the Global pandemic of 2020 was unable to travel. However, Gilman allowed me to utilize my award and conduct my classes virtually online. Today, I want to share my experience studying abroad virtually with the Gilman award with the Deaf community.

Studying online has specific challenges, like (1) trying to figure out the correct seconds required before speaking, (2) the inevitable video freeze as soon as you need to present, and (3) the intermittent robot voice that occurs with shaky wifi. However, despite all this, I was able to interact and engage with Italy through the power that is the internet. I learned many important things. First and foremost, how to make amazing Italian food staples (see my other posts). Delizioso! I explored the complexity of Italian history, language, and art through online images, videos, and interactions. I engaged with Italian teachers and citizens over Zoom and practiced my Italian through conversations with them. They told us about their lives, their homes, their businesses, and other unique aspects of Italy.

In Italy, I learned that they utilize Italian Sign Language or SIL. However, the Italian government does not recognize SIL as a language. Today, many Deaf Italians are fighting to change the mindset of the Italian government and have SIL a formally recognized language. With the Deaf community's hard work, hopefully, SIL will gain recognition as a language. Many Deaf Italians communicate in different sign language dialects from the various regions of the country. The signs differ from region to region due to Italy's long history of cultural and linguistic diversity. Similar to American Sign Language, SIL belongs to the family of French Sign Language. It is possible, as a signer of ASL, you may be able to understand and communicate SIL while visiting abroad in Italy.

If you are a Deaf person reading this post, I hope that you will consider applying for the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship so you may see Italy for yourself. It is truly a beautiful country with a unique Deaf culture and history of Deaf leaders. There is so much to learn from exchanging cultural ideas through language, not only in the hearing community but also in the Deaf community. The Gilman award will allow you to study another Deaf language abroad and share in the culture of the Italian people. Thanks for reading (and watching).