Paying it Forward

2/7/2024

By Laura Hamlin Weiler ’00, Head of Community Engagement

Drawing strength from personal challenges, Rosie Williams ’26 works to inspire and mentor hearing impaired youth

Rosie Williams ’26 has plenty of interests: she loves sports and is a varsity tennis and soccer player. She loves fashion, design, creating the yearbook, and is involved in six different clubs at Trinity. She traveled to Costa Rica with Trinity’s Global Exchange program and is a Team Leader with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. By all accounts, she is a busy and engaged young person. An outside observer would have no clue as to the challenges she has overcome to be where she is today. And yet her strongest passion lies in a topic that cannot be seen: audiology and supporting young people faced with hearing impairment.

Williams was diagnosed with bilateral hearing impairment when she was three months old. With this diagnosis, Williams suffers from impaired hearing in both ears that will progressively worsen throughout her life. This condition has shaped her life but it does not define who she is.

“I have gone through many emotions and phases throughout my childhood,” says Williams. These have included confusion, resentment, acceptance, and most recently, a passion for helping others with similar conditions.

“Earlier in my life and in elementary school my hearing impairment was all I was known for and it was how people thought of me,” shares Williams. It also made her work in the classroom extremely challenging. “Many of my peers didn’t want to get to know me because they just thought ‘oh she’s deaf,’ and some even thought it was contagious.”

Typical assessments like spelling tests and reading aloud were arduous for Williams, even with interventions like hearing aids and speech therapy beginning at four months old. “The therapists would ask me lots of questions and push me to talk so I could develop my speech, which was very difficult,” she remembers. When Williams met Children’s Hospital at VCU pediatric audiologist Dr. Jennifer White, she had a watershed moment. “Dr. White is one of the best things that has happened on my hearing journey,” says Williams. “She has changed my life completely.”

Dr. White approached Williams’ hearing impairment from a holistic perspective, treating the clinical component as well as the emotional, social and practical elements. This showed Williams that she could be seen as far more than simply her hearing impairment. White also introduced Williams to Camp Chat (formerly Camp TALK), which is a summer camp experience for children with hearing impairments. “At Camp Chat I was around kids like me for the first time,” says Williams. “It normalized the experiences I had been having because the other campers had been through the same or similar things. I was finally understood on a level that only they could understand because they had been through it. There was a sense of acceptance that I could not find anywhere else because they had had the same experiences.”

Participation in Camp Chat was transformative for Williams. She was able to not only talk about the challenges of her hearing impairment but also work on strategies to mitigate the impact in all areas of her life, from academics to socializing to sports. As she has grown older, she transitioned to being a counselor at the camp. “I help students learn to use their voice and we play games outside,” says Williams, about to enter her fourth summer as a counselor. “Campers look to me to see how I was able to navigate school and friendships and get to the point where I am today. It makes me happy to work with them and see them want to progress and push themselves and overcome the barriers and stigmas. They don’t just want to hide.”

All of these experiences have coalesced to funnel Williams’ passion toward a future in audiology. Her dream job? To be a pediatric audiologist and one day host a camp like Camp Chat. “I want to help families and kids with their feelings and experiences and go beyond the technical aspects of hearing aids and logistics,” she says. “I want to normalize their life and experiences for them. I want to hold their hand through all of the phases and see them as people first who have a hearing impairment.”

Williams plans to continue to work at Camp Chat through high school and get more involved in the work happening at the Children’s Tower at VCU. In the short-term, she’s excited for the upcoming spring soccer season and is looking forward to her work as a Team Leader with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. She really enjoys volunteer work with organizations that provide positive experiences for patients and the families of those going through difficult circumstances.

“Now I am comfortable sharing with people,” says Williams of where she is now on her journey. “I saw coming to Trinity as a new opportunity to show people who I am and begin my pursuit of my passion around this issue. I was worried in 8th grade and didn’t share a lot — however my teachers took an interest and were respectful and asked thoughtful questions. This made me realize that others could care and I had the space to realize that this was an opportunity and not something to feel ashamed of.”

Indeed, Williams has seized the opportunity to use her experiences to support others, a passion with endless rewards.

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About “Connections”

Connections is a regular online column, written from the first-person perspective of Laura Hamlin Weiler ’00, Head of Community Engagement:

In this space, I have the privilege of sharing stories of Trinity students, alumni, and faculty and staff who are carrying our mission beyond the boundaries of campus. Many of these stories might not make the headlines, but they will illustrate how every member of the Trinity community has a unique path to discover, and the ability to make an impact on both the Trinity community and the world beyond.

I am fortunate to have been a part of this community since my own adolescence. I have been a student, a teacher, a coach, and an administrator, and in these roles I have witnessed the school’s growth and evolution through the years. We have grown in size as well as spirit.

Stories here will capture how seeds planted at Trinity have taken root and flourished into full-grown passions. You’ll also read stories of those in our community who bring their gifts from outside to help us learn. At Trinity, we seek to develop lifelong learners, and stories here will illustrate real-life examples of that beautiful symbiosis.