Junior NAD National Conference Afterthoughts
By Jennifer Yost Ortiz, NAD Youth Programs Coordinator
“Absorb the Power, Release the Empowerment”
This exciting and forward-looking theme was created by student members of the Arizona School for the Deaf and the Blind (ASDB) Junior NAD chapter.
This theme was evident throughout the Junior NAD National Conference, held at ASDB in Tucson. Student attendees absorbed a wealth of information and learned lessons through a variety of workshops, team-building activities, and field-trips. Through these experiences students gained new knowledge and tools to release their empowerment and accomplish their dreams!
ASDB Junior NAD chapter student officers and members were empowered by performing various key roles leading up to the conference and throughout the conference week. During the conference itself, these included leading daily planning meetings for and the General Assembly; emceeing the Mr. and Miss Junior NAD pageant, oversight of workshops, introduction of guest presenters, handling workshop evaluations, introducing luncheon presenters, emceeing the banquet, and much more in the way of ensuring that the overall conference went smoothly.
I would like to recognize Lorne Farovitch, president of the ASDB Junior NAD Chapter, and Lani Murashige, vice president, for doing an outstanding job throughout the week. Their leadership was also recognized and supported by conference attendees.
Guest speakers included: Billy Seago on teambuilding, Carla Garcia on leadership and multicultural perspectives, Amy Cohen-Efron on cyberbullying, Wayne Betts on film making, Chelsea Tobin on time management, Gary Olsen and Nancy Bloch on the NAD and youth involvement, Richard Layton on parliamentary procedure, and Brandon Decker on leadership. Not only did they give a workshop, but they remained throughout the week as role models and to mingle with the students and support them!
Conference attendees also performed local community service with Ben’s Bells Project (www.bensbells.org), as explained on Wednesday’s blog. This activity involved creation of ceramic bell parts, and provided students with the opportunity to “give back” to the community and see how good it feels!
Every afternoon, students engaged in special project activities of their choice. These included rehearsing for competition in the Mr. and Miss Junior NAD Pageant, writing conference blogs, creation of a conference DVD with photos and vlogs, writing a conference newsletter, creation of a large poster depicting what Junior NAD means to them, and preparation for the Junior NAD General Assembly.
The General Assembly special project activity serves three main purposes. 1) provides the host chapter president the opportunity to develop meeting leadership skills using parliamentary procedure, to be prepared for the General Assembly itself; 2) teaches students how to make motions, and to add, change, or remove anything pertaining to the Junior NAD program (conference, chapter network, etc) for General Assembly consideration; and 3) enables students to discuss and propose additional priorities for NAD consideration and action.
The General Assembly workshop, as a special project, was a first for this conference, and enabled students involved to be more prepared for the General Assembly on the last day, where two Junior NAD delegates to the 2008 NAD Biennial National Conference were selected and Texas School for the Deaf was chosen as the site of the 2009 Junior NAD National Conference. Lorne and Lani as president and vice president did a superb job!
Junior NAD chapter advisors also had their own meetings to discuss ways to strengthen their chapters; strategies for receiving further support from school administrations, state associations, local community organizations; and ways to expand and strengthen the Junior NAD network, with the support of the NAD.
The conference ended on Saturday evening with a banquet at Hacienda De Sol, a small and beautiful southwestern resort. We belatedly celebrated the 45the anniversary of the Junior NAD (formed in 1961). We were very fortunate to have Merv Garretson (known as the father of Junior NAD), Frank Turk, and Gary Olsen as banquet keynote speakers, who spoke their memories about how Junior NAD began; their continuing passion for deaf youth, Junior NAD and ultimately, the NAD; and gave words of inspiration to all at the conference. Having the trio with us was truly a historical occasion; they were a HIT!
Also on hand for the banquet were Astrid Goodstein, NAD Board Member for Region IV (western states) and Nancy Bloch, chief executive officer of the NAD. Both emphasized the commitment of the NAD to expansion of its Youth Programs, and the fact that deaf youth are very much the future of the NAD and the American deaf community.
Hand waves to the ASDB Junior NAD chapter for doing an outstanding job in organizing this conference! Our gratitude also goes to sponsors for their generous support in ensuring the success of this year’s Junior NAD National Conference: Hands On VRS, Sprint Relay, CSDVRS, Gallaudet University, Saguaro Interpreting Services, Sorenson Communications, California State University at Northridge (CSUN), National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID), Arizona Relay Service, as well as ASDB and the NAD.
Onwards to the 2009 Junior NAD National Conference in Austin, Texas!
Saturday - October 20th
Pictures Coming Soon!
