The O.S.C.A.R. State Project

2007-2008 O.S.C.A.R. State Project

"Ring Out the Sound of Patriotism for All to Hear"

Project Information:

Founded in 1915, St. Rita’s School for the Deaf—located 10 miles north of Cincinnati, Ohio—educates 156 deaf and hard of hearing students whose ages range from six weeks to 21 years. Their goal is “for each student to become a self-sufficient, productive member of society. [The students] are encouraged to achieve what any high school graduate expects: a college education, a job or career, having a family…” The school itself is chartered by the state of Ohio and offers students a chance to engage in normal activities—such as sports and clubs—on their way to earning a high school diploma. After receiving superb training at St. Rita’s—not only in books, but in life-skills as well—more than 80 percent of the school’s graduates continue on to further their education at colleges or technical programs.

Committed as they are to furthering the education of the deaf and hard of hearing, St. Rita’s utilizes every technique to enhance their students’ educational progress. Thanks to modern science, the lives of many deaf people have been bettered by auditory amplifiers like hearing aids and—more recently—cochlear implants. As wonderful as these devices are for people with residual hearing, they do have a tendency to pick up background noise which distorts the individual’s ability to hear as well as a person with perfect hearing. Of course, this situation makes it more difficult for students to focus their hearing on the teacher. In order to address this issue, St. Rita’s has implemented a system to use in their classrooms where the teacher has a microphone which transmits an FM radio signal to receptors carried by the students which are attached to their hearing aids by wires. This system was implemented in 1998 and works wonderfully; however it has its drawbacks.

In recent years, St. Rita’s began its “Auditory Enhancement Project” to raise funds for a new system to aid their students more effectively. This project was begun to address the many drawbacks of the old system, now that newer technology has been developed. These drawbacks include the following: every student needs to remember to change radio stations as they enter a new room otherwise they will hear nothing that the teacher has to say, the young students carry devices the size of good sized palm-pilot about their waste, the system requires wires, and these wires and the weight of the receiver is extremely uncomfortable for the young students because the cords often become tangled and weigh down on their ears and hearing aids. The number one draw back to the old system is that it is out dated—they are not compatible to cochlear implants, which are swiftly becoming more common by the years. This new system would provide students using every sort of amplifying device with wireless and light weight receivers which change radio stations automatically upon entering new rooms.

With this system, every student will be able to benefit from the education which St. Rita’s has to offer. The goal of St. Rita’s is to make students feel as normal as possible and less self-conscious of their “disability.” By replacing the old system with this new one, St. Rita’s will be able to educate new generations of good and productive citizens who hold confidence and are able to receive their education without the pain or discomfort of such old and inefficient systems.

Please donate to my project. Under the slogan of “Ring out the Sound of Patriotism for All to Hear,” we hope to aid St. Rita’s Auditory Enhancement Program which will help raise good and strong citizens for the future.