Role Model Video A Winner

A videotape series produced in part by the National Technical Institute for the Deaf is making a difference in the lives of young deaf and hard-of-hearing people across the nation.

Achieving Goals, which features interviews with successful deaf professionals and highlights their careers, has earned six industry awards to date.

"There are thousands of deaf children who often are the only ones with a hearing loss in their families or classes," said Patricia Billies, project coordinator for the Northeast Technical Assistance Center, a federally funded program housed at NTID that supports deaf and hard-of-hearing students throughout the Northeast. "The professionals featured in this series expose these young people to outstanding role models that they otherwise might never see."

The series includes an optometrist, an attorney, a pediatrician, a veterinarian, a professional baseball player, a financial analyst, an educator, and an entrepreneur, among others. The featured individuals represent different races, cultures and socioeconomic statuses.

NETAC and NTID, a college of Rochester Institute of Technology, partnered to produce the videotapes, which are available to U.S. libraries, high school and college faculty, as well as parents and others who work with deaf and hard-of-hearing students. These tapes, together with their companion Web site, http://netac.rit.edu/goals, make students aware of the diverse career options available to them.

The series has landed a coveted Gold Telly Award for outstanding work worldwide, a Crystal Award of Excellence from the Communicator Awards, an Aurora Award for industry excellence, an Accolade Award for outstanding craft and creativity, and two Certificates for Creative Excellence from the U.S. International Film Festival Awards.

The next tapes in the series will feature computer specialists, a filmmaker, a car mechanic, a pilot, a chef and others, and will be available next year. To request a free videotape, contact Anthony Ivankovic at Anthony.ivankovic@csun.edu.

NTID is the first and largest technological college in the world for deaf and hard-of-hearing students. One of eight colleges of RIT, NTID offers educational programs and access and support services to its 1,100 students from around the world who study, live and socialize with 14,400 hearing students on RIT's Rochester, N.Y. campus.

Web address: www.rit.edu/NTID

See www.rit.edu/NTID/newsroom for more NTID news.