The last day before we left, everyone went to breakfast with sadness because we could not believe that the next day was the day when we would have to go back to our hometowns. After we ate breakfast, we went to the football field to take a group picture. It was almost impossible to get everyone to follow orders because we wanted to spend time together knowing that the
end was coming. The staff finally got our attention, and we put on our smiley faces for the group picture.
After this success, we all went to the General Assembly Jr. NAD meeting. The delegates and observers sat far away from each other, so we would not become confused about who was who. At the beginning, there were lots of dissenting voices to some of the issues that were raised. But after awhile, the process speeded up and everything went great! When it was over, we went to lunch.
After lunch, we went to our dorms to get ready to go to the Desert Museum in the Funearn Desert. At the Desert Museum it was very hot outside! Compared to my home in the Sunshine State of Florida, Arizona is hotter. But it was worth enduring the heat to see all the cacti; it was beautiful.
We were shocked how fast the time went. I felt like I had just met these new friends at the Jr. NAD conference yesterday or two days ago, but it was already more than six days! Wow!
On the final beautiful night, we went to the banquet honoring various people and our time together. It was such a beautiful place. One of my Florida friends, Cara Digovanni, and I realized
that this amazing place would be perfect for our next prom, but unfortunately, we live in Florida, not Arizona. Everyone was busy socializing, dancing, and eating. After dinner, we honored Frank Turk, Gary Olsen, and Merv Garretson, the original founders of Jr. NAD. A big thanks to them for their wonderful words of wisdom and encouragement. Joe from Lexington and Kendra Turner won Miss and Mr. Congeniality (voted on by fellow delegates). As we went out, we confronted everyone to collect his or her screen names, email addresses, and videophone numbers to keep in touch. We could not believe it was over! We gave each other a huge group hug!
The Jr. NAD conference of 2007 will never be forgotten! We thank our sponsors and the ASDB crew for everything.
Carly Hurd, Florida School for the Deaf
Friday - October 19th-Jr NAD Pageant
On a warm and starlit October evening, the Arizona School for the Deaf hosted the Mr. and Miss 2007 Junior NAD Pageant. All of us, both student attendees and advisors, were very excited because we wanted to know who would win the pageant. There were eight girls and three boys competing. They all did a great job.
Congratulations to the winner of the best platform speech, Tiandra Trent (Indiana). The winner of the best talent was Travis Zornoza (Kentucky), whose talent was weaving a story into a juggling routine. He was so cool and made us laugh. The second runners up were Elizabeth Sterling (North Carolina) and Richie Dunn (Phoenix). The first runners up were Kendra Turner (Buffalo) and Colin Analco (Indiana).
Congratulations to:
Chanel Gleicher, Miss 2007 Junior NAD
Travis Zornoza, Mr. 2007 Junior NAD
Friday - October 19th
All Jr. NAD kids—that’s us—woke up to an engaging morning. As the day passed by, we knew each other more. There was chatting and laughing with new friends over a delicious breakfast. Afterwards, we went to different workshops. The delegates were split into six groups. Two groups went to the ropes course in the morning and had physical activities that afternoon. Lunch was a classic menu: hotdogs, hamburgers, and French fries.
After another workshop, we went to the gym to enjoy ourselves during the break. ASD students explained the history behind the piñata. It was interesting! The point of a piñata was to “destroy” sins. A long time ago, they used to put food in them and spin the batter thirty-three times (because of the number of years Jesus lived). Then, the batter would try his/her best to hit the piñata to destroy the people’s “sins” while blindfolded with a bandanna! For us, it was just a fun game to enjoy ourselves.
The piñata looked like the Jr. NAD logo. It was covered with red, blue, and white. Each group picked one person to have a chance to hit the piñata. Some of them tried to hit it, but missed. It made us laugh at them. When the piñata finally broke, almost all of us went crazy to get candies. But we all shared our candies with each other! It was a good time for all of us! We were served with sodas and snacks during our break. Tonight, we will watch the Jr NAD pageant! It will be very exciting and enjoyable. Here is the list of pageant contestants:
Miss Contestants
Chanel Gleicher, Maryland
Amy Bachtel, Ohio
Sandy Frank, Kentucky
Tiandra Trent, Indiana
Cara DiGovanni, Florida
Elizabeth Sterling, North Carolina
Radoslava Slavova, Scranton
Kendra Lynn Turner, Saint Mary’s
Mr. Contestants
Colin Analco, Indiana
Travis Zornoza, Kentucky School
Richie Dunn, Phoenix
We will make an announcement afterwards of the winners of the Mr. & Miss 2007 Jr. NAD Pageant!
