Marie Jean Philip

Marie Jean Philip was a leader in both the American and international Deaf community. She advocated for the right to a natural sign language for Deaf people. Marie was one of the original researchers studying ASL and Deaf Culture. She was active in establishing American Sign Language as a recognized language in the colleges of Massachusetts in the early 1980s. Later, Marie was the BilingualBicultural Coordinator at The Learning Center for the Deaf in Framingham, Massachusetts. She is an icon within the Deaf community. She was a respected and revered figure, and a pioneer in the bilingualbicultural movement. Maries influence extended beyond the United States. Marie was dedicated to children, and she became a legendary advocate for the education of Deaf children around the world.

Marie Jean Philip was born on April 20, 1953 at Worcester, Massachusetts. She was the daughter of two Deaf parents, John and Doris Philip. When they realized Marie was Deaf, they sent her Clarke School for the Deaf, but she was rejected by the program because she signed. Her parents then sent her to the American School for the Deaf, where she flourished. Marie was the oldest of three, her two sisters Sue and Joan were also Deaf and both attended the American School for the Deaf with her. She was very close to her family and the Deaf Community in Worcester, MA. After graduated at American School for the Deaf , Marie attended Gallaudet University in 1969. Her junior year, she decided she wanted to try an exchange program with Oberlin, a hearing school. She received a lot of criticism from her peers, who did not understand why she would want to attend a hearing school. Her response was that she grew up in a Deaf world, and wanted to see what things were like for the hearing. Once she got

Source: Wikipedia