Hello, I’m Lexi Drake. I am recent graduate (Class of 2025) at Edgewood High School in Trenton, Ohio. This year my high school offered a new class that helps seniors get real work experience through internships. Throughout the first quarter, my classmates and I put a lot of thought into what we would like to do after high school without going immediately into college. Our teacher, Mrs. Hobson, had us do career surveys, list our skills, and come up with some future goals.
I have also been in American Sign Language (ASL) classes through Edgewood for the last 4 years. I can hold a conversation in American Sign Language. Mrs. Wilke (my sign language teacher) also taught us about the deaf experience. So, with this opportunity at the Museum, I wanted to shed light on Deaf culture and how learning American Sign Language can bring inclusivity for hearing and deaf individuals.
For me, art and communications came up as a career-focused pathway. With that information, Mrs. Hobson contacted the Cincinnati Art Museum to arrange a job shadow experience. Emma Hensley was the person I was shadowing at the museum. She is a Tour Coordinator at the Cincinnati Museum. She took me around to many different people in positions. We chatted about various opportunities for me to explore at the museum. I enjoyed this shadowing experience and wanted to do more, but I needed an opportunity a little closer to home since I also work part-time at McDonald’s.
She connected me with the staff at the Richard and Carole Cocks Art Museum at Miami University in Oxford, OH. Upon learning about my passion for Deaf Culture and my American Sign Language (ASL) coursework, Sherri Krazl, Marketing Communications Coordinator, proposed that I could focus my internship efforts on helping create content designed with accessibility and most specifically, ASL-focused for use in the museum’s social media.
I have specifically worked on creating two Art in a Minute videos in ASL (see below), as well as content that was used during Deaf History Month this past April. As a final project, I organized and led an event featuring De ‘Via (Deaf, visual, imagery, art) to teach museum staff and attendees one of the aspects of Deaf culture. Additionally, I completed an audit of content on the Art Museum and Museums Miami web pages regarding accessibility information. All of the museums are always striving to be accessible and accommodating.
This experience was a great way for me to share my knowledge and skills and learn from others in the museum field. Through my experiences in the careers course and this internship, I decided that I would like to continue my education and have decided to start with a few courses at Sinclair this coming fall, focused on continuing my ASL studies. I am thankful that this course was offered and am happy to learn that it will be continuing this next year.
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