Rachel Heringer
What is your name?
Rachel Heringer
How old are you?
27
What city and state do you live in?
Beaverton, OR
What years and grade did you attend Tucker Maxon?
1997-2000 (finished kindergarten in 2000)
Did you have a favorite teacher or staff member?
Linda Goodwin, Patty Smith, Chris Soland, Rebecca Schroeder
What caused your hearing loss?
I was born profoundly deaf.
What kind of tools do you use to support your hearing today?
Cochlear Implant
Do you primarily use speech, ASL, or both?
I took a couple years of the language in high school and wish I kept up with it!
How has hearing loss impacted your life or the life of people close to you?
If I’m being honest – I am unsure how to answer this question – I’ve always thought that I’m the same as everyone else. Tucker really built that foundation for self-confidence that has stuck with me through the years. I think for the people close to me – I think it’s helped them J Their patience, compassion, and understanding to my hearing loss gives them a different perspective on life.
What did you study in college, and/or what kind of work do you do, or want to do?
I got a Bachelor of Arts in Communication from Willamette University and currently I’m an Account Manager at Heffernan Insurance Brokers – a commercial insurance agency.
Please share an accomplishment you are especially proud of:
I had been with the company for about 7 months. It was a great honor to be recognized with this award in front of the entire company! I’ve developed my customer service skills and my discipline as an Account Manager in the last few years in the industry and it was very rewarding to see that my hard work was being recognized.
What is your favorite place you’ve traveled to?
Scotland – we took a family trip over with our Granny and Granpa who emigrated over from Scotland in the 1960’s. The sights are beautiful and the memories that they shared made the trip all that much more special.
Please share something you learned as a student at Tucker Maxon that has stayed with you:
The biggest thing that I learned from Tucker is kindness – I’ll never forget the memories of playing on the playground with my friends on the Firetruck structure or seeing the pictures of me smiling ear to ear in class with a book in my hand – this was all fostered by the kindness of both the students as well as the faculty and staff. The patience and understanding from staff/faculty as they navigated teaching hard of hearing students really stemmed down to the students themselves who took the time to help one another. It was a great experience attending Tucker – and one I’ll cherish forever!
Any words of advice for today’s Tucker Maxon students (deaf/hard of hearing, typical, or both)?
For all students at Tucker – stay motivated, stay inspired and stay kind. Tucker’s environment fosters all of these qualities and so much more – really cherish your time that you have with this amazing faculty and staff and program. For the hearing impaired – remember, the devices you wear are designed to help you – not to hold you back.
