Andrew Foster: The Deaf Community

The Deaf community is constructed of a vast amount of successful and inspirational people. Personally, I found Andrew Foster to be significantly encouraging. Andrew Foster is the first African-American to graduate from Gallaudet University, a private university for the Deaf, with a bachelor’s degree. Foster also worked hard to get two master degrees. Thus, Foster would be a part of the Elite Deaf. The elite Deaf are “Deaf people who have managed to achieve high levels of academic success and pursue their higher education aspirations. The Deaf community is also home to a growing group of Deaf professional middle-class individuals, or what some people call the Elite Deaf” (Holcomb, T.K., 273). Foster was a part of a sub-community. He was a part …show more content…
He was well associated with the Deaf and was a broad aspect to the community. Through his education, he was able to achieve many accomplishments that made the Deaf community proud. It all began during his teenage years. At Sunday school, “A missionary from Jamaica came to the school one weekend and gave a talk about his work in Africa. Andrew was extremely interested in the man’s experiences and felt that it was his calling in life to become a missionary in Africa too. If he was to succeed, Andrew also knew he would need a lot of education” (Andrew Foster: The Gallaudet of Africa). The missionary inspired Foster to make a difference and a change in the Deaf community. According to Gallaudet University, “Foster established the Christian Mission for Deaf Africans (today known as the Christian Mission for the Deaf) in 1956 in Detroit and started going on speaking tours throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Western Europe, and then 25 African nations to raise funds to establish schools for the deaf in Africa” (Gallaudet University). Foster’s success in establishing schools for the Deaf around the world made a great change in the Deaf community. Access to education for the Deaf provided big cultural advancements and also made the Deaf community more well-known and widely accepted. The first school Foster established was located in West Africa and was called “the Ghana Mission School for the Deaf” (Gallaudet University). The …show more content…
Foster was one of the first African-Americans to graduate from a Deaf University, achieving his Bachelors and eventually two Master degree’s. He used his power to educate children and adults in Africa, changing the lives of the Deaf. He offered the opportunity of empowerment to so many adults and children, the right to an education. He has influenced the Deaf community by proving that anything is possible. An African-American Deaf male gets three college degrees and successfully creates 31 schools in different African countries. He is a widely viewed activist of both the Deaf and Black cultures. According to “Andrew Foster: The Gallaudet of Africa”, “Gabriel Adepoju, one of Foster’s students, said, ‘Andrew Foster is to Africa what Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet is to the United States of America.’ Andrew established 31 schools in over 17 African countries. The mission he started is still going strong, and his legacy lives on in the tens of thousands of deaf Africans who are now literate and living good lives thanks to his lifelong effort on their behalf.” Andrew Foster has provided so much opportunity for both the Deaf and the African American communities. These people now have the chance to get an education and be successful, changing their lives around. Andrew Foster is a strong and inspirational image and leader to the Deaf African-American cultures and

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Andrew Foster: The Deaf Community

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