SJRCC PRESS RELEASE August 2007 SJRCC signs on new foreign language option St. Johns River Community College began its fall semester offering students an alternative to completing the foreign language requirement with Spanish. Students can now fulfill the requirement with American Sign Language. SJRCC's Dean of Arts and Sciences Rosalind Humerick, Ph.D. said offering sign language seemed like a good fit for the community after the College partnered with the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind last year to establish the Office of Interpreter Services. "It seemed like the next step," Humerick said. "There was a lot of interest after bringing a nationally certified interpreter onto the St. Augustine Campus and launching the Deaf Awareness Club." The two, four-hour credit courses will fulfill the foreign language requirement for students who are admitted into the state university system. SJRCC will offer American Sign Language I and American Sign Language II consecutively in the fall and spring terms. SJRCC adjunct instructor Ronnie Mae Tyson-Jones, who is also hearing impaired, said she thinks the courses are perfect for the area. "Many deaf people come to St. Augustine because of the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind," she said. "I am expecting great things to happen in the community now that SJRCC is offering sign language." The Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind serves approximately 500 deaf or hard-of hearing students, and according to Wayne Alonzo, SJRCC's coordinator of interpreters, there are approximately 14 deaf students enrolled at SJRCC. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, about 28 million people in the United States have some degree of hearing loss. Alonzo added that American Sign Language has its own grammatical and syntax structure that makes it independent from other languages. "It is now recognized as a foreign language by most colleges and universities," Alonzo said. For more information regarding the sign language courses or services for students with disabilities, contact Wayne Alonzo, SJRCC's coordinator of interpreters, at 904-808-7457 or e-mail him at: WayneAlonzo@sjrcc.edu. PHOTO CAPTION: American Sign Language adjunct instructor Ronnie Mae Tyson-Jones signs instructions during the first week of class at St. Johns River Community College. SJRCC now offers American Sign Language as an alternative for completing the foreign language requirement. Return to SJRCC home page.