ASL students compete in statewide competition

By Stephi Smith, Executive Editor|May 6, 2016

On Saturday April 30, ASL teacher Terry Sasser sent five ASL students to compete in the Washington State CTE ASL competition, in which they represented CTE leadership and MTHS.

Of the students were Mustafa Balikci, Ayanna Traylor, Ty Hardan, Janis Trent and Rosa Park.

The competition focused on the culture and history of the deaf community and had students both demonstrate their receptive and expressive skills. One of the competitions involved a person telling a story to the students through sign language and the students would then translate it to English. In addition, a student would be given a story written in English and the students would have to tell it back using sign language.

This was the first year of this competition and Sasser said it was a bit awkward, but educators and interpreters will be giving feedback with hopes to improve in years to come.

There were 12 other high schools at the conference with MTHS, all required to have teams of five. To construct the teams, Sasser announced the competition and he picked who would go, but next year he wants to have people sign up and have the class vote.

“MTHS did great and it was a very enriching experience,” Sasser said.

He also said it was challenging for the students and he’s proud of how well they did.

About the Writer

Stephi Smith, Executive Editor

Stephi Smith is one of the co-Editors-in-Chief of the Hawkeye. Her official title is Executive Editor.

This is Stephi’s fourth year on the Hawkeye. Last year, she created a Hawkeye Snapchat account with the hopes of advancing the organization’s coverage of online and social media reporting.

Prior to serving as Editor, she was the News Editor her junior year and Copy Editor her sophomore year, as well as taking the lead on the Crime and Police beat. During her sophomore year, she attended the JEA National Convention in Washington, D.C. where she learned she wanted to be a journalist. Since then, she’s fallen in love with reporting and reported on many different kinds of stories, from School Board meetings to sexual assault on campus.

Next year, Stephi will be attending the University of Missouri with a major in Journalism. As a career, she hopes to report on either crime, government and politics or education.