Undergraduate Students and Volunteers

Jamie Deering is a third-year student at SDSU, majoring in Psychology with an emphasis in Neuroscience and a minor in General Biology. She has as interest in language acquisition and how different languages are processed and perceived in the brain. Jamie was first introduced to American Sign Language (ASL) in high school and has since developed a continued passion for learning the language, as well as gaining a deeper understanding of Deaf culture and community.

Talisa Lin is a senior at UC San Diego majoring in Anthropology with a concentration in Climate Change & Human Solutions and a minor in American Sign Language. As a CODA, she is deeply passionate about accessibility, with special interests in early stage language acquisition, bilingualism, sign variation, and language access during emergencies and disasters. She is co-president of the ASL Club at UCSD, and after graduating in March 2026, Talisa plans on attaining her ASL Interpreter Certification.

Kaiah is a junior Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences major at SDSU. She was fascinated by ASL from a young age and took classes throughout high school and community college. ASL introduced her to her love of language learning, both signed and spoken. She is very passionate about awareness and advocacy when it comes to the deaf and hard of hearing community. She is currently pursuing her degree to become a speech language pathologist with a minor in language acquisition and bilingualism.

Zella Pangle is a sophomore studying Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, with a Honors
minor in Interdisciplinary Studies as well as a minor in Child and Family Development. Her areas
of interest include the cultural perspectives of the Deaf Community in a hearing world, as well as
the cultural backgrounds and differences in sign languages around the world. She was
introduced to these topics while taking ASL classes throughout high school. Zella is currently
considering speech pathology or audiology for her future field. As a hard-or-hearing individual,
she is passionate about working with children and advocating for sign language use in the
formative years.

Caitlin Pearson is a junior majoring in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences at SDSU. Her areas of interest include understanding language in the brain along with language deprivation, particularly as these pertain to Deaf children and children with cognitive disabilities. She is passionate about advocacy for the use and importance of early exposure to signed languages for deaf and HOH children. This stems from her interest in ASL, and hearing the perspectives of deaf teachers throughout middle and high school ASL classes. She is interested in a future in Speech-Pathology and neurolinguistics research.