Alumni Profiles
Business graduate finds calling helping the hearing impaired
Keller making a difference in Chicago school
Business graduate finds calling helping the hearing impaired
By Kim Walker
While working through business and office management courses at Anderson University, Rebecca (Sipe) Buchan BA ’93, AA ’93 developed an unexpected love: the art of sign language. She attended North Anderson Church of God and was mesmerized by an interpreter aiding the service. She acted on impulse, taking sign interpretation classes at both North Anderson and St. John’s Hospital; she felt she simply couldn’t get enough.
After graduating from college, Buchan searched for full-time employment in the business field, but her plans changed when she met a 3-year-old deaf boy. Buchan set aside her job search in business to help the little boy with his preschool classes. That experience led her career down a completely different path — a path that is now a profitable, full-time job.
“When I took my first job with the little boy, my vocabulary and understanding of American Sign Language (ASL) was just a little above his,” she says. “Looking back, the Lord always placed me in jobs that matched my proficiency of the language.”
Living in Anderson, Ind., Buchan is a freelance certified interpreter, escorting deaf individuals to banks, doctor’s offices, classes, plays, musical performances, even court hearings. She also teaches at conferences both in and out of state.
“There’s a bigger need for ASL interpreters than I first realized,” says Buchan. “Since I’ve made the leap into freelancing, I have had to turn down more jobs than I can take.”
Buchan’s freelance position is bolstered in part, she says, by the Americans with Disabilities Act. According to Buchan, the Americans with Disabilities Act mandates that most businesses pay to have an interpreter on hand, if needed. Some business events, such as a public address by a mayor or a town hall meeting, require businesses to provide for an on-site interpreter. Other events — public performances and court appearances — require the payment of an interpreter upon request.
“The law gives me a sense of security,” she explains. “Every time a deaf person needs to see a doctor or go to the bank, an interpreter is paid for by the company.”
In fact, Buchan’s call for work has become so abundant that her husband recently decided to stay home with the couple’s 3-year-old twins and 7- and 8-year-old daughters.
“At times, it (relying on a sole income) can be a little scary,” admits Buchan. “I’ll look at my calendar and worry that I only have a few appointments for the week, but by the end of the week, it’s always full.”
Even as a full-time certified interpreter, Buchan relies on the knowledge she gained from her business degree at AU. “I use it to manage my business now,” she laughs. “The business degree — my career — it was all part of God’s design.”
Keller making a difference in Chicago school
By Kim Walker
Travis Keller BA ’02 was never one to take the easy road. When he set out in search of his first teaching job a year ago, he specifically looked for a school others might shy away from — an inner-city, high-poverty, racially diverse school.
He found exactly what he was looking for at Childs Elementary School in Robbins, Ill. Childs is located in the most poverty-stricken suburb of Chicago, a suburb known for its high crime and drug-usage rate. Keller is the only male teacher in a school where half of the children in his second grade class do not have a father in the home. The school itself is small and worn, lacking many typical, modern resources: Childs has no library, the cafeteria doubles as a gym, and a computer in a classroom is a luxury hard to come by.
“Most of these kids come from terrible home lives,” explains Keller. “They come in crying and hungry in the morning, so I always keep snacks in the classroom. They are only in the second grade, I know, but they have seen a lot; they come with a lot of baggage.”
But there is still a lot to celebrate at Childs Elementary School. Childs is actually a success story. For the past two years, Childs has overcome the staggering poverty barrier that often dictates academic failure and had 70 percent of its third graders successfully meet or exceed standards on the Illinois Standards Achievement Tests. That feat places Childs with only 10 other high-poverty elementary schools in Chicago that topped the 70 percent passing mark.
Childs Elementary Principal Louise Dennis credits the school’s academic success to their mantra “every child can learn” and to maintaining the right mix of dedicated teachers.
“As our superintendent has explained, once you have a process in place for achieving academic success, it’s easy for any teacher to fall into it. But I think it’s still important to have teachers who firmly believe every child can learn. Travis has that enthusiasm. He is such an even-tempered gentleman, and he just fit in. I think Travis has attended more baby showers this year than he has ever attended, and he just acts like it’s the most normal thing in the world. He has made a tremendous impact on the community without even knowing it,” says Dennis.
Keller himself is more modest about his personal contributions. He credits Anderson University with allowing him the experience to student teach at a low-poverty school in Anderson, Ind.
Still, Keller says there are some things you have to experience first-hand. With one year under his belt, he knows he will be a stronger, more proficient teacher this year.
“I’ve learned the culture; I’ve learned to see things through their eyes. A lot of my students didn’t know how to act. They honestly didn’t know right from wrong. This year I’ll do a lot of character education, and that’s not something I’ll find in the state standards.”
