Hi there! My name is RaVen Sequoia. Welcome and here is a little background of myself. I was born Deaf due to being premature by three months. I grew up in an isolated mainstream school.
Then in 1985, I went to a residential school called Model Secondary School for the Deaf ((MSSD - in Washington DC) at 16 years old. From there I learned to sign, Deaf culture norms and been involved in the Deaf community ever since. I joined the after school extracurricular activity of Mime Group and we toured all over the East Coast performing with great success. In my Junior year, I became a Peer Advisor and then in senior year, Senior Peer Advisor - it was a wonderful training in how to help residential students to cope with school, homework, or just be a sounding board for them, etc. For fun, I also joined the Hiking Club and Women Leadership Organization. MSSD was an amazing high school for me that helped me blossom into a proud Deaf individual.
After I graduate from MSSD, I went to NTID but changed my major and transferred to Gallauduet Univeristy.
Due to my hidden LD (learning difference) Gally kicked me out as back in 1991, as educators weren't trained to recognize LD in students back then. I ended up in Portland, OR and mastered ASL through Portland Community College for seven years studying under their ASL Instructor's Program to teach ASL. It was an amazing journey as I learned about ASL Linguistics, in depth Deaf History/Culture, and this is where I became an ASL Tutor.
To become a skilled signer, it's encouraged to learn how to act. Thus I continued my acting adventures and appeared as an extra in one film called, MR HOLLAND OPUS. It was a great eye opening experience of how the filming industry create films.
Then I performed at PCC in the leading role for a character named Sarah for Children of a Lesser God - got a standing ovation and praises for this role. One of my proudest accomplishment in my humble life. I've also had a great pleasure working with Rosa Lee as she directed a Deaf awareness play to display true stories from Deaf people and present it in a challenging manner with different mediums.
As time went by, I learned there was a high demand for tutoring for advaneced ASL Interpreting students - so I trained to become a Master Tutor. Got my ASL Tutor Level I, Level II from Clackamas Community College and became a Master ASL Tutor. I can now teach others how to tutor students ethically, creatively, and efficiently.
However, my main focus is teaching students from beginning ASL classes to advanced ASL Interpretering students to hone on their skills. I also am an expert in teaching students with learning differences since I have it, I can empathetically & patiently show short cuts & tricks to help them to understand some concepts. Simultaneously, I took on many workshops to continue honing my ASL tutoring skills as I'm never satisfied as I believe there is so much to improve upon.
I'm proud to have helped thousands of students since 1995 to pass their ASL courses, ASLPI, NIC, and all other tests that they are required to pass to get certified or get into a program or workforce. When other ASL teachers gave up on them, I stepped in.
I look forward to helping you to also blossom!
RaVen Sequoia