Hello, and welcome to the June 17th issue of Hi5!

We wish everyone a happy Juneteenth. Remember that Gallaudet is closed on Monday, June 20 to observe this federal holiday, which commemorates the emancipation of the last slaves in the United States in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865.

We have a lot of news for you today, so let’s get started!

Here are our Top Five stories.

First and foremost, we are grateful to Sorenson for entering into a strategic partnership with Gallaudet, including a $3 million endowment gift to the Center for Black Deaf Studies! This will accelerate planning for our new Louise B. Miller Pathways and Gardens: A Legacy to Black Deaf Children. It also includes an annual symposium; the first one will be in September. Watch for more details!


Our student-athletes are doing us proud! Eric Gregory won the 400-meter dash at the NCAA Division III track and field championships in May, and finished third in the 200-meter dash. He was also named NCAA Division III Track and Field Athlete of the Year. Gregory is the first-ever Gallaudet athlete to win a national championship in any sport. His exploits attracted a great deal of media attention; he will even be in Sports Illustrated next month!

Also, May graduate Timel Benton has signed a contract to play professional football with the Bay Area Panthers of the Indoor Football League! Benton played quarterback for the Bison, and received many awards. We wish him all the best!


Alumni Joey Caverly and Sandra Mae Frank are appearing in The Music Man at Olney Theatre Center in Olney, Maryland, beginning tonight through July 24. Theatre professor Ethan Sinnott designed the set for this production. The show has received very positive reviews; be sure to see it!

Gallaudet is one of 54 schools nationwide that will participate in the 2022 Curriculum-to-Career Innovations Institute this fall. This institute will focus on supporting campus efforts to strengthen connections between college learning and workforce preparation, and to develop productive campus-industry partnerships. It is co-directed by the American Association of Colleges and Universities and IBM.

Roberto Wirth, a world-famous Deaf hotelier in Rome, passed away unexpectedly on June 5. He was 72 years old. Wirth attended Gallaudet in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was owner and general manager of the Hotel Hassler in Rome, just above the famed Spanish Steps. He was a member of our Board of Associates, and created a scholarship for Italian deaf students to study at Gallaudet. We send our condolences to his family and friends.


Here is our other news for today.

The Motion Light Lab, ML2, with support from Sorenson, produced an 18-minute animated film, Dimensions, with 3-D avatars. In this film, Zoe, the protagonist, tells a story about what happened to her when she was young. This film will be shown at the Seattle Deaf Film Festival, Indie Shorts Awards New York, and Clin d’Oeil in Reims, France.

Gallaudet and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) are entering into a partnership to ensure that deaf and hard of hearing people are notified of hurricanes and other natural disasters.We will report on this in more detail in a future issue of Hi5.

There are several new and exciting programs being offered this summer, including transformational leadership, deaf-centered disability-inclusive disaster risk reduction and emergency planning, and caregiver training.

We are always looking for motivated individuals committed to making a difference here at Gallaudet University. Go to gallaudet.edu/careers.

As a reminder, we are publishing once per month during the summer. Our next two issues after today will be on July 15 and August 19. We will resume our regular biweekly schedule when school begins in the fall.See you next month!

You can stay up to date by following us at @GallaudetU on our social media platforms. If you have a story that you feel would be a good fit for Hi5 or social media, share it with us at gu.live/request.