Signing on to help: WPHS senior Richa Patel turns ASL skills into summer service

White Plains High School senior Richa Patel, who took three years of American Sign Language, used her skills to help a young deaf student communicate, learn and connect with his classmates during summer camp.

She was so good, in fact, that she turned the volunteer opportunity into a paid gig.

Richa, who was born and raised in India before moving to the United States at age 10, began studying ASL after arriving in White Plains as a freshman. She had expected to take Spanish, but scheduling complications led her to ASL instead.

“I was like, ‘OK, let me just try it,’” Richa recalled Wednesday while her ASL teacher, Conniree Francis, was signing with a classmate. “My counselor told me that if I wanted to change that class my sophomore year, I could. But I ended up keeping sign language because I loved it.”

What began as an unexpected addition to her schedule quickly became a passion.

“I just love the language and the deaf culture, and how people communicate,” she said. “It’s just very fascinating.”

Richa went on to complete all three levels of ASL offered at WPHS, a progression that took her from learning the alphabet, numbers, colors and basic vocabulary to increasingly advanced communication. By ASL III, the classroom was conducted largely through signing.

“I feel like I’m not as fluent as I would like to be, but I think I’m pretty good,” Richa said modestly. “I understand mostly everything.”

She would soon have an opportunity to put those skills to use in a setting far beyond the classroom.

Ms. Francis told Richa about an opportunity to work during the summer with Alex, a 10-year-old George Washington School student who is profoundly deaf. The summer program was held at Church Street Elementary School, where Richa initially joined as a volunteer.

For six weeks, five days a week, she served as Alex’s interpreter and helped him navigate everything from academic assignments to conversations with pals.

“I would sign to him whenever I needed to,” Richa said. “If he had a writing assignment, I would help him think of ideas of what he could write about, and sign to him, and help him write it.”

During the academic portion of the program, she helped him follow lessons in subjects including ELA, math, science and history. During recreational activities, she helped make sure the fourth-grader knew what teachers and coaches were saying. She also became a bridge between Alex and his fellow campers.

“His friends and him, they would come up to me and ask me what he’s trying to say,” she said. “So then I would translate that to his friends.”

Richa said she could see the difference that having someone available to communicate with him made.

“I think it really did help him, because sometimes he would just be lost. By me being there, it would help him understand what’s going on and what people might be saying,” she said.

“He made really good friends, which I was very happy about,” Richa added.

One of her favorite memories came during a writing assignment in which students were asked to imagine themselves lost on an island. She helped Alex understand the prompt and develop his ideas as he signed his thoughts to her.

“It was just very nice to see him write, me helping him write, him signing,” she said. “If he did not understand something, he would be like, ‘What is the sign again? How do you say this? What’s the word for this?’ And it was just so cute.”

Richa’s work also caught the attention of the camp’s directors, who were so impressed with her efforts that they decided to pay her.

“I was actually very grateful and happy,” Richa said. “I was like, ‘OK, I’m just getting community service hours, which is very good, because it’s going to be good for my transcript for school.’ But then I was actually very happy that I got paid.”

Even before the summer program began, Richa had an indication of how far her ASL skills had progressed. Jennifer Montgomery, the district’s Teacher of the Deaf, interviewed her for the position entirely in ASL.

“I was surprised that I had to interview her in sign language, but it was smooth,” Richa said. “She asked me about my parents, my background, what I’m doing, what I like, what classes I like, all in sign language. It was easy.”

She admitted to some initial jitters.

“I was a little nervous, but then I was fine,” she said. “Ms. Francis tells me all the time that my ASL is really good.”

Ms. Montgomery was equally impressed, later writing of Richa’s work: “Richa was wonderful this summer! And they are paying her! Maybe she will consider this for a future profession.”

The experience gave Richa her first sustained opportunity to interact with someone who is deaf and deepened her appreciation for the language and the deaf community.

“My whole life, I’d mostly never seen a deaf person. But after coming here, it’s very fascinating, and now I can actually understand sign language, which is very nice,” said Richa, who also is a member of the school’s ASL Club and hopes more students will discover the language.

“You should really learn ASL,” she said. “A lot of the times, people don’t know about ASL, what it’s like.”

Although Richa is considering studying business in college and has been looking closely at the University at Albany, she has no intention of leaving ASL behind when she graduates from high school.

“I will learn more, and I would like to continue it,” she said. “Maybe in the future, when I work, there might be a deaf client or someone. I can help them. Even if I’m not in high school, I will still learn sign language.”