If you don’t have any Friday morning plans, then why not join juniors Eliza Stutz and Ainsley Haight for the inaugural meeting of the Sign Language Club.
French, Latin, Spanish and Mandarin currently make up Lake Forest High School’s world language department, but students have long talked about the addition of American Sign Language (ASL) to the curriculum. Stepping up to meet their peers’ desires, Stutz and Haight took on the process of bringing the club to life.
What inspired you to create this club?
“What inspired me was feeling like there was a lack of options [for learning] Sign Language. Some of us were told, in eighth grade, that there would be Sign Language opportunities in high school, and then there just never ended up being any. We wanted to create a chance for people who wanted to learn.” – Haight
Do you have a background in, or a connection to, ASL?
“No, I really have no connection, but I think that’s what made me excited to learn, just to try something new and go for it. I feel like it’s a super cool way to communicate!” – Stutz
What is your plan for teaching Sign Language to those who also don’t know it?
“We are going to use videos and also start by doing simple introductory stuff that we do know pretty well. We are hoping to make it fun as well: maybe learning how to sing a song.” – Stutz
“We will definitely try learning from people who are fluent, and there’s a few people at the school who know Sign Language, so hopefully we’ll bring them in to help teach.” – Haight
What will a typical meeting look like?
“Maybe doing worksheets and watching videos! We were thinking, for our first meeting, to watch a video of the alphabet to learn how to say our names and introduce ourselves. Hopefully we learn around a new sentence a day.” – Haight
“For the first couple meetings, we want to do some small, personalized lessons to get to know each other, like learning how to say our favorite colors and stuff like that.” – Stutz
What sets this club apart from others?
“I feel like it’s different because most clubs, like Spanish or French club, are for languages already offered at the school, whereas this is something brand new and LFHS hasn’t really seen it before.” – Stutz
What was the process of bringing this club to life?
“It was a lot of work. It took longer than we both thought it would. I think probably the hardest part was finding a sponsor, but the rest was pretty easy.” – Haight
“Once we realized, ‘Okay we can actually do this,’ we talked with Mrs. Malec and she helped us find our sponsor, Mrs. Kubik, who was interested. But it definitely took a little bit of time, and then we created an Instagram, made a canvas flyer, and all of that.” – Stutz
What do you hope people will take away from this club?
“I hope people will take away a sense of community, and they learn something new, hopefully a new language!” – Stutz
What goals do you have for the club in its first year?
“To grow and reach as many people as we possibly can. We want our members to find a liking to it and keep coming back.” – Haight
How do you think this club could positively impact our community?
“I think it could bring more awareness to our community to be inclusive of those who are deaf, or who do use Sign Language. Especially if there are parents of kids who are hard of hearing in Lake Forest, seeing our school have a Sign Language club could be important from a representation standpoint. This club could help our community expand its horizon.” – Stutz
