56 in 2005 with a Bachelor of Arts in elementary education and specialized endorsements in early childhood and special education. “At the time, I wished to pursue my deaf education degree, but resources were not available in Iowa, or anywhere close …,” she shared. “I decided to get some teaching experience in, and so I began my journey with teaching preschool in a small, rural school district south of Iowa City, Iowa. The classroom I worked in was a full-inclusion preschool classroom with 20 students and an average of four students with special needs. I taught there for 10 years.” Johnson moved to Overland Park, Kansas, in 2015 when her husband was presented with an opportunity to take on a new leadership role with his job. She knew she wanted to continue teaching preschoolers. She soon discovered an opening she had been searching for since she first became a teacher. “I couldn’t believe I had actually found my dream job — in a preschool, in a full-inclusion classroom working with special education and D/deaf and hard-of-hearing students,” she said. She currently teaches at the Early Childhood Center in the Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools. When Johnson learned about the opportunity to earn an advanced degree in deaf education at VSU and have it paid for by a grant from the Kansas School for the Deaf, she did not hesitate to apply. She wanted to be able to integrate learning opportunities for all her students throughout the entire school day and not have to depend on a separate deaf education teacher to fulfill the requirements of her D/deaf and hard-of-hearing students’ individualized education plans. “I’m working with preschool students who have hearing loss,” she said. “They are mainstreamed with hearing peers, and so I get to teach all students ASL and how to communicate with each other. My D/deaf and hard-of-hearing students have learned how to communicate with each other through spoken language and ASL. For most of these students, this is the first opportunity they’ve been given to learn and use ASL in communicating in a language they can understand. They flourish. My hearing students have also learned ASL to communicate with the D/deaf and hard-of-hearing students. We are a family, and it’s a special one.” While the original agreement calls for VSU to provide direct instruction to Kansas School for the Deaf employees, it also ensures that other Kansas-based teachers have the opportunity to participate. Johnson said that Kansas needs public school deaf education teachers because that is where most D/deaf and hard-of-hearing students are learning. “My classroom is one of a kind in the Kansas City district,” she said. “I’m providing specialized instruction to the students who need the specialized instruction, and without teachers like myself in the public school district, these students wouldn’t have the opportunity to equal access.” More than 16 states have no deaf education training program for teachers. VSU’s Memorandum of Understanding with the Kansas School for the Deaf represents an expansion of the university’s strategic plan and commitment to serving as a resource in areas of need. “We have long been recognized as a leader in deaf education,” said Dr. Nanci Scheetz, coordinator of VSU’s deaf education and ASL programs. “What a great service it is for us to be able to say to a place like Kansas, We provide this service and we want to help you prepare teachers of the D/deaf and hard of hearing in your area.”