Washington D.C. - Yunhe Bai, class of 2019, Gallaudet University was born deaf and raised in a small town in China. He began his educational endeavors at a school for hearing and speech in a city far away from his family. When Yunhe was nine, his parents transferred him to the Wenchang School for the Deaf in his hometown where he began to learn Chinese Sign Language. While there, Yunhe discovered a passion for learning and applied to top schools in his area. He was rejected because the schools would not provide interpreters. Upon graduating from Deaf school Yunhe was not allowed to sit for the national entrance exams that would allow him to enter mainstream colleges in China. That’s when Yunhe applied to Gallaudet University, was accepted and majored in Business Administration out of a desire to improve the labor rights of Deaf people in both the public and private sectors.
During the summer between his junior and senior year, Yunhe traveled to San Diego to intern for DawnSignPress, a national media and publishing house for quality educational materials in American Sign Language. Yunhe says, “My internship with DawnSignPress helped me to gain practical knowledge and experience. My time at DawnSignPress as an intern and with the employees there helped me gain an important perspective to implement. I am going on to study in the policy practice track at Columbia where I will focus on the world of work for my Masters in Social Work.”
The DawnSignPress internship program is the brainchild of the President and CEO of the company, Joe Dannis. Dannis says, “We put the internship program in place to give students an opportunity to grow experientially while still studying theory. It’s been a huge privilege to see students like Yunhe grow through our program.”
About DawnSignPress: DawnSignPress is a media and publishing house that creates, develops, produces, publishes and distributes quality American Sign Language (ASL) and Deaf culture-related materials. DawnSign is on the cutting edge of the educational, cultural, and social trends in the Deaf world. Deaf-owned and operated, DawnSign produces materials that raise standards in ASL education, break new ground in ASL literature and the arts, and preserve the unique and rich contributions of Deaf people.
For more information, visit: www.dawnsign.com.
For more information, contact Susan Gold, susan@susangoldconsulting.com