World Deaf Leadership

Name: Hu Ke Country: China Field of Study:  ASL and Linguistics

 I am Ke Hu, from the People's Republic of China. I graduated in 2001 with a bachelor's degree in Graphic Design from Tsinghua University. After graduating, I worked at Beijing Union University (BUU) as a college teacher for 10 years. After many tests and assessments, I won World Deaf Leadership (WDL) scholarship in March 2012. In August 2012, I entered Gallaudet University as a student of English Language Institute (ELI); presently I am a graduate special Graduate student in the Department of Linguistics where I am also studying ASL. I hope to graduate in 2015 with an M.A. degree in Linguistics.

My goal is to continue as a member of BUU's staff, where I will teach and help college students from various parts of China, and be an advocate on behalf of the deaf people there.

My WDL project is aims to recover the nature of deaf sign language in Mainland China, elevate it to the same linguistic status as other languages by hearing people. I also hope to increase access and opportunities for deaf community so that they may rebuild their confidence and skills, and ultimately, I want to enlighten the hearing population so that they may participate in the world of the deaf through the publicizing of Chinese deaf sign language and deaf culture.

The WDL scholarship has helped me a lot, especially by offering me the opportunities to think from an broader international perspective, to learn more about the global deaf community, and to master the advanced research and knowledge of deaf studies including linguistics, interpreting and deaf learning methods. It also helps me make many friends and develop an international network with excellent persons in a variety fields. Without this scholarship, I can't image what I would be doing and what I would have become in China. The WDLS is helping me reach my dream. I will never forget the support of WDLS.