Officers:
President/Educational Director — Mashaal Ahmed
Financial Director — Nida Din
Volunteer Director — Kimberly Harvey
Social Director — Annie Marks
Sports Day Director — Ana Portillo
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Our Faculty Advisor:
Our faculty advisor is Mark Bernstein, Ed.D.
Dr. Bernstein serves as Associate Dean for Student Affairs in the College of Communication, Coordinator of the Deafness Studies/Deaf Education major, and Communication Sciences and Disorders instructor.
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Officer Vlogs:
Mashaal
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Hi, my name is Mashaal Ahmed. I’m hearing. I’m the president of SADA. I am a UT senior majoring in Marketing and Linguistics with minors in Mangement Information Systems and American Sign Language. This is my 5th semester as an ASL student.
I joined SADA a long time ago. Sure, I wanted to learn ASL — it just seemed cool. However, it was Deaf culture I really wanted to learn more about. SADA provided me with the opportunity to do just that. Now, I think SADA is ready to move forward and reach its potential.
I learned that Austin has a large Deaf community and people should know about it. Why be clueless? Same goes for any other culture — it’s important to learn more so we can all work together.
Nida
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Hi! My name is Nida, and I am Deaf. Since I am very nice, you can go ahead and call me the Deaf queen. I am a sophomore here at UT, and my major is Business. I am the Financial Director because I love money. I breathe money, I eat money, and I sleep money. I just love money so this is a perfect opportunity for me to count money and spend money that isn’t mine.
Why is Deaf awareness important? There are many Deaf people that live here in Austin, but unfortunately only a few Deaf people here attends UT. It’s not fair for the hearing students who are really motivated and want to learn about the Deaf culture because there are only a few Deaf people at UT. Therefore, I feel that it’s important for SADA (Student Advocating Deaf Awareness) to expose and
teach/educate them about the Deaf culture and this is why Deaf awareness is important.
Hope to see you soon, and don’t forget to hook them horns! :-D
Annie
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Hi! I am Annie. I am a hearing student here at UT-Austin, majorng in Deaf Education/Deaf Studies. I am the Social Director for the organization, Students Advocating Deaf Awareness, or SADA. This means that part of my responsibility is to help plan different events and activities for groups to go out, socialize, and have fun. My goal is for Deaf, Hard-of-Hearing, and hearing people to come together and go out, have discussions, and have fun.
In my opinion, Deaf Awareness is important because I think all people–Deaf, Hard-of-Hearing, and hearing should learn to develop a positive perspective about Deaf issues. My hope is that our organization, SADA, will encourage people to continue learning and have that knowledge so that they can develop a positive perspective.
Ana
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My name is Ana Portillo, and I am a fifth year senior here at UT. I am hearing, and my major is Audiology in the School of Communication. For my officer position, I am the Sports Day Director.
I joined SADA because I wanted to learn more about Deaf Culture and the Deaf community.
Deaf Awareness is important because in the future when I work as an Audiologist, I want to be able to know about, understand, and communicate with Deaf clients.
