I am so excited! This Thursday April 15 at 10am MT/12pm ET, the GLOBE program will celebrate National American Sign Language (ASL) Day! My friend Jillian Anderson and her students will give us a brief intro to ASL. They will also teach us how to sign some of the terms we use in GLOBE in ASL! I first met Jillian in 2018 when I was a GLOBE Air Quality intern at NASA Langley, under the mentorship of Dr. Margaret Pippin. I asked Margaret if I could invite the Lexington School for the Deaf to participate in the US GLOBE Air Quality Student Research Campaign. Margaret said "yes" instantly. I then visited Jillian's classroom at Lexington. I had zero clue of ASL :( It was really amazing to spend some time with Jillian and her students; however, I felt badly that I could not say anything in ASL! As soon as I came back home that day, I started looking for ASL schools and enrolled myself (and my son) for our first class. We attended lessons every weekend. All the teachers we had are Deaf, and in addition to teaching us ASL, they also helped us learn about Deaf culture. Our lives were deeply impacted. My son and I truly started seeing the world with new eyes. Ever since, Jillian and I have stayed in touch. My son even had the chance to practice ASL with Jillian's students :) And recently, my son and I contributed with stories for a Lexington Drama Club's performance! It was awesome! Jillian is also a NASA GISS Climate Change Research Initiative (CCRI) Educator Ambassador (EA). So, now that I work at NASA GISS, I can also see Jillian during the NASA GISS CCRI EA monthly meetings :) Anyway, I love Lexington School for the Deaf. And I am super grateful that Jillian and her students are helping us learn a bit of such a beautiful language :) I sure hope you join us on Thursday and learn to sign some GLOBE terms in ASL :) This is the link to join: GLOBE National ASL Day Zoom Meeting
