Education - Helping Foreign Deaf Students

Assisting Truly Challenged Students

Very often foreign deaf students must come to the United States to receive a collegiate level education, because education at the post-secondary level is not accessible to deaf college students in their country. This can be very costly for them; however, sources of financial assistance for international students are limited. Several years ago, Andrea Shettle, a deaf Gallaudet alumnus, recognized the need and launched the International Deaf Education and Advancement Fund, or I-DEAF to assist these students in obtaining an education at Gallaudet University.

The I-DEAF web site explains the rationale behind establishing I-DEAF. Established in 1991, the fund has made grants annually since 1994. On the site there is a letter from the first recipient describing his accomplishments since graduating from Gallaudet and returning to his home country, where he established a school for the deaf.

The 1995/96 recipient also wrote a letter describing conditions for deaf people in her home country. There is nothing on the web site yet from the 1997 and 1998 recipients, but they too have plans to improve things for deaf people in their home countries.

The site includes archived copies of articles about I-DEAF. The first article is about the first recipient. The other article is about the beginnings of I-DEAF.

Interested in contributing to I-DEAF? This contribution information is copied from the I-DEAF web site (to get to it, you have to scroll far down the page):

To give to I-DEAF, write a check payable to Gallaudet University and write the name of the fund in the memo line. If you are paying in a currency other than U.S. dollars, you may instead use an International Coupon Order.

Gifts to I-DEAF may be mailed to:

Development Office
Gallaudet University
800 Florida Avenue, NE
Washington, DC 20002-3695
United States of America