Anne Jansen

Sydney has a passion for ASL and strives to help the community.

Senior Sydney Boersma has found a passion for American Sign Language (ASL) over the past four years of taking the courses. As she looks forward to college, she hopes to maintain her connection with ASL in some way, as she explores her options and colleges.

“I don’t think I’ll ever regret having learned the skill [of ASL],” Sydney said. “If I can just keep the skills up in college in some way, I think that would be really beneficial.”

Sydney found an interest in taking a sign language class when she was in middle school. She knew that she would want to take ASL in high school, and she has benefited from learning ASL since the beginning. She began her journey with sign language by taking the class her freshman year, and she continued with it, eventually to ASL Level 4. Although the class was difficult in the beginning, since it was filled with people just taking the class for the requirement, Sydney formed a bond with the people who continued past the requirements. 

“I’m so glad I did [it] and continued for four years,” Sydney said. “It has really given me a sense of community, even if it’s just a small group of people.”

Not only do you learn how to sign in ASL, but you also learn a lot about the culture of the Deaf community. Taking the class has taught Sydney many other things besides just communicating with Deaf people. It has helped her learn about and understand the Deaf community and the history of its culture. 

The ASL class also has a partnership with Paws with a Cause, which gives the students an opportunity to go to their headquarters and teach sign language to the volunteers and workers. Since Paws with a Cause also trains dogs to support Deaf people and help them with specific daily needs, the ASL Levels 3 and 4 help teach signs to the workers to improve their ability to communicate with Deaf customers. 

“[Teaching signs] was just a really great experience,” Sydney said. “Most of the volunteers are adults, maybe even older, so it was definitely really cool to teach them something that they might not have thought was worth learning.”

Along with teaching the workers signs, the students also teach the volunteers some basic signs for communication reasons. At Paws with a Cause, it can get very loud very easily, so knowing some signs is very helpful to the workers and volunteers. 

“Paws with a Cause trains service dogs,” Sydney said. “One of the branches that they train for is hearing alert dogs for people who are hard of hearing or Deaf, that just help them alert [Deaf people] to everyday sounds that we take for granted, like a phone ringing, a doorbell, or a fire alarm.”

Sydney’s most memorable moment from taking ASL was being able to help the people at Paws with a Cause. She has gotten lots of experience with teaching sign language and applying ASL in a real-life setting, rather than practicing signs in a classroom.

“We did some training with them, and then the other group would teach volunteer sign.” Sydney said, “I think [teaching signs] was my favorite, because we were out in the community, and I think it was just a good opportunity for us to get out and use [ASL] somewhere else, not just a classroom setting.”

Overall, Sydney has loved taking the class, and along with that, she got a unique experience that helped her involvement with the community and apply the skills she learned taking ASL to real-life scenarios. 

“[Paws with a Cause] has had Deaf customers come in, and they haven’t been able to communicate with them,” Sydney said. “[It] just kind of gives a glimpse of what their world is like.”