Introducing JENA!

My first draft writing about my background turned out to be two pages long. I felt that was a very brief summary of my life but it is 2 pages long! So I’m going to summarize my very brief summary. Can you fold a piece of paper in half more than 7 times? Mythbusters on the Discovery Channel say no. We’ll see! First of all, my name is Jena White. J-e-n-a. If you can count, you’ll notice I only have 1 ‘n’ in my unique name.


I went to Lexington Hearing Speech Center and started oral classes at 11 months old. I lost my hearing completely at 3 years of age so I was transferred to a total communication class to learn signing exact English and pursuing in speech therapy. We focused mostly on language and more language.


When of age, I moved on to kindergarten across the street at Ashland Elementary. I had Mrs. Cecil and Ms. Brandt (your very beloved Mrs. White, my adoptive mommy!) as my teachers and we mainstreamed part time with the other kids in the school. We kept the total communication thing and more speech therapy. I got my cochlear implant in 1st grade.


In 5th grade, I whined to my biological mom to let me stay with my home district schools and she felt I was capable to go on my own so I did. Jessie Clark was easy. Nothing too exciting. I did regular classes with my classmates with an interpreter. I converted slowly to Pidgin. I finished middle school with flying colors.


In high school, I was a teenager but forced to learn to advocate for myself. Quite a challenge. I had a few obstacles but overcame them. I had friends all over the place. Some classmates were good friends and I also had friends at KSD so I could have more of a social life. Once more, I finished public high school with a 4.0 GPA.


College is a completely different story. I went back and forth between RIT and UK three times. Yes three. I wasn’t sure what I wanted. It would be awesome if RIT and UK could be combined. I eventually ended up staying at UK working towards my Agriculture Biotechnology degree. I just found out a few months ago, its one of the hardest undergrad degrees. Grr. If I knew that before I would have gone to biology instead. It is hard work but with effort it can be done.


Nowadays, I am married and have a full time job and living the life. I still wear my cochlear implant but unlike my childhood days, I depend on it more than you depend on your cell phone and car. I still use total communication, voice only, or sign only, depending who I’m talking to. I dream in voice only except for special occasions. I get asked this question all the time.

Schools to Watch

Mandy asked about this program last week in class.  Here is some information...

Schools to Watch® is an initiative launched by the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform in 1999. The National Forum is an alliance of more than 60 educators, researchers, and officers of national associations and foundations dedicated to improving schools for young adolescents across the country. The National Forum’s mission is to unite key stakeholders to speak with a common voice to leverage research, policy, leadership, and replicable model practices to drive middle grades reform.

The criteria that is used in evaluating a school relates to the following four major areas:  academic excellence, developmental responsiveness, social equity, and organizational structure.

Kentucky does participate in this national program.  You can view specific information at  Kentucky Schools to Watch .