Sadie Fischbeck was in high school when she first considered becoming an American Sign Language interpreter. But she鈥檇 need advanced training, a college degree. She鈥檇 need a dedicated ASL program.
She found it just a couple of states away from her home in Vermont.
鈥淚 realized that USM actually has one of the best,鈥 said Fischbeck, now a third-year student in the program and part of the .
Formed in 2000, the ASL/English Interpreting program started with a grant from the Maine Department of Education. The program was one of the first in the country and was initially very tiny.
鈥淭he whole thing sort of existed on Fridays in the basement of Payson Smith (Hall). Everything was there, it was a weekend college. And it just grew tremendously,鈥 said Dr. Judy Shepard-Kegl, who started the program and is now Linguistics Professor and Director of the Signed Language Research Lab.
Today, ASL/English Interpreting is a concentration within the Linguistics major. The ASL program averages seven to 10 faculty members and has eight to 15 graduates a year. It was first accredited in 2009 and most recently reaccredited in 2021.
Classes are popular with students both inside and outside the major. Introductory ASL classes, which can count toward core requirements, routinely fill and have waiting lists.
鈥淚t鈥檚 one of the languages used in the United States that you could encounter anywhere. It would be helpful for anybody to know,鈥 said Dr. Dana McDaniel, Professor of Linguistics and Chair of the department. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a very useful language. It鈥檚 a good language to put on your resume, frankly. Anytime you do absolutely any job and can say, 鈥極h, yeah, I know some ASL,鈥 it鈥檚 a plus.鈥
Students who major in ASL are actively sought after. Despite a recent licensing snag in Maine 鈥 state rules changed a couple of years ago and inadvertently made full licensing for interpreters a challenge, so lawmakers are working on a fix 鈥 USM鈥檚 graduates are all but guaranteed a job. Many go on to medical or educational interpreting in Maine or out of state. Some develop careers in an adjacent field but still connected to the Deaf community, such as teaching or social work.
鈥淧rospects are very, very good,鈥 Shepard-Kegl said.
But while USM鈥檚 ASL students get a rigorous, top-notch education in the classroom, it鈥檚 their time outside class that really makes the program unique. Students are deeply involved in the local Deaf community, through the annual Maine Deaf Film Festival, the ASL Club, internships, working with children at the Governor Baxter School for the Deaf, volunteering opportunities, and special events.
鈥淲e can take them part way there, the Deaf community is going to take them the rest of the way,鈥 Shepard-Kegl said. 鈥淚f you want to be an interpreter or do some ASL stuff, you really need to immerse yourself in the local community.鈥
That鈥檚 one reason Maia DeRosear, an ASL student and president of the ASL Club, has loved her time at USM.
鈥淥ur program is very involved in the Deaf community. . . a lot of intermingling. You don鈥檛 see that at a whole lot of programs. You see a lot of interpreting programs just kind of pull students through. They get involved with the community on campus, but they don鈥檛 get to meet the larger community they鈥檙e living in,鈥 she said. 鈥淲e do a really great job intermingling our community at USM and the larger Deaf community around Portland, and the interpreting community as well.鈥
It was one of the things that drew Fischbeck to the USM program.
鈥淚 had heard a lot about the professors and how good they were,鈥 she said. 鈥淚 came for a tour day and my tour guide was an ASL major and she was able to talk me through the program. It sounded really good. It sounded like there was a really good community here that a lot of other programs just didn鈥檛 have. That鈥檚 what I wanted.鈥
And that community is what Fischbeck got 鈥 even with COVID-19 and all the complications that came with it.
鈥淔or sure, 100%,鈥 she said. 鈥淚 think during the pandemic it was a little hard to set it up, but we did it. I think we have a really strong group of people here.鈥
As Fischbeck and DeRosear enter their last year in the program, both are considering a life, and career, after graduation. Both want to become interpreters. DeRosear wants to work in a medical setting, such as a hospital. Fischbeck is considering all options, including medical, educational, and other interpreting.
鈥淚鈥檓 open to wherever the program takes me,鈥 she said.