One unstoppable graduate

By LAURE CIOFFI

VINDICATOR PENNSYLVANIA BUREAU

VIBRANT ENERGY SURROUNDED Hillary Howard on her graduation night. It seemingly always has.

The 18-year-old is one of four valedictorians at West Middlesex High School.

Her path to valedictorian is not so surprising:

She has excelled academically, being part of the school’s Talented and Gifted Program since grade seven. Outside of academics, she played drums through her junior year in the high school band and participated in many school clubs.

And she is going to Youngstown State University in the fall on a full scholarship to study clinical laboratory science. She plans to work in a hospital or a medical laboratory as a pathologist’s assistant.

Valedictorians make a speech at West Middlesex, and leading up to it, Hillary was anxious.

“Right now, I’m just nervous,” she said.

Music and applause from the crowd greeted each of the four as they took the stage.

Only Hillary was unable to hear any of it.

Of all the things she’s been that have shaped her growing up, she has been deaf since age 6.

Never shying away

It’s not stopped Hillary from becoming successful.

“She’s amazing. She is absolutely unbelievable,” said Tom Wilson, who teaches senior English at West Middlesex.

Wilson said Hillary’s disability did not impair her participation in a debate class Wilson taught. She also made morning announcements over the school speaker system as required for another class.

Hillary’s parents, John and Jael Howard, say their daughter has never shied away from any activity because of her hearing loss. She’s only asked how to make it happen.

“We never told her ‘you can’t do this because you’re deaf,’” said John.

The reality is she’s taken on more, tutoring deaf children and becoming active in the deaf ministry at her church, as well as all the normal activities of a high school senior.

“I’m very independent,” she said.

She’s rarely let it define her. Instead, being deaf is just another facet of her life.

“It’s just a part of me. I just dealt with it,” Hillary says of her hearing loss.

Losing her hearing

Hillary’s permanent hearing loss came after a minor playground accident at school.

A boy ran into her and she fell.

“It really wasn’t an accident. It was just a playground bump,” Jael said.

Doctors never were able to determine what caused her hearing loss, but the Howards suspected she had been intermittently losing her hearing all along.

Jael said that as a toddler, there appeared to be times when Hillary seemed to be unaware that her parents were speaking to her. She was tested several times, but hearing loss was never detected until the fall on the playground.

They do believe she started reading lips early on to compensate for those undetected periods of hearing loss.

“Immediately, she could read lips. Some people can never become skilled lip readers,” said Jael, who is a certified interpreter for the deaf.

Hillary says she doesn’t recall having intermittent hearing loss, but she agrees it’s probably true since she was able to adapt quickly.

Familiarity with deafness

Jael’s experience with the deaf started long before her only child was born. Jael was first introduced to American Sign Language because she had an uncle who was born deaf.

And then, as a young woman, a family with a deaf child joined her church and asked Jael and another relative to help sign through the services.

Jael says she decided to take some continuing education sign language classes at Choffin Career and Technical Center in Youngstown.

“At that point, my goal wasn’t to be an interpreter. My goal was to assist this family,” she said. But eventually it became a career, and she now works for various agencies and at a video relay center for the deaf in Pittsburgh.

All of this helped when her own daughter lost her hearing.

“The fact that deafness was not alien to us helped us cope better. We saw and had contact with people who were successful and lead normal lives,” Jael said.

And Hillary’s natural sunny attitude helped, too.

“I never saw her grieve. When it happened, for the most part, she accepted it,” John said.

A love of learning

Hillary’s playground accident happened in April of her first grade year. After all of the medical testing and even surgery, she spent that following summer at the Youngstown Hearing and Speech Center learning American Sign Language.

After losing her hearing, Hillary spent much of her time reading.

“Once I lost my hearing, I immersed myself in books. I always had a book,” Hillary said.

Her mother believes it was a coping mechanism.

“Because she had just lost her hearing, she would carry around a book and didn’t feel left out,” Jael said.

And Hillary believes the reading contributed to her success in school.

“I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be at the same academic level if I didn’t read so much,” she said.

The school district was accommodating, too, providing special assistance in class.

Mary Jo Sanitate, Hillary’s school sign language interpreter from the fifth grade through graduation, says Hillary was very determined.

“She had to work twice as hard getting the information and she was well read when she went into class,” Sanitate said.

Special outlines were prepared by teachers and she was given assistance with note taking, but the rest was all up to Hillary, she said.

“She was very driven,” her father said. “That was her goal and she would not accept anything less than an A.”

Hillary doesn’t deny it, but professes a love of school and learning. Science and English are two of her favorite subjects.

Helping others

The family had considered special schooling, but Hillary refused.

“I didn’t want to leave my friends,” she says. “And my friends did good. They all learned to sign the alphabet.”

She’s also made it a mission to help other deaf children. Hillary’s senior project was to tutor deaf youngsters in the Youngstown City Schools.

Rachel Seelye, teacher for the hearing impaired at Paul C. Bunn Elementary, said Hillary has been able to relate to the youngsters on a different level.

“I think for someone so young, she had insight into ways to explain things to younger students that I wouldn’t expect,” Seelye said.

Hillary hopes to continue that work through college.

Her parents say they are very proud of the young woman she has become.

“Her deafness has not defined who she is. It’s just a been a part of her. If there were any challenges, she’s found a way to overcome them,” Jael said.

cioffi@vindy.com