Growing up Deaf - Part 14

Attending College

I was accepted by NTID and I went into SVP 1983 (Summer Vestibule Program). It marked the first time I was going to be on my own in the dorms on campus away from home. That plus I was finally with other deaf people, more time spent with them than other times combined. This is where I was finally able to make and keep friends for much longer than my previous school years. I have at times found some from way back then. I knew no one at NTID when I first started there. Thus, like in previous years after a move, I started all over again in finding and making friends.

I was in Peterson Hall on the third floor all during SVP. It was during this time someone tossed a military smoke bomb on the opposite side of the fire door of where I was. Everyone on that side thought it was a fire and didn't leave their rooms, though there were a couple who did. It wasn't til much later when we found out more about the smoke bomb, which burned a crater in the carpeting and the floor. I still have the picture somewhere. They didn't get the person til about a year or two later.

My first year, I tried going into Computer Science, but had so much trouble with it, that after the third quarter, I went to NTID's Data Processing major. I was in the first floor of Bell Hall, which is now a childcare center. My roommate joined a fraternity and moved out, leaving me as the lone occupant in the spring quarter. I found later that it wasn't just me who had problems with RIT's course pace. I did pretty well in the Data Processing program. I even had accounting again, made easier by my having taken it in high school and was a tutor to some at times.

I had the same room on 10th floor Ellingson Hall for three years straight. Few people were able to do this, though I heard about a couple people who had the same room for four years. That may have been a rumor.

It was this time when I started socializing with other deaf more than in previous years. My signing skills greatly improved within the first year, and improved even more the next. I also managed to run a BBS (bulletin board system) on my computer in the dorms on the weekdays. This allowed me to meet other friends in the Rochester area, a few of whom I still keep contact with. I was also able to get out into the city now and then using the local bus service to go to the mall, a local Wegmans, the downtown area, and a few other places.

Next - College part 2.