Master Degree in Deaf Education may be in Flagler’s future

Historic City News has learned that 21-year-old Katherine Taylor, a member of St Augustine’s deaf community and a student at Flagler College, may be one of the first to enroll in the first graduate program likely to be added at the traditional four-year college.

Flagler College has plans to offer a Master Degree in Deaf Education, set to debut in the fall of 2016. The program already has the college’s approval and they are still waiting for official accreditation.

“The Florida School for the Deaf and Blind is the largest school for the Deaf in the country and it employs deaf people,” Margaret Finnegan, the Deaf Education coordinator at Flagler College. “It brings lots of families with deaf children here, so there’s always been a very high visibility of deafness in the town.”

The pending approval will build on the excellent relationship between Flagler College and the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind. The opportunity to work directly in a classroom environment with deaf students, is one of the program’s strengths expected to attract enrollment according to Finnegan.

For Taylor, after moving to St. Augustine to attend Flagler College, she says that she was “overwhelmingly surprised” to find an ever-growing, functioning, and accepted deaf community. The relationship between Flagler College and the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind will grow through the new program and further intertwine the hearing and deaf communities in the city.

Taylor was not always deaf; she was born able to hear but became fully deaf by the age of three. She has no memories of hearing while growing up in Delaware; however, she has haunting memories of being raised in a predominantly hearing community. Throughout her childhood she faced many challenges due to a lack of understanding. Taylor grew up in a less-than-pleasant environment due to the treatment of deaf people within her hometown.

“Personally, coming from a community where acceptance of deafness was non-existent, I find Florida and St. Augustine have a strong positive awareness of the deaf community,” Katherine signed. “People around St Augustine sign to me, even if it’s just saying thank you”.

She explained that there is a general thirst to learn American Sign Language by the hearing community. Ever since the move, Taylor has been asked by countless people to teach them sign language.

The program itself will be comprised of two different tracks: One geared toward graduating Flagler students who would like to earn their Masters, and the other a track geared toward teachers from the field who are looking to further educate themselves in American Sign Language and the deaf community.

The two programs will primarily be online and will have a residency requirement due to the large involvement with the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind.

Both programs will participate in practicums and internships at FSDB, immersing them within the pure language and culture of the community.