April 26, 2023, GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- A showing of the award-winning film “CODA” and a panel discussion afterwards had special significance for Grand Rapids Community College adjunct professor Rowan O’Dougherty.
The event was organized by local nonprofit Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services at Wealthy Theatre as part of Deaf History Month celebrations.
O’Dougherty is Deaf, teaches American Sign Language and Deaf Culture classes at GRCC and has been president of the D&HHS board since 2018.
He also had many of his ASL2 and Introduction to Deaf Culture students at the event as part of a special, end-of-the-semester field trip.
Prior to the show and panel discussion, those students gathered around O’Dougherty, chatting with him in ASL and smiling as they witnessed him working the room in his role as D&HHS board president.
And they spoke enthusiastically about his classes at GRCC.
Sophia VanderWilp is finishing her senior year of high school and first year at GRCC and taking ASL and Deaf culture classes alongside a number of her general education credits. She said she “sort of fell into” Dougherty’s classes, and it was love at first sight. “Rowan is an amazing teacher,” she said. “I’ve learned so much.”
And A.J. Bunker, a local Realtor, has taken both ASL2 and Deaf Culture with O’Dougherty as part of efforts to become fluent in ASL and offer an option to area Deaf home buyers and sellers that is in short supply.
“A lot of Deaf people can benefit from a Realtor who can speak their language,” she said.
Megan Wilson, a Forest Hills Central senior who took ASL for three years in high school, now has taken both ASL1 and ASL2 at GRCC. She plans to attend GRCC full time the next two years, then transfer to Madonna University to do a bachelor’s degree in sign language interpreting before heading to Gallaudet University for a master's degree.
“I love everything about my classes (at GRCC),” she said with a broad smile. “And Rowan is a phenomenally good teacher. Taking these classes, I have really fallen in love with the language and the (Deaf) community.”
She also knows that sign language interpreting is a career that is in high demand.
The demand for ASL interpreters is expected to increase by approximately 24% by 2030, according to GRCC estimates.
That’s why the college is creating pathways for students who want to work as interpreters.
O’Dougherty is fully onboard with anything that gets more ASL interpreters into the pipeline. And he said he appreciates his students and loves teaching at GRCC, where he began in 2008, and teaches three ASL courses, the Introduction to Deaf Culture course and a course on Fingerspelling and Numbers.
“My hope when I teach is for the students to have a clear sense of what Deaf culture is and is not,” he said. “I also hope to encourage them to serve as allies for the Deaf community.”
He said the same during a panel discussion after the film featuring another Deaf adult and fellow D&HHS board member and three CODAs (Children of Deaf Adults). Moderated by D&HHS executive director Deb Atwood, the discussion gave those who stayed to gain personal insights into some of what they had just watched on the big screen.
It was great, O’Dougherty said, to have his GRCC and D&HHS worlds come together for the film and panel discussion.
“It was a lot of fun, and it gave my students an event they could use for their reaction papers,” he said with a smile. “Field trips are always good, and I am hoping they got a lot of insights from both the Deaf and CODA perspectives during the panel.”
O'Dougherty’s expertise is recognized statewide. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer this month appointed him to serve on the Michigan Board of Interpreters for the Deaf, DeafBlind and Hard of Hearing.
The board was created to help streamline the sign language interpreter certification process and will advise the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs on all matters related to the certification of interpreters and the administration of the Deaf Persons’ Interpreters Act.
O’Dougherty was appointed April 6 to represent individuals who are deaf, deafblind or hard of hearing for a term expiring Dec. 31, 2026.
This story was reported by Phil de Haan.