In evening, all of us arrived Nightfall at old Tucson 20 minutes away from ASD. When we got off the buses, the first scary view of the Nightfall was the gloomy deep dark blue sky with the rising moon. The moon’s gleaming light was the special effect of the night, filled with beautiful stars! Nightfall was filled with haunted houses. Some of them almost gave us heart attacks. Some of them were not scary as. Just for fun, we tried to scare each other. There were a few shows with an interpreter. They were so cool. We so enjoyed that creepy night. When we arrived back at ASD, we were knocked out on our beds!
Rachella Shephard, Maryland School for the Deaf
Thursday - October 18th
Greetings, everyone!
It was a chilly morning and time for breakfast. There were lots of delicious things to choose from like scrambled eggs, bagels, hash browns, and cereals. After we had eaten, we chatted for a while. Then all the students were dismissed to their regularly scheduled plan of workshops. There are different categories of workshops and different groups of students from A to F. For example, groups E and F went to the University of Arizona for the ropes course. Group A had a teambuilding activity given by Billy Seago. Group C had a multicultural workshop by Carla Garcia. Amy Cohen-Efron presented an Internet Cyber bullying workshop to Group D. Group B had a TV/Film Production mini-class given by Wayne Bett, jr., the co-founder of Mosdeux Production.
After few hours of changing workshops, it was time for lunch. We had Brooklyn Pizza. There were stacks of pizzas with different toppings like pepperoni, veggie, Hawaiian lovers’, and steak lovers’. Delicious! Time went by fast! After lunch, all students continued their programs for a few hours; then we had an afternoon break.
At 6:00 p.m., all students went to old Tucson Studio for a haunted town called Nightfall. The temperature was cool. I saw some scary insane asylum inmates. They had blood and some glass shards on their faces. Of course, they were fake! To me they were not really scary.
There were a few shows. The first one was funny. Most of them were scary comedy shows. Then we went back to tour some more. Later we went to see a musical show about Count Dracula and his three vampire girls. Then there was one more show called Darkness Rising. It had more action, like some explosions, a human torch (no worries, they are professional actors/ actresses), and some well-choreographed fighting. When those shows were done, it was time to leave and return to the ASDB campus for some more chatting or early sleep like I did!
-Joe Weingart, American School for the Deaf
Wednesday - October 17th
Early in the morning, we woke up and got ready for breakfast. We were exhausted because we were not used to waking up this early. Our brains were on a different time zone than Arizona; it is three hours earlier than in the East, so it felt like we were getting up at 3 a.m.
Little by little, we began to sit next to new friends at the breakfast table to get know each other more. Last night’s “social” games really helped us to break our resistance to making new friends. By the way, breakfast was so delicious! We split into six different groups, each on its own schedule. Some of us had workshops where we learned a lot. The definition of “leader” was a lesson today. We never realized that there is a big difference between leading and just influencing a rookie. A leader loving, kind, non-judgmental, and flexible.
Richard Layton giving a presentation on parliamentary procedures
Other workshops we took were teambuilding, multicultural issues, Internet cyberbullying, TV/film production, parliamentary procedure, building bridges to the NAD, and physical activities. In addition, we met Miss Deaf America, Chelsea Tobin, today! She presented a time management workshop. We were served slices of giant subs for lunch: ham, turkey, salami, and vegetable. Various kids’ tastes for different kinds of subs were satisfied. Right now, we are in a “blog class” to tell our rich experiences. Today isn’t over, and we can’t wait for tonight’s event!
Everyone talking and having a great time.
- Carly Hurd, Florida School for the Deaf
Last night, we went to Main Square at the University of Arizona for supper. We could choose from several different types of restaurants: Mexican, Italian, Chinese, or Asian. As for me, I went to Pei Wei’s Restaurant. Their food tasted really good. It was my first time to eat in Pei Wei’s, one of the restaurants in the Main Square. I chilled with new friends, and it was so much fun! Now I feel like I’m part of our national youth leadership group because we have had a lot of experiences together.
Say Cheese!
- Heba Kayed, Pennsylvania School for the Deaf.
Our first lunch
After supper, we participated in the Ben’s Bells project in Main Square. The project was founded by a woman named Jeannette Mare-Packard who had two sons. When he was almost three years old, her youngest son, Ben, had a cold, but Jeanette thought it was not a big deal until she saw Ben turn blue. She called 911 and Ben was rushed to the hospital. By the next day, Ben had passed away of croup. It really hurt his mother, and it took her a few years to recover. She acted like she was fine outwardly, but inside, she was grieving and prayed everyday that she would die. As time went by, she felt much better not only because she has a family and friends who supported her but also because of the small kindnesses that she experienced from total strangers every day.
