Concordia’s newest club welcomes you to join them as they explore Deaf culture and American Sign Language in an educational, interactive and authentic way.

Maddie Durkin, sophomore, serves as president of ASL CUI, which she founded last semester. “I have been wanting an ASL club on campus for a while now and was so excited to start,” she said. “We have only had a few meetings but it has been going great.”

As a Liberal Studies major in the Lutheran Elementary Education Program, Durkin has designed the club with effective and approachable education in mind, and has utilized resources such as Google Classroom and short vocabulary videos to provide members with easy access to resources. She said, “I love teaching and this club gives me a great opportunity to teach something I am passionate about.”

ASL CUI represented themselves at the recent involvement fair by running an engaging and informative table, featuring posters of historical Deaf people such as Beethoven, offering educational pamphlets and books, and inviting students to learn signs. “The involvement fair went so well,” said Durkin. “I got to teach signs and talk about the club. About 30 people were added to our email list!”

ASL CUI scheduled several regular meetings last semester, and hopes to continue their curriculum in the spring. “ASL club was a nice way to practice ASL from when I learned in high school,” said Abigail Freeman, a freshman member of the club. “It’s also good to talk to friends if you can’t use your voice. Like if you have food in your mouth or you are across the room.”

“ASL club is super fun,” said Rebecca Symmank, senior club member. “I have already learned the alphabet and a bunch of other words.” She went on to describe the movie night event hosted in the fall: “The movienight with CODA was epic. I hadn’t heard of it before and it was a great movie. It was also a cool way to learn about Deaf culture.”

Durkin has several plans in the works for the next few months, potentially including a bingo night, a silent dinner, and collaborations with off campus Deaf organizations. She encourages students to look out for posters. “I am looking forward to adding more events this upcoming semester. I want to reach the entire population of CUI since ASL can be applied to everything.”

If you are interested in joining ASL CUI, reach out to Maddie Durkin at madison.durkin@eagles.cui.edu. 

Tags: clubs, Clubs and Organizations

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