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Sign Languages Summer 2016

The students have arrived for the 2016 edition of our summer program dedicated to Sign Languages!

This Saturday we welcomed to Siena a group of 18 sign language students from some of the most important American universities, including California State University at Northridge, Rochester Institute of Technology/National Technical Institute for the Deaf, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and Western Oregon University, to name a few.

During the next three weeks lessons will include Italian Sign Language (LIS) with our teachers Barbara Dos Santos and Laura Di Gioia, Italian Language with instructors Roberto Fineschi and Chiara Ricchi, and Italian Deaf Culture with prominent names in the Italian Deaf community such as Rita Sala and Luigi Lerose. Kira Webster, ASL interpreter, Christine Brown, coordinator of the program abroad, and Mariapia Rizzi, local coordinator, complete our staff working with the summer students.

This fully immersive linguistic and cultural experience into the transnational Deaf world is truly a unique program for American Sign Language users. Students can fully engage in Italian culture, discovering the city of Siena and surrounding areas through excursions, guided tours and fun activities organized by the school, but most importantly they will have the opportunity to meet with the local Deaf community and signers to immediately put into practice the knowledge and skills they are acquiring through their study of LIS and Italian Deaf Culture and History.

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