CEL&R Self Reflection

1. My Assets:
A. The Skills, experience, awareness, and knowledge that I already have that can help
me to be involved in the Deaf community effectively and help me grasp course
content successfully would be having Deaf Friends that I can ask questions to that
could help me to understand different things in the course I may not understand, I
have my cohort, professor, and Deaf mentors who could help me understand course
concepts and I have done service for the Deaf center here in Utah and I feel like the
more I get involved and immersed in the Deaf Community the more effective I will
be.
B. What I have to give and share would be my talent for making friends easily and to be
willing to help those in need. To work hard in my daily life and to become the best
interpreter I can be for the community and to be more involved with the Deaf
Community.
2. My Lenses:
A. We all have assumptions, attitudes, beliefs, stereotypes, biases and fears. Mine that
may impact the Deaf Community involvement experience would be a fear that my
signing won’t be good enough for the community and that people may not
understand what I am trying to say. Belief that I have some knowledge of the Deaf
community that can help me to become successful in my involvement in the Deaf
Community. I assume that Those who are deaf can do pretty much all if not most of
the things that those who are hearing can do. With exceptions. My attitude toward
those who are negative toward the Deaf community and how it really upsets me
when people think that Deaf people are stupid or dumb and can’t do things because
they are deaf when actually they can do many things. That employers won’t
accommodate those who are deaf so that they can get a job to.
B. How I can be aware of my assumptions and not act from them in ways that are
harmful to myself or others would be to gain more knowledge of the Deaf
community and how they do things. Not to get upset with others who assume
negative things about Deaf people and to help make them aware if their
assumptions may be wrong.
C. My feelings and beliefs about service are I feel like service is a great thing to do for
any community and the more service we do the better this world can become.
D. What I think people want and need would be depending on the situation people my
need guidance for different issues, people may need help getting food or therapy.
There are many things that I think people want and need depending on the situation
E. Some assumptions that I have about myself, and others based on societal
conditioning about age, class, various ability, ethnicity, gender, language, rage,
religion, sexual identity, career/job/work status, life situations etc. I assume that I
don’t discriminate others. I try to get to know other people and learn about various
 things in their life to help me understand and know who they are. I don’t or at least
try not to judge others for those things and I try to make myself a better person that
others will want to be around. I am a social butterfly and like to talk and hangout
with others and to make friends. I try to be there for people who are going through a
hard time in their life situations
F. I have heard that there is a great need for interpreters. My beliefs about the agency,
neighborhood, and people I will be working with are that I believe that I will be
working with some great people in the field that I choose to go into. I have been
interested in Community interpreting and theater interpreting and I believe that as I
continue to learn, do research, and experience things in those different fields I will
grow to become a better interpreter.
3. My Expectations, Motivations, Emotions:
A. My expectations of myself, the Deaf Community partners, faculty, and of the
experience would be the expectations for myself would be to get through the ITP
program with good grades and to be able to take and pass the NIC Exam and to be
certified to interpret. My expectations for the Deaf community partners are that I
need to research all of them and find out everything that they have to offer and how
I can be more involved. My Expectations for faculty would be for them to help me to
be successful as I go through the interpreting program. And my Expectations for the
experience is that I am excited to see what things I can experience as I go through
the ITP program and become more involved in the Deaf Community.
B. My motivations being better with time management, my husband, knowing that I
can be successful in the interpreting field.
C. I am involved in service because I like to help others and to make others feel good,
to make their day better and to show them that the world is not all bad that there is
still good in this world if they just look for it.
D. My motivations my impact how I engage in the Deaf community I would say that
being good with time management will be beneficial for my future in the
interpreting field it will be able to help me schedule and prep for different
assignments that I will be attending. That my Husband will want to learn more ASL
and that in the future when I have children, I can teach them ASL and help them to
be involved in the Deaf Community as well.
E. How I view myself in relation to Deaf Community members I will be engaging with
will be I hope to be a good interpreter for them and one that they will want to work
with. I view myself as an Ally to the Deaf Community and will support them and
educate others as much as I can.
F. A fear that I might have is that there may be jobs/situations I may not know what to
do while I am there and I am afraid that I will make the wrong decision.
G. What I am excited about is all the deaf friends that I will be making, the experiences
that I will have, to be able to share those experiences with my husband and my
future family.
4. My Social Identities:
A. How I am similar and different from people I will work with within the Deaf
community, in terms of my social identities I am similar in age, religion, sexual
identity, etc. to those some of the people in the Deaf community I am Different
because I have different experiences then others. For example, I did clogging, played
softball, I know how to be creative, just being who I am is different than other
people.
B. Some things that I need to be aware of and know to work effectively across
differences and similarities would be I need to be aware of my surroundings, to be
prepared for the different assignments I will take and be aware that I can decline
assignments and not have to worry so much about those ones if I am not the right
person for the assignment, I need to be aware that I am only human and will make
mistakes but that I can learn from them and become better.
C. My age, economic class, varied ability status, ethnicity, gender, language, national
origin, race, sexual identity, etc. and the power attached to them may impact what I
bring to the deaf community. Honestly, I haven’t thought of how those things could
impact what I bring to the deaf community because we are all different. I am not
sure how those things could impact what I bring to the deaf community but I am
very excited, nervous, and interested to see how they impact the deaf community.
D. I am not sure right now how they impact what I value, what is familiar and what is
unfamiliar because I am still learning and developing my skills.