Powell Sisters Lead SGA
SGA officers, from left, are Alice Powell, president; Michelle Little treasurer; Lola Powell, secretary; and Catalina Powell, vice president. Not pictured is Aron Dennen, local interactions chair.
The Student Government Association at A-B Tech is becoming even more vocal and the driving force behind it has the name Powell. Sisters Alice, Catalina and Lola are officers on the SGA, serving respectively, as president, vice president and secretary.
"I don't know how much anybody knows about the SGA," Catalina said. That's why they want to keep getting the word out. Catalina also serves on the Environmental Committee. Lola is editor of the student newsletter "Voices" and serves on the Academic Affairs Committee. Alice sits on the Board of Trustees and the Diversity Committee.
Alice and Catalina became involved in SGA last year while they were in a sociology class. "For my project, I wanted a better recycling program on campus," Alice said. Her older sister, Catalina, agreed to work with her. The sisters were told to check with the SGA.
"I didn't even know we had an SGA," Alice said. Alice and Catalina asked what they could do to get a recycling program under way, and they were asked to join the SGA.
"I wanted to make SGA better," Alice said, so the sisters climbed on board. Lola was already the SGA secretary.
Rounding out the officers on SGA are Michelle Little, treasurer, and Aron Dennen, local interactions chair. A representative from each club also participates in the meetings held every other week. Meetings have a friendly, relaxed atmosphere as one club - not individual clubs competing against each other.
"We talk about fund-raisers. There is open discussion and it is very friendly," Catalina said. "Everybody is like, 'let's do this together,'" Alice added. The Drama Club teamed up with SGA to start an Open Mic Night on campus.
The three sisters went to North Buncombe High School, yet none of them were in high school student government. They have taken on the new challenge with enthusiasm.
"A great part of this was being able to go to Boston for a weekend," Lola said. "We became certified student leaders." The conference loaded the ladies down with ideas to bring back to Asheville.
"The writing on the windows came from the conference," Alice said, referring to windows on the end of Laurel next to the Beech Tree Deck. The only drawback Catalina said, were some of the ideas were out of reach financially. "Some only worked for large universities with big budgets."
The size of the budget has not stopped the Powell sisters from stirring up interest and getting 249 voters registered for the general election. "Lots of people came by the office and registered. It was really successful," Catalina said.
The SGA also started a scholarship fund with $675 in it so far. The clubs worked together to help students affected by the floods. They were able to collect $745 and Phi Beta Lambda collected truckloads of furniture. Suggestion box ideas have netted a sheltered bus stop coming for students.
To keep the SGA cohesive, Alice said they put together advisory handbooks to give to all the clubs, including parliamentary procedures so everyone knows how things are to be done. "We feel like we should all be friends in here," Alice said. "We want the meetings to be fast and fun."
Deaf Culture Explored During Disabilities Awareness Month
Charlene LeBlanc, an American Sign Language Consultant, signs to Cory Parker, Communications/Interpreter Support Services Consultant for the State Department of Health and Human Services, after LeBlanc's presentation on the deaf community.
Imagine sitting in on a lecture and not hearing a word, but still managing to learn. This was the scenario during the first part of the Deaf Culture presentation given as part of Disabilities Awareness Month observed at A-B Tech in October.
Charlene LeBlanc, an American Sign Language (ASL) Consultant, communicated only ASL without an interpreter for the beginning of her session. Audience members were able to learn signs in a nearly silent Ferguson Auditorium.
LeBlanc, who is deaf, then passed out a questionnaire on deaf culture. Participants were asked to circle either true or false after such statements as: deaf people only reach a fourth-grade reading level. The answer is false.
She then explored other myths about the deaf community. One question many people answered incorrectly was whether it was considered rude to walk between two deaf people who are talking, even if there is no way to go around them. Most people said that was true.
LeBlanc explained through an oral interpreter that it is one of the cultural differences between hearing people and deaf people. Hearing people consider it very rude to go between two people conversing, while it is accepted in the deaf culture.
Some of the true statements were deaf children prefer to live at the Deaf school or most deaf people tend to marry other deaf people. She explained that 85 percent of deaf people marry another deaf person. LeBlanc said, as is true in most cultures, people tend to associate with others like themselves.
There was also the statement deaf people dislike the term hearing impaired and prefer to be called deaf. This is also true, according to LeBlanc.
"We dislike the term hearing impaired given by politically correct organizations because it does not differentiate between levels of deafness or identification of culture," LeBlanc said.
The levels of deafness are Deaf, which means the person was born deaf, they go to a Deaf school and are immersed in Deaf culture; deaf, the person was born deaf, but raised in a hearing culture; deafened, someone born hearing but become deaf through illness, accident or age. They can identify self in either deaf or hearing world; and hard of hearing, someone with some degree of hearing loss. However, deaf mute and deaf and dumb are not acceptable terms.
LeBlanc is a supporter of deaf children learning ASL as their primary language rather than trying to fit into the hearing culture. "Many doctors give misinformation to parents. They don't know anything about the deaf world. They tell parents to try and raise the child as hearing without adequate knowledge. Children have the window from the ages of 2 to 5 years to learn language. If a deaf child is stuck on trying to learn an oral language, they will miss out on learning language.
ASL, once considered a lower language, now has status as an official language. There are even ASL poems.
ASL is preferred over lip-reading because of the difficulty of distinguishing the difference between words like "fifty" and "fifteen" or "I love you" and "elephant." LeBlanc said speech and lip-reading is the least effective communication strategy between deaf and hearing people.
The lecture wrapped up the month-long Disabilities Awareness program observed on campus. The first-place winner of the Disability Awareness Scavenger Hunt was Alison Hayes, who was awarded a $50 gift certificate to the Bookstore. Marci McGowen won second place and an A-B Tech satchel.
Veterans Day
A-B Tech students Thomas Carson, left, and Edward Cheeks enjoy the refreshments served in honor of Veterans Day at the Coman Student Activity Center. Veterans were also given gifts of appreciation. Lisa Szymanski, Veterans Coordinator for Student Services, said the program was held to provide a time to recognize the sacrifices and contributions made by our veterans, past and present, on behalf of our nation.