Upon entering any classroom on campus, you would expect to hear the loud chatter of a class discussion, oral lecture, or students talking among themselves. But when you walk into Jennifer Finnigan’s SIGN-051 class, you discover complete silence while Professor Finnigan demonstrates a sign for her students to mirror.
Finnigan has taught American Sign Language for 24 of her 53 years. However, she never initially set out to become a college professor. The seed was planted inside her when she was a deaf child growing up in Fresno, California where a frustrated Finnigan sought communication from her family, friends and peers.
“Growing up I loved numbers, actually,” said Finnigan through her interpreter. “I thought maybe I would do something in accounting or something related more with math, but I noticed that I always wanted to teach my hearing friends signs. I wanted that from an early age because I wanted to be able to communicate and I wanted that barrier to be gone.”
In a family of six, and as the oldest of four siblings, Finnigan grew up as the only deaf person in her family. She navigated her home life through home signs, fingerspelling and SEE signs to communicate with her parents, sister, and two brothers.
“Looking back, I’m really grateful to my parents, because they were there for me, and they really did try their best to communicate with me, in ASL, and in sign language,” said Finnigan. “We did a lot of what’s called SEE sign, it’s signing in exact English. So it’s a little bit different than the actual language of ASL. SEE sign is more word for word… And I used SEE signs a lot in my community, because a lot of my neighbors and the kids that were my age would learn SEE signs so that they could communicate with me. That’s actually what inspired me to become a teacher, but I didn’t really know it at the time.”
Her motivation to teach in the classroom came from the influence of her mother, and a friend. That led to her finding herself entering the doors of Fresno City College at 29 years old, where she fell in love with teaching.
“I was very scared as I was feeling unsure of how to teach ASL in front of 30 students for the first time,” said Finnigan. “I had been teaching friends, family, and neighbors sign language for multiple years and I was not sure how to teach ASL as a language for the college.”
24 years later, Finnigan now finds herself at LMC, where she continues to immerse her students into her world to teach them a new mode of communication.
“Looking back, I realized, wow, I really do enjoy teaching this language to hearing people, I really do enjoy it,” she said. “And I love that they get to experience a deaf person as a teacher.”
Finnigan deems her promotion from adjunct to full-time professor at LMC as the biggest milestone in her career after 16 years of working part-time, and juggling the responsibilities of being a mother of three, and her master’s degree program in Sign Language Education through Gallaudet University, a sticker she displays proudly on her laptop.
“Well, it was tough. It was tough,” said Finnigan on her promotion to full-time professor. “I knew a few people that were on the interview panel. So I knew that I kind of had to pretend like I didn’t know them. They had to be neutral and that was hard for me because I had already developed those relationships. So I had to change my approach because it was an interview. Some of the questions were definitely difficult for me. I was nervous at the time, I felt like I had worked so hard to get to this spot.”
After a month of anticipation, Finnigan received a phone call via Video Relay Service on May 5, 2022 from former Vice President of Instruction Natalie Hannum offering her a full-time position.
“I just started crying. I was sobbing. I felt like I had waited so long. And then it finally arrived,” said Finnigan.
However, Finnigan’s work does not stop after gaining the title of full-time professor. She continues to brainstorm new ideas to enhance LMC’s ASL program, entertaining the ideas of an ASL club, or deaf day on campus as well as working more closely with LMC’s Disabled Students Program and Services to build a community for deaf students on campus. Although she feels challenged by the barrier remote classes present to bring those students to campus.
“But just that online component makes it difficult,” said Finnigan. “I feel like building that community, maybe one more year, two more years, and I think we’ll have more events going on.”
Even outside of LMC’s community, Finnigan seeks more visibility and inclusion for the deaf community. In the backdrop of her mind, Finnigan envisions a reality where more deaf people attend places of study, like LMC; where there are more opportunities for the deaf community to meet up in the area and where movie theaters include open captions.
“The Brentwood AMC used to have open captions, and now they don’t provide that, or I haven’t seen that service anymore,” said Finnigan. “So I think I would just like to see more of that accessibility happen in our local area.”
On May 10, Finnigan will walk across the stage to receive her master’s degree in Sign Language Education earned last summer at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. She reflects on her recent career achievements and her journey to get there with pride.
“Now it has been two amazing years since I got the job, and I graduated with my master’s last July 2023… Life is good, right?”
