Who is Irisa:  I am a 3rd year Gallaudet University undergraduate majoring in Government with a minor in Education.  I come from a Deaf family, with deaf parents and two Deaf sisters.

Who is Kathy:  I am a hearing Professor at Gallaudet University with a PhD in linguistics and a focus on bilingualism and academic discourse.  I have two Deaf daughters who are both students at Gallaudet right now, one majoring in Theater and the other may major in Public Policy or International studies.

The ideas in this presentation about Deaf Education are important because an uneducated community is a community that cannot thrive and lead and help larger society grow from what this unique community has to offer.

To be a lecturer of TEDxNBU is a fun and inspiring opportunity.

Life is, besides a bowl of cherries, a ride to get on, strap in, and explore and enjoy and bring others along too – and you are the pilot of this ride!

If Irisa was music she would sound like…she does not know because she is wonderfully, proudly Deaf–or she might be Reggae!

Kathy would be a group of folk singers on a porch on a warm summer evening, with a violin, a cello, and someone singing a lovely ballad.

To be means:

Irisa: To be is to accept being comfortable in your own skin.

Kathy:  To be is to love.