The Downtown and Polytechnic student government presidents are working together to create a mentorship program for students with speech and hearing disabilities.
Polytechnic President Jeff Hebert and USGD President Joseph Grossman are aiming to create a board of students and teachers that will provide support for students with hearing and speech impairments.
The board will consist of students and teachers from the ASU Audiology Department and the ASU Preparatory Academy. The mentorship program will also provide information for teachers in grade schools to help understand the capabilities of the hearing and speech impaired, Herbert said.
Grossman and Hebert have not finalized a partnership with the academy and the Department of Speech and Hearing Science yet, but it is something they hope will take off in the next year.
The mentorship program would be free for all students. The ultimate goal is for the program to launch on all four ASU campuses.
“I think it will have a huge impact,” Hebert said. “A lot of kids are told that they are not going to be able to do much and with that extra push of encouragement, eventually you will see a lot more kids going to college.”
Grossman and Hebert had their first meeting with the speech and hearing department and have another planned for October to discuss the next steps. They are currently working on hosting a golf tournament in early April as their first big event.
When Hebert was diagnosed with a hearing impairment at 6 years old, he was told that he would never be able to read, write, or go to college.
“Growing up with a hearing loss, the biggest thing that has helped me is encouragement,” Hebert said. “The idea is for college kids to help encourage K-12 so that they can do whatever they set their minds to.”
Grossman said he was inspired to get involved after hearing what Hebert went through.
“It hurts the success of young individuals to be told that you can’t accomplish something because of an impairment,” Grossman said. “It’s really sickening, and something needs to be done about it.”
Hebert said that the central goal of the mentorship program is for K-12 students to walk out with the confidence that they can conquer life’s obstacles despite what society may tell them.
“Being able to get that information out there about hearing impairments is really vital because most people just follow what they are told,” Hebert said. “If I would have just followed what I was told, I would not be where I am today.”
Jeff Hebert’s father, John Hebert, a financial planner for UBS, plans to support the mentorship program in any way he can.
“It is not a money problem, it is an awareness problem,” John Herbert said. “My son was impaired at the age of six, and we had never even heard of half these hearing impairment foundations that are out there. What does that tell you?”
Contact the reporter at csteinka@asu.edu
