Academic Challenges by Rilynn

Academic Challenges by Rilynn - December 2024 Scholarship Essay

It’s senior year, I needed to take another language class to get my honors. I decided to take American Sign Language. Not only would it help me get my honors diploma but it would help with my future career field which is Speech Pathology. The only problem with American Sign Language is that it’s an online class through James A Rhodes State College. It was already hard enough to learn online but it was also a college class. Once I signed up for the class, I knew I had to be prepared to take extra time to study and practice. American Sign Language was challenging due to having to learn a lot in a semester. I would have weekly videos of different signs I needed to know. Along with quizzes and expressive tests, where I had to sign stories. ASL isn’t something that comes easy to me, it was hard trying to learn from videos or textbooks but I had to find time to practice outside to understand the signs and use them to communicate. After lots of practice and time, I started to improve and create sentences using hand signs. American Sign Language is something I recommend to everyone even if it takes time and practice.