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tricityvoice.com
January 21, 2025
Deaf community fights for education: Part II
Fremont high school students launch a satellite into space orbit
RESEARCH SHOWS THE IMPACT OF EARLY EXPOSURE AND ASL EDUCATION
SCHOOL BOARD RECOGNIZES IRVINGTON CUBESAT STUDENTS FOR THEIR OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD ACHIEVEMENT
By PANASHE MATEMBA-
MUTASA
Naomi Caselli, a Boston University associate professor of deaf education, researches the impact of early exposure to American Sign Language (ASL), and says there’s a critical window in the first few years of life where access to language is most critical. “If we don’t get access to language during that critical period, it wreaks havoc,” Caselli said. In July, Caselli conducted an empirical study on CSD learning outcomes. She sought to find disparities in educational achievement between deaf children with deaf caregivers, who are more likely to be “linguistically enriched,” and deaf children with hearing/nonsigning parents, who are considered to be at high risk for language deprivation. Her hypothesis was that if early immersion in a bilingual (ASL and English) education environment promotes ASL proficiency among deaf students with hearing caregivers, their ASL scores should overlap entirely with deaf children who have deaf caregivers. Comparing them against a Reference Group of deaf students with deaf caregivers, Caselli analyzed ASL test scores of 20 “Early Entry” students, defined as students who entered CSD by age three, and 406 “Late Entry” ones who enrolled after that age. While students in the Early Entry category began with lower ASL scores than their peers in the Reference Group, their scores completely overlapped by around fourth grade, and the overlap persisted through high school. Conversely, Late Entry students on average scored much lower than their Early Entry peers, a disadvantage that persisted into high school.
Ongoing staffing shortages could have serious implications for the quality of education at CSD. Photo by Panashe Matemba-Mutasa continued on page 9
INDEX Arts & Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . 13 Bulletin Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Vol. 24 No. 4
By PANASHE MATEMBA-
MUTASA
(Left to right) Paramedic/Tiller Paul Nadarisay, Captain Zack Trask and Engineer Jason Wyatt make up part of Fremont Fire Department’s newest fire company. Photo by April Ramos
Fremont Fire Department welcomes new company FIRE SERVICES EXPAND AS FIREFIGHTERS AND FIRE EQUIPMENT MAKE UP THE 14TH FIRE COMPANY By APRIL RAMOS Fremont government and firefighter officials—former and current—came together on Tuesday, Jan. 14 to attend a milestone event in their city. Fremont Fire Department held their official 14th Company Grand Opening at Fire Station 6 in Fremont’s Centerville District. The new 14th Fire Company consists of a new fire truck and nine firefighters at the Central Avenue fire station. With fire safety on the forefront of the minds of many due to the catastrophic southern California fires, a new fire company in the most populated city in the Tri-City area, is a win for Fremont residents and neighbors alike. “Fremont is one of the few communities in the region actively investing in public safety by increasing our fire department budget and our priority in firefighters,” said Fremont Mayor Raj Salwan. “This commitment ensures faster response times for our residents, enhanced service delivery and greater protection for all of our residents.” The ceremony was held in the Station 6 Fire Department building on Central Avenue. Minutes before speeches began, a group of firefighters entered a fire truck, turned on its siren and swiftly pulled out of the station demonstrating how, even while being honored, firefighters never stop serving the public. The road to the new fire company began over 20 years ago, explained Fremont Fire Chief Zoraida Diaz. It began with former Fire Chief
Jeffery Thomas. “Fire Chief Jeffery Thomas decided to put together a plan for the fire department that started with expansion,” explained Diaz. In 2004, Chief Thomas identified multiple ways to improve the fire department as a whole and one of them was to add a fire company in the City of Fremont. It was recommended to move a truck from Station 1 on Mowry Avenue to Station 6 to support the growth of the community. “Unfortunately,” Diaz said, “it was not something that was feasible [at that time].” In 2020, it was reaffirmed that a new company was necessary in the city. “2022 and 2023 was a good year for us in terms of budget, and the city as well,” Diaz continued. “In 2022 and 2023 city leadership, as well as elected officials, supported us as a 14th company to purchase the truck.” Fire truck 56 serves as a milestone piece of equipment for the Fire Department, but Osh Ahmad, President of Fremont Firefighters Association, acknowledged the team of firefighters that make up the new 14th company. “Our firefighters [are] the heart and soul of this department. You are the ones who will take this truck into the streets. Your bravery, commitment and sacrifice is the reason why we have this company in service now.” Chief Diaz gathered all Fremont government leaders and 14th Company firefighters to stand together as she officially placed the 14th Company into service by radioing in, “It is my honor and privilege to place truck 56 in service at quarters.” She then introduced Zack Trask who presented the 14th Company’s Engineer Jason Wyatt and Paramedic, Tiller Paul Nadarisay.
Fremont Unified School District’s Irvington High School (IHS) is celebrating a groundbreaking achievement as its CubeSat program successfully launched its studentdesigned satellite, Pleiades-Orpheus, into orbit over winter break. The milestone was recognized at a school board meeting last week, where Superintendent Erik Burmeister congratulated the team. “It’s a one of a kind engineering project,” Burmeister said. The accomplishment makes Irvington High the ninth high school worldwide to launch a CubeSat into space. The satellite was deployed on Dec. 21, 2024, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County. The journey began in 2022, when a group of Irvington students, led by now-graduated seniors, collaborated with Stanford University’s Student Space Initiative and Bronco Space at Cal Poly Pomona. Their goal was to design, build and launch a CubeSat capable of monitoring light pollution by capturing images of Earth from space. IHS CubeSat co-president Diya Dalal shared her personal experience with the project, saying it went from “simply an idea” to something she became deeply passionate about. “At the start, we couldn’t even imagine that someday our project may be able to make it to space,” Dalal said. “But as of 3:30am on December 21, that changed.”
The journey to space began with Stanford University’s Student Space Initiative and Bronco Space at Cal Poly Pomona. Photo courtesy of IHS CubeSat
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