DreamHour Speaker Series: Jennifer Shell

Bringing to light to the faux pas of what happens when typical hearing individuals don’t repeat themselves or assume I wasn’t paying attention. I was a premie I was born with a hearing loss I require the use of hearing aids to have access to the auditory environment and conversational speech that many people often take for granted. If I ask you to repeat yourself it’s because I value what you have to say. Being able to hear speech isn’t synonymous with discriminating the words being said. Being hearing impaired in a “hearing” world that doesn’t see the visible proof of my “impairment”.

ABOUT JENNIFER SHELL

Jennifer Shell happily calls San Antonio and Sunshine Cottage, “Home”. Shortly after moving to San Antonio in 2000 she received her Bachelors Degree with a major in Biochemistry at St. Mary’s University in 2004. She then received a masters in Deaf Education and Hearing Science at UTHSCSA in 2005. She began her career at Sunshine Cottage in 2005 while she was still in graduate school. Throughout her 14 years at Sunshine she has served as a Parent Advisor in the Parent Infant Program, and taught the following grade levels: “I’m Turning 3” Toddler Class, Preschool, and currently remains in First Grade as a teacher. She received her Listening and Spoken Language Specialist certification in 2009. Ms. Shell holds certifications for Deaf Education EC-12 as well as General Education K-6. One of her favorite things about her job is growing young and older brains and facilitating relationships through mentoring graduate students as well as colleagues. She lives in Northwest San Antonio with her two energetic daughters (Ella and Aubrey), chocolate lab (Cocoa) and Honduran curly hair tarantula (Tina).