Heather Whitestone Research Paper

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Heather Whitestone was born on February 24th in Dothan, Alabama. She lost her hearing at 18 months from the diphtheria-tetanus; she was given high doses of antibiotics that caused a lot of damage to the nerves in her ears. Her parents taught her to lip read and talk. While attending a hearing public school her grades dropped rapidly and she was falling really behind. She convinced her parents to send her to the Central Institute of the Deaf in St. Louis. Where she caught up and went up two grades in a year. When she went back to public school she graduated with a 3.6 GPA without an interpreter. She didn’t learn any sign until her senior year of high school. After she graduated high school, she began to work and develop her ballet skills, she then went to study at Jacksonville State University. She was in the Miss…show more content…
She eventually wrote 3 books; Listening to My Heart, Believing the Promise and Let God Surprise You. Her third book is talking about her life experiences about being a young deaf girl and being crowned Miss America. In 2002, she decided to get a cochlear implant until her oldest son, John, fell down in the backyard and cried and she couldn’t hear him. From 1995-2002, she was a board member for the Helen Keller Foundation for Research and Education. Helen Keller was her role model. Heather Whitestone has made many accomplishments thought out her life even with being deaf. She managed to be the first deaf Miss America, the Advisory Council for the National Institute of Health on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, filmed two public service announcements to bring awareness to “Dogs for the Deaf”. There are many more accomplishments that she has. She had made a good life for herself and made very important decisions and she didn’t let being deaf bring her down or stop her at being

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