Jean Irwin – Ambassadorial Scholar

Jean Irwin and Glen Curda, President of the Bellevue Rotary Club, share a laugh.

A joint meeting of Eastside Rotary clubs met on Tuesday, July 22, at Bellevue’s Meydenbauer Center to hear Jean Irwin, a teacher of deaf children in the Reno School District. Jean had been teaching for seven years when the Ambassadorial Scholar program came to her attention, and she saw it as a way to expand her research into new methods of teaching the deaf. “I was earning $21,000 in 1989, and the scholarship was for more money. I joined a deafness research team in Nottingham, England. What I learned there allowed me to enhance the education of my students to achieve reading levels far exceeding the average 4th grade reading level of deaf high school graduates.”

Irwin was most emphatic about what Rotary did for her. “First, you caused me to have a physical exam before I became a Rotary Scholar. The exam found a cancerous growth on my leg, which was removed, quite possibly saving my life and my limb. Second, you gave me the opportunity to study under Professor Wood in England, where I learned to debunk the myth that the deaf can’t hear. I was able to take the language of the rich and give it to the poor. And third, you gave me the knowledge to transfer what I learned to my students and have seen many of them excel and become productive, independent citizens because of my Ambassadorial opportunity.”

BBRC members attending this special joint meeting included Valoree Dowell, Ron Healey, Norm Johnson, Bob McKorkle, John Mix, Shelley Noble, Terry Peterson, Bill Schultheis, and Jeanne Thorsen.