GOSHEN
If you notice Olivia Ginn talking with her hands, don’t be surprised.
“I’ll be sitting with someone and trying to come up with the word I’m thinking and at the same time, I’m signing that same word with my hands,” she said, grinning while gesturing and waving her hands around. “It’s pretty funny because if I’d just pay attention to my hands, I’d know what I’m saying.”
Sometimes it takes a creative combination of words, facial expressions and hand gestures to express herself, but Ginn hopes her array of communication tools will serve her well in the future as she seeks a career as a clinical psychologist.
“I want to change the perception of mental health,” she said. “And if I can serve as an interpreter and a psychologist for deaf clients, I think that will be a huge benefit.”
Ginn, 21, faced her own challenges along the way, but will soon graduate with bachelor’s degrees in American Sign Language and psychology.
Ginn is one of 205 Goshen College students who will participate in Sunday’s 2016 commencement ceremony. The ceremony begins at 3 p.m. in the Roman Gingerich Recreation-Fitness Center.
Several of the weekend events this year will be open to the public and available for live streaming online at www.goshen.edu/graduation/live-stream.
A foster child
A native of Noblesville, Ginn and two of her siblings were adopted from South Korea when she was 6 months old.
Her parents, Susan and Wayne Cox, now of Lebanon, Ohio, cared for more than 40 foster children throughout her childhood, including several with special needs.
Ginn stumbled upon Goshen College while a student at Noblesville High School. Representatives from the college attended a college fair at her school and she later decided to pay the campus a visit.
“I guess you could say I sort of fell in love with it here,” Ginn said Thursday as she sat in Java Junction, the college’s coffee bar, and watched as several of her classmates walked through the hallways.
At Goshen, she found professors willing not only to ensure she excelled academically, but also who were invested in her future.
“Growing up with a family that fostered kids, I came here thinking I wanted to do some sort of social work,” she said.
Ginn enrolled in several social work courses, but discovered her passion for psychology.
“I think human behavior in general is just so interesting,” she said. “There’s the environmental influences, the genetic influences and yet it’s so unpredictable.”
She took a keen interest in mental health and decided she would like to assist people with mental illness in need of therapy or counseling.
But her second major came as a bit of a surprise.
The language choice
All Goshen College students are required to learn a foreign language, but having spoken English all her life, Ginn wasn’t sure which language to choose.
After attempting to learn Spanish — “Not my thing,” Ginn said — she instead enrolled in American Sign Language classes on a whim.
“I only knew the alphabet and then I came to class on the first day and learned that my professor (Debbie Gessinger) was deaf,” she said. “It was full immersion.”
Ginn also faced a unique challenge while learning to sign.
She was born with only one finger on her left hand and needed to make slight adjustments to her signs in order for people who are deaf to understand her message.
“When you’re communicating in American Sign Language, it has a lot more to do with facial expressions than with words,” Ginn said.
Learning a new language hasn’t been without a few slip-ups, Ginn said, describing how she once signed back and forth with a woman at least 10 times as the woman commented on their matching shirts.
“Oh, that was an experience,” Ginn said, grinning. “But the deaf community in general are really patient and willing to let me work through it.”
Colleen Geier, program director and associate professor of ASL interpreting, said Ginn has repeatedly received positive feedback about her sign language skills.
“Olivia does face challenges because she’s missing fingers on her left hand, but she honestly signs beautifully,” Geier said. “We taught her sign and interpreting skills but we didn’t teach her how to adapt. Olivia has figured out how to make subtle changes when she needs to and it makes her physical disability almost invisible. She also has wonderful facial expressions that are critical in ASL. Not all students develop facial expressions as fully as Olivia has.”
Ginn plans to complete a fall internship before formally graduating in December 2016. She then plans to attend graduate school to study psychology and interpreting.
Follow Julie on Twitter @jbeer_tgn
Goshen College commencement events
NOTE: Events that will be live streamed can be viewed online at www.goshen.edu/graduation/live-stream
Today
• 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. — Welcome Center open
• 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. — Senior art exhibit, Hershberger Art Gallery
• 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. — Bookstore open
• 1:30 p.m. — Nurse’s pinning ceremony, Church-Chapel
• 1:30 to 5 p.m. — Informal undergraduate academic program receptions, various locations
• 7:30 p.m. — Senior class program, Sauder Concert Hall (this event will be live streamed)
• 8:45 to 10:30 p.m. — President’s Reception for graduates and families, Music Center lobby and courtyard
Sunday
• 11 a.m. — Baccalaureate worship service, Church-Chapel (this event will be live streamed)
• 11:45 to 1 p.m. — Commencement brunch for graduates, families and friends, Westlawn Dining Hall
• 2:40 p.m. — Processional line-up, Union hallway
• 3 p.m. — Commencement ceremony, Roman Gingerich Recreation-Fitness Center (this event will be live streamed)
