Teachers’ Facebook Campaign Raises $12,000 to Help Deaf Student Further Education

Adela Garcia, deaf from birth, had never seen American Sign Language when she moved to Pullman, Michigan at the age of 10. Once in Michigan, Garcia had to learn both ASL and English. Now 21, Garcia has been accepted to study at Gallaudet University. She is currently in Washington, D.C. studying at Gallaudet’s English Language Institute so that she will be prepared to take on her first year of classes. Yet, just days before the spring semester began at the English Language Institute, Garcia’s grant that was going to cover the cost of her classes fell through. Her high school teachers back in Michigan heard about Garcia’s troubles and used Facebook to raise over $12,000 to cover the grant money for the spring semester. Garcia found out that she would be able to attend her classes on January 25th, the last day to pay class fees. That day, she posted a video on Facebook thanking those who had helped her. Garcia is the first member of her family to attend college and is also “the first to graduate from the district’s program for deaf and hard-of-hearing students in Lawrence.”

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