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| Norma Morán with some of her students
in Kenya. |
While attending RIT, Norma Morán ’00 (professional
and technical communications) was a campus leader and excellent
student who was planning a career in her field of study. Then
one night she saw a poster that would change the direction of her
career and ultimately enrich her life beyond her dreams.
“I saw a Peace Corps poster with its famous question, ‘How
far are you willing to go to make a difference?’ and was
inspired by another line at the bottom, ‘The toughest job
you’ll
ever love,’ ” Morán says. “I decided
right there that this was my chance to contribute a bit to the
world’s
well-being.”
Morán sent in the application and was selected to serve
as a deaf-education volunteer in Kenya. She spent three years
working mainly with deaf children and adults, providing needed
education — and
more important, hope — to an often-overlooked minority
in African society.
Morán’s story actually began years before. Born deaf
to a young family in El Salvador, Norma was not diagnosed properly
until age 2. Simultaneously, civil war broke out in the country in
1979. Morán’s mother made her way with her daughter
to the U.S.
“Leaving El Salvador as a refugee during a war instilled
in me a great degree of empathy for people in areas of the world
that do not have any chance at the American dream,” Morán
says. “I saw the Peace Corps as a chance to do something
to alleviate some of the suffering I was fortunate to escape
in my own life.”
After migrating through Guatemala and Mexico — much of
the time on foot — the Moráns arrived in Reno, Nev.
She was mainstreamed in public schools and learned American Sign
Language, but always felt somewhat isolated from her classmates
and community. RIT’s focus on deaf education and diversity
were among the reasons she decided to move 3,000 miles to attend
college.
“At RIT/NTID, I blossomed into a young deaf Hispanic leader
through working with diverse groups of students in the microsomal
community of the deaf,” Morán says. “I really
came out of my shell and realized that I had the ability to make
a difference.”
Morán continued her role as a leader and difference-maker
in Kenya. She learned the national language of Kiswahili as well
as Kenyan Sign Language and taught a number of subjects and AIDS
awareness classes.
“I learned so much from everyone I met in Kenya, teaching,
sharing, learning, laughing, helping and being inspired. I thought
I would be giving to the people I met; instead I got much more
in return than I ever could have expected.”
Morán returned to the U.S. in 2003 and enrolled in graduate
studies at American University in Washington, D.C. Currently
a financial analyst at the National Institutes of Health, Morán hopes
to continue her work in deaf education and training on an international
level following completion of her master’s degree.
“Thanks to RIT and Kenya, I continue to evolve from where I was in El Salvador,” Morán
adds. “Marcel Prousts’s quote, ‘The real voyage of discovering
does not consist in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes,’ is
completely true!”
