The Rochester School for the Deaf is celebrating 150 years since it first opened.
Alumni met with current students in the school library during celebrations this month, and reminisced about what the school means to them decades after they graduated from the campus on St. Paul Street.
Patti Canne was among them. She graduated from Rochester School for the Deaf in 1981 and is now a social worker at the University of Rochester, working with deaf and hard of hearing patients.
Canne said in American Sign Language that returning to the school and connecting with current students is nostalgic.
"RSD is really my second home," Canne said through an interpreter. "I grew up here, I lived in the dorm, and it was just such a wonderful experience with all of the staff and the students and all of the support."
Growing up immersed in Deaf culture and language was significant, she said, and it's something she wants for future generations as well.
"Preserve Deaf schools," she said. "It's incredibly important for students to be at a Deaf school — for deaf students to be at a Deaf school — where they have full access to communication and language at all times."
The Rochester School for the Deaf provides state-funded, tuition-free, bilingual and bicultural education in American Sign Language and English for students from pre-Kindergarten through 21 years old, a school spokesperson said in a statement.
"Here they have deaf role models," John Green, a 1984 graduate, said in ASL "The personal growth is out of this world, and it can prepare them for the outside world."
The school is widely considered an anchor in Rochester's Deaf community along with the National Technical Institute for the Deaf.
It was originally called the Western New York Institution for Deaf Mutes when it first opened in October of 1876. It's held its current name since 1920.
It is recognized for introducing educational approaches like the Rochester Method, which emphasized fingerspelling, and Lyon's manual phonetic alphabet, a spokesperson for the school said in a statement. Over the years it has offered extracurricular activities from vocational training to sports, theatre, and student organizations.
“Our founders understood something that remains fundamental to our mission today: Deaf children deserve an education that recognizes their abilities, honors their language and identity, and opens doors to opportunity,” Superintendent Antony McLetchie said in a statement.
“We are enormously proud of our history and excited about the generations of students whose stories are still to be written.”
