By Alyssa Hernandez | WeINSPIRE Journalist

PEMBROKE, N.C. — The world has been beaming with pride and joy with the recent 2022 Oscars win for the film “CODA.” The film has brought more exposure to sign language, even extending to us how we see interpreters being used. The American Sign Language (ASL) Honor Society has also been helping to inspire a generation through sign language. American Sign Language (ASL) Honor Society was founded in 2006. The organization’s mission is to encourage and recognize high academic achievement in ASL studies for high school and college students.

Rebecca Kunos is the advisor of Lake Howell High School’s ASL Honor Society. It was originally a club started by a group of students. The students run everything while Kunos handles the paperwork. Eventually, the students wanted an honor society, so Kunos did the paperwork for one.

“The students wanted a club, they set it up, and they were like, ‘Ms. Rebecca, you’re the Sign Language teacher; you do it,’” Kunos said.

To be a part of the honor society, the club must complete community service hours. During the pandemic, Kunos and her students decided to start a TikTok to get the required amount of hours. They wanted to teach people sign language, deaf culture, and grammar. 

“So really, TikTok started because of COVID because there was no other way to get community service hours other than making videos,” Kunos said.

She felt that TikTok would allow the students to connect with the hearing and deaf communities despite the pandemic.  

Typically, the club is very involved in the community, participating in any events the students would like to participate in, such as a Holiday expo, ASL Idol, and ASL in The Park. The students have been grateful for the opportunity to have a club and honor society to participate in.

One of the current students, Victoria, talked about how the club allows her to hang out with friends and learn simultaneously. Another student, Hunter, said they joined the club to learn about deaf culture. One of the most recent events they participated in was because of their school’s Spanish teacher. 

The ASL club recently participated in the World Languages Festival after the Spanish teacher had gone to Kunos stating they would like to do something with Spanish and ASL. Kunos and the students agreed. The Spanish students handled the dance portion, while the ASL students handled the language and song portion. Both groups were able to teach one another something they had not done previously. They performed the song “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from the Academy Award-winning Disney movie “Encanto.”

“All songs have their own difficulties. So, what we have to do is bring up the lyrics in English and then break them down because the word order in ASL is actually very similar to Spanish. So the topic will come first and questions go at the end,” Kunos said.

The competition consists of other categories like poems, impromptu skit speaking, and group performance.  Overall, the ASL club had the most superiors, so they won a trophy at the end of the festival. The club has also interpreted speeches for Relay For Life, and they interpret all of their school’s plays.

“In Florida at least we have a high population of the deaf community, like there’s a lot of deaf people. It’s good to know that language to be able to communicate with them because their voices matter just as much as us hearing people. It’s very important as well for jobs because there might be someone who needs help but doesn’t have that access to communication,” Victoria said. 

To keep up with Kuno’s chapter of the ASL Honor Society, follow their TikTok.

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