cecelia cannavo

Part time position at Northwestern Connecticut Community College, and then pro bono, in alliance with Professor John A. Leblond and Dr. Sarah Bement at Central Connecticut State University. Work included meeting with college students to teach and practice American Sign Language at all class levels. I created innovative assignments (such as asking students to pantomime one of their favorite childhood stories) to promote interactive language acquisition. I also facilitated cultural understanding to the best of my abilities as a hearing person, with keen attention paid to showing appreciation for Deaf culture, rather than exhibiting cultural appropriation.

I supervised 15 developmentally/ behaviorally challenged Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing ("Deaf Plus") students for their weekend dorm activities, implemented behavior management systems to ensure safety and well-being of the students through policy enforcement, mediation, and de-escalation of intense emotions/behaviors and crises. I also conducted follow-up meetings with students after crisis interventions to re-establish therapeutic rapport. I created structured activity plans designed to promote the students' personal and social growth. I devised and participated in staff member conferences, debriefing, and training sessions. I wrote incident reports, daily logs, and budget request paperwork as part of my administrative duties. Finally, I used critical thinking, problem solving, and cross-cultural competency to employ the Crisis Prevention and Intervention behavior modification model tactics in the most relevant ways.