Everyone enthusiastic about Ben’s Bell community service
When he was alive, Ben used to love to play with clay. His mother decided to set up a place called “Ben’s Bells Project.” Fortunately, she was given a studio rent-free. People come from the community to sit and chat with each other and make clay figures, paint them when they have been fired, string them together, and hang them randomly throughout Tucson and neighboring towns to be found by strangers who may need a kindness in their life. She sells some of the bells and t-shirts to make money to support the project. Ben’s Bells have been distributed all over Arizona and even as far as San Diego. The bells we made last night will be delivered to Virginia Tech. If this project interests you, please check the website, www.bensbells.org.
Cara Hawkinson working on a project for Ben’s Bell community service
Jennifer Yost Ortiz, NAD Youth Programs Coordinator and Jeannie, Ben's mother
- Carly Hurd, Florida School for the Deaf
Tuesday - October 16th
On October 16, everyone (participants and advisors) arrived with mixed feelings! Some of us felt very tired or excited, with plenty of other emotions. There were frustrations with missed flights; others were experiencing jet lag from early morning flights and time zone changes. Arriving at the airport; we were greeted by members of the Arizona School for the Deaf’s Jr. NAD chapter. They then led us to the bus to get to ASDB.
Riding on the bus from the airport, we saw cactus instead of trees! The buildings were made of cement, not the usual brick houses some of us were used to. We saw more dirt and sand than grass because of Arizona’s climate. The best thing about Arizona’s environment is Mt. Lemmon and its surrounding mountains. It’s very breathtaking!
Arriving at ASDB, we were asked to register. We got free backpacks and many other little things: a plastic water bottle, pen, lip balm, etc. We also got the traditional Jr. NAD National Conference t-shirt. Walking on campus, we came across more agricultural differences. The buildings of ASDB are lovely and made a lot of us feel like we were on vacation in a resort. We were sent to find our rooms where we would stay for the rest of the week. The dorms have plenty of living room space, TV’s, and lots of kitchen space. All of us were roomed with two other roommates from different schools.
Some of us met old friends from previous camps. Some of us made new friends right away. After most of us had arrived, we went to the cafeteria to eat a wonderful Mexican dinner—a taste of Arizona. It was very spicy!
First dinner along with dessert, yummy!
We thank Arizona School for the Deaf for our first Fiesta Mexican dinner
After everyone was full, we went to the gym for the Opening Ceremony for the 2007 Jr. NAD National Conference. Kyara Corral was our MC for the night. She introduced the Jr. NAD president and vice president of ASDB, the core committee, the sponsors, and the chairperson of this conference. There were several inspiring guest speakers, Nancy Bloch and Jennifer Yost Ortiz to name just a few. After everyone was introduced and the schools were recognized we split up into four groups for icebreakers.
Welcoming all the Delegates to Junior NAD Conference
Enough said
There were four icebreaker games: the Elephant game, the Winking game, the Truth game, and the infamous Telephone game.
Icebreaker activities has begun
In the elephant game one person would stand in the middle and point to someone. That person would then have to put their hands in the shape of a trunk, while the two people on either side put ears on the “trunk” person by cupping their hands on his or her head to resemble an elephant.
John Wholey caught up in the moment
During the winking game a circle of people sat in chairs with a person standing behind each of them. The people sitting would make eye contact with another person sitting, and if they winked they would try to get away from the person standing and switch places with them.
The truth game was another circular sitting game where we had one person standing saying something that was true about him or herself. If the statement was true about anyone else, those people would have to get up and move to another chair. The person left without a chair would be the next person to come up with a statement.
The telephone game is a classic. We split up the group in two lines with one person as the “messenger.” Everyone would face the opposite direction of the messenger, except the first person in each line. The messenger made up a line and told it to the first person in each line. Those people would then pass it along the line. Here’s the catch; we could only say it once. At the end of the line we would have a whole different message.
Throughout the games people were laughing and just having a good time. We got to know other people more. When the icebreaker games came to an end, we were really disappointed. But, we were exhausted! Weary with a day of excitement, everyone headed back to our dorm rooms for a good, long sleep.
-Rachella Shephard & Haley Allen
Junior NAD shirt made by ASDB Students
Nancy Kelly-Jones, Advisor for 32 years and Nancy Bloch, NAD CEO
|
Junior NAD National Conference Afterthoughts
Saturday - October 20th
Friday - October 19th-Jr NAD Pageant
Friday - October 19th
Thursday - October 18th
Wednesday - October 17th
Tuesday - October 16th
|
