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Angela Vilavong, who goes by AV for short, has worked for Instructional Design Services (IDS) since 2021, helping faculty develop online components for their courses. But she also takes courses as a Gallaudet student herself. AV expects to graduate through the Deaf Studies Online Degree Completion Program in May 2025, making her the first person in her family to obtain a B.A. But that’s not all! In her spare time, AV works as a freelance deaf interpreter, and is especially known for her talent in interpreting music.

Woman with short black hair smiles at the camera. She is wearing a white and blue striped shirt and stands in front of green leafy plants with large pink flowers
An ASL music camp helped AV get more comfortable with interpreting music. Now, she regularly interprets at concerts. At top, AV interprets The Lumineers for Austin City Limits last year.

Good design supports student success

In her role as an Instructional Designer, AV makes sure that online course components are easy to navigate, accessible, and look good. AV works remotely from her home in the San Francisco Bay area, and says the time difference allows her to assist instructors late into their East Coast evenings. My favorite part of the job is working with faculty; interacting with them to understand their vision of what they want to teach. That’s where I can provide support in terms of ideas and designing better ways to increase student inclusion,” AV says. Her background is in project management, multimedia communication, and collaboration, and she is also passionate about the design side of her work, which allows for a lot of fun and creativity. As a current student at Gallaudet, she has become more aware of different learning styles and how students engage with the course materials, allowing her to offer more in-depth support to faculty. [AV describes her IDS work in ASL here]

Switching between designer and student

Like many life journeys, her path to the ODCP in Deaf Studies was not straightforward: She took college courses at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf and at a local community college in Rochester, but found neither was a great fit for her. AV grappled with her own identities being Laotian, hard-of-hearing, and part of the deaf community, while living in a mainstream hearing society. She wanted a way to navigate this complexity and to learn more about herself. “I didn’t have a deep knowledge of deaf culture. Throughout my life journey and learnings, nothing truly hit me hard until I found Deaf Studies,” she recalls. 

Around this time AV also started to work as an interpreter and was eager to learn about the linguistic and cultural backgrounds of people with whom she came in contact. “A deaf interpreter must be aware of the diversity of individuals: Deaf Plus, Deaf Disabled, DeafBlind, and the like. You have to be familiar with people’s backgrounds. Deaf Studies really helps me with that understanding and to expand my knowledge of the diversity out there.” [AV explains in ASL how Deaf Studies has helped her here]

Initially, AV was worried about how to juggle work with school, but through practical support from Academic Advising, her own powers of organization, and the bilingual approach of the program, everything aligned. “I tried to do my homework one day, but I didn’t understand what to do after reading the assignment. I noticed there was a video to watch, so I watched the ASL video and I was absolutely blown away. Bilingual information helps me actively engage with the material. I can watch an ASL video, think about the content, read it in English, and then map the connections in both languages. I feel connected. I feel like I’m actually learning,” she says.

By learning about people’s varied experiences and exploring her own intersectional identities through a Deaf Studies lens, AV feels better equipped to provide stronger access as a designer and interpreter. She says the online program is the best decision she ever made. [AV describes in ASL why the ODCP was a great program for her here]

Moving backstage to onstage

You may have seen AV’s interpretations of Celine Dion’s documentary I Am: Celine Dion soundtrack recently (and if you haven’t, now’s the time!) Her path to the spotlight is one of persistence and passion.

AV grew up listening to music but was not confident in expressing it, but decided to attend an ASL music camp two years ago to learn how to do so. At the camp, she learned about musicality, expressing visuals for different instrumentation, rhythm, and making fluid movements. She attributes the camp with giving her the confidence to tap into her creativity. Developing these skills enabled her interpretations to take off and now signing music is a big part of her life. 

As an interpreter, she found music was integral to different pride festivals, and she cut her teeth at these events. Then she was hired by Amber G Productions to interpret concerts. She pushed through her initial nervousness and decided to jump in. [AV describes in ASL how she got into signing music here.]

“Interpreting music is all about heart. It’s not like you determine a rigid plan to follow and stick to it. First, you take in the music. You feel the music, and then you express the music. We provide access but also an emotional connection. If we don’t provide that emotional connection, then the music is not truly accessible,” she says. 

From country to electronic dance music (EDM), AV has interpreted a variety of musical genres. She was recruited directly by the Director of I Am: Celine Dion, Irene Taylor. Taylor is a Child of Deaf Adults (CODA), who also directed films about her Deaf parents and Deaf son. Taylor saw some of AV’s work on Instagram and asked her to sign the soundtrack in honor of this year’s United Nations’ International Day of Sign Languages. 

With disbelief, AV accepted the gig and began rehearsing over Zoom, but time delays and an inability to truly feel the music got in the way. Instead, she was flown to Washington state to film in a small studio, where she learned and was coached in Quebec Sign Language (LSQ) for four of the songs. AV was especially touched by Dion’s reaction to the video playlist. “She had a heartfelt emotional connection,” she says. “Sometimes people see ASL interpretations and they dismiss them as strange and different. But Celine believes in this, and felt the ASL interpretations were really important to share.”

AV is excited about her future plans, especially about doing more work around visualizing the instrumentation heavily used in EDM so that DeafBlind people feel connected to it. She explains many DeafBlind people can feel different frequencies of sound, and although she is in the very early stages of exploring this, she wants to grow the community’s skills and passion around it. After graduation, AV hopes to pursue a Masters Degree in Linguistics to deepen her understanding and explore the connection between language and musicality. She also sees herself establishing a nonprofit organization that brings together her interests, skills, and commitment to the broader community.

If you have a suggestion for a faculty or staff member we should profile, email aanews@gallaudet.edu so we can learn more about them!

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