OPPOSE HB 1367!

Miss Deaf Indiana Ambassador Jenna Misko-Smith with her family, from left to right: DJ, Dan, Joan and Danni.

Joanna Witulski, Miss Deaf Indiana Ambassador Program coordinator welcomes Jenna Misko-Smith as our fifteenth Miss Deaf Indiana Ambassador. Jenna Misko-Smith is a senior at Indiana School for the Deaf and will be competing for the national crown at the Miss Deaf America Ambassador Competition during the National Association of the Deaf Biennial Conference, held during the first week of July in 2012. The conference and competition will be held at Louisville, Kentucky. Jenna will receive an IPad2 from Purple Communications, the competition’s sponsor. After graduating from Indiana School for the Deaf, Jenna will attend Gallaudet University with a goal of becoming an elementary teacher and an actress.

Jenna Misko-Smith presented about empowerment in the Deaf community and shared her artistic expression about ‘Friends Forever’, which is an American Sign Language poem. She was a past Mr. and Miss Deaf Teen America, which is a program under Junior National Association of the Deaf. Jenna performed with Vibrations, a musical variety show based out of Indiana School for the Deaf. She works with kindergarten students at Indiana School for the Deaf as a part of her community services and takes an advanced class at a local college.

Jenna competed along with Brittany Nelson from Kouts, IN. Both ladies did a wonderful job presenting their platforms, which is presenting about a topic, which is their passion and their artistic expression, which showcases their talents in the arts.

In the last decade, people who have been a major part of their state and national Miss Deaf America had recognized a change in how our women participated at the state and national level and only recently removed ‘pageant’ which is beauty-based to ‘ambassador’ which reflects the leadership role, in which the women perform through networking, education and arts; which is their beauty, from within.

Indiana Association of the Deaf is excited to welcome Jenna and Brittany into their fold and congratulates Jenna on her being crowned Miss Deaf Indiana Ambassador and looks forward to her representing Indiana in our sister state of Kentucky. Jenna will be available to present and/or perform at various locations after the start of the new year (January 2012). For more information, questions and/or to book her for any events, please contact Joanna Witulski at mdia@iadhoosier.org. Check us out on Facebook: Miss Deaf Indiana Ambassador Program.

From left to right: Patrick Flores (Treasurer), Jennifer Dans-Willey (Board), Aileen Vasquez (President), Janis Tester (Secretary), Charleen Sculley (Vice President), Jaye Johnston (Board), Andy Leffler (Board), Dave Tester (Board), and Daniel Pfaff (Board).

Written by Aileen Vasquez,
Editor of Indy Deaf News and President

Indiana Association of the Deaf held its 47th Biennial conference on November 4 and 5, 2011. This also was an extra special celebration to recognize our 125th anniversary.

On Friday we had a regular board meeting in the morning with two workshops in the afternoons. Kim Bianco Majeri presented on the Deaf community and awareness of our rights as advocates for having qualified certified interpreters. Jodee Crace and Meg Warnock presented on the importance of having the Deaf community being involved with the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) program and being mentors to new families with deaf babies.

In the evening, we had a public forum at Greater Indianapolis Deaf Club with Ella Mae Lentz and Marvin Miller leading a discussion on the future of Indiana and the Deaf community. InTRAC provided munchies for the community.

On Saturday morning, Ella Mae Lentz gave a presentation, “At A Crossroads”. It covered the qualities of a successful organizer as well as the need of preserving Deaf culture and language. For those who would love to have the powerpoint presentation file, IADConfKeynote Nov2011.

We had a business meeting with the conclusion of voting for IAD board members in the afternoon. Then we had a banquet with a program to recognize the past living presidents of IAD which included Beatrice Pfaff, Donald Tinsley, James Games, Sharon Wesley-Dunn and Gale Walker, presentations of awards, and the oath of elected officers.

The Richard Kennedy Award was presented to Donald Tinsley for his hard work, out of box thinking and leadership at IAD, Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services (DHHS) and his contributions to the Black Deaf community over 10 years.

The IAD Hall of Fame Award was presented to Sharon Wesley-Dunn for her long time contributions and service to the Deaf community including IAD, Archibald Memorial Home, Greater Indianapolis Deaf Club and many other work.

IAD Meritorious Award: Kim Bianco Majeri for her work on ISD School Board rally and behind the scenes political work.

IAD’s President Awards: Aileen Vasquez and Ronda Bilz for their dedicated work on Indy Deaf News.

In the evening, there was a Miss Deaf Indiana Ambassador competition with two ladies: Brittany Nelson from Kouts, IN and Jenna Misko-Smith from Indianapolis, IN. Miss Jenna Misko-Smith was awarded the tiara and title of Miss Deaf Indiana Ambassador for 2011 to 2013. She received a iPAD2 from Purple Communications and will be attending National Association of the Deaf conference in Louisville, KY next July. There was a reception with people attending the new Indiana Deaf History Museum afterwards.

The elected officers of Indiana Association of the Deaf for 2011 to 2013 are Aileen R. Vasquez, president; Charleen Sculley, vice-president; Janis Tester, secretary; Patrick Flores, treasurer; five board members at large: Jaye Johnston, Andy Leffler, Daniel Pfaff, Dave Tester, and Jennifer Dans-Willey.

We would like to thank our sponsors: Purple, Sorenson, InTRAC, and Aspire. We also want to thank Indiana School for the Deaf and Vincennes University ASL program for letting us use their facilities. Many thanks goes to Indiana KODA and Jr. NAD for providing childcare for our families that were able to attend the conference.

We had 77 people register for the conference and 105 in attendance for the Miss Deaf Indiana Ambassador program.