Kelly O’Brien spent two months practicing her American Sign Language for a performance held Saturday.
O’Brien, a student from the University of South Florida who signed “Here” by Alessia Cara, was one of 11 students from four Florida colleges who competed at UF’s Signing Gators’ second annual Intercollegiate American Sign Language Idol.
Students from the University of North Florida, Santa Fe Community College, USF and UF interpreted songs to sign. Songs performed in ASL needed to be translated by the meaning of the song, not the words.
The event, held at the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, was supposed to be live-streamed on YouTube for the first time but wasn’t due to a last-minute technical difficulty, said Lexi Cunio, the president of Signing Gators.
It took a year to plan and drew about 150 people, said Christopher Gonzalez, 22, the treasurer of Signing Gators. The $1,300 event was funded by Student Government.
Andrew Reyes, a student from USF who performed “Alive” by Sia, said his family and friends were disappointed when they could not watch him win first place.
“I had 40 messages from people who were going to watch it,” he said. “I just wish someone at the event had told us it didn’t work so we could tell everyone back home.”
Cunio, 21, said there was an issue with the cord that connected the camera and the computer. The videos are being edited as of press time and will be uploaded to YouTube.
Performances were evaluated by three judges: two deaf, Michael Stutlz and Constance Hardy, and one hearing, Patricia Wooten. The judges used a scoring sheet for each contestant to keep track of his or her performance, said Lani Crosby, the master of ceremonies.
The contestants were judged on six components of their performances: structure, posture, skill, facial expressions, development of signs, and creativity, she said to the audience.
Reyes won first, David Phillips of UNF won second place and O’Brien won third. All three received trophies for their performances.
O’Brien said knowing ASL is like knowing a secret code. She said more people should learn it.
“The people who use the language are just as beautiful as the language itself,” she said.
