Emblem Club Foundation donation photo via Fresno State

The Deaf education program at Fresno State received a $250,000 check from the Emblem Club Scholarship Foundation at its annual meeting recently in Visalia.

Fresno State’s Department of Communicative Sciences and Deaf Studies trains teachers and professionals to work with hearing-impaired and Deaf individuals including children, families and other professionals.

The Silent Garden, created by Fresno State professor emeritus Dr. Paul W. Ogden in 2008, provides continuing education opportunities post-graduation to educators and those who work with Deaf individuals.

“I am so appreciative of the Emblem Club Scholarship Foundation and all the Emblem Club members across this region for providing Fresno State with this life-changing endowment in the Silent Garden,” said Dr. Denise Seabert, dean of the College of Health and Human Services. “This gift will help us provide free community outreach, education and conferences tailored to the needs of Deaf individuals and their families, teachers and professionals.”

In 1970, the Emblem Club Scholarship Fund was established with a goal of creating scholarships for students that were becoming teachers in the Deaf and hard-of-hearing community. The Foundation is based in Tustin, California.

“The idea for the foundation came from my mother, Jeanene Swaggerty, past supreme president, as my father was born Deaf in one ear, and developed Meniere’s disease in the other ear,” said 2022-23 Emblem Club Supreme President Julie Swaggerty. “Because of this difficulty, and the times being what they were for educating persons with any disabilities, he was unable to continue his studies under the GI Bill to become a pharmacist.”

Swaggerty said that when given the opportunity to create a foundation to assist Deaf education, her mother’s decision was a natural choice.

More than 1,500 alumni have graduated from Fresno State’s Deaf education program, including the Santa Barbara County Education Office’s 2023 Teacher of The Year, Joanna Hendrix, who earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Deaf education at Fresno State.

She credits her role in Deaf education to Ogden, who she said encouraged her to pursue teaching the Deaf. Hendrix has taught for 22 years.