While traveling with the Semester at Sea program (thanks to two scholarships from BYU and University of Virginia), I was able to meet Deaf in 12 countries. Time and time again, my new Deaf friends expressed their angst at wanting to go to college but being unable to (either because of societal biases or lack of financial means). Each of these encounters led up to a moment on a plane flight from Tibet. After witnessing the terrible oppression of the Tibetan people, I felt with my whole soul that I needed to do something with this once-in-a-lifetime experience I had been given.

As you can glean from the old video above, I wanted to fix EVERY problem I had seen in my travels. Too many goals meant that the organization had no focus. 

I thought change would only happen if we had significant funding. So I competed in the San Diego University Social Innovation Challenge and Brigham Young University's Hunger Banquet, met with local non-profit founders, put on small fundraising events, found a few partners and set up a governing board, and learned how to build a website. ​ 

For almost 3 years, nothing seemed to work. We weren't getting adequate funding for a Gallaudet education, the paperwork for setting up a NPO was overwhelming, and I found that my volunteers (though good-hearted and well-intentioned!) were not able to commit as much time to the cause as I was. The ONLY reason I didn't quit was because I had promised a Deaf man in Vietnam named Khiem (whom I met on Semester at Sea and whom later became our first Deaf Dreamer) that I would help him get his education. 

Each semester I barely collected enough donations for Khiem's tuition.

After putting all of my time and effort into The Deaf Dream for a couple of years, I was hired by a large non-profit organization to work full-time. I knew that with my new job and my health struggles, I wouldn't be able to keep up my prior pace working on my little organization. One day at work, we were invited to read a book called Simple Church as a department. It was an answer to prayer and completely turned The Deaf Dream around!

I learned through Simple Church (and later on, a book named ReWork) that success would come as I focused on the ONE thing we could do well and cut out everything else. I realized I was spending 90% of my time trying to keep my volunteers engaged! I decided that the one thing that we could do best, and that would have the greatest impact, would be to sponsor Deaf college scholarships. By going to their home universities, the costs would be minimal ($1,000 to $2,500 USD total for an entire degree) and greatly increase their impact on changing their countrymen's perspective on deafness.

With this massive simplification, I was able to keep ahead of my necessary responsibilities for The Deaf Dream. Instead of slowing down what little progress I had made so far, in the last 10 years we have been able to sponsor 15 more Deaf Dreamers! Khiem in Vietnam has graduated, leads nation-wide disability rights campaigns, and now teaches at the university that originally turned down his application. Victoria in Ghana has completed her student teaching and is a teacher at a Deaf school. Our other Deaf Dreamers are from Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, and Kenya!

When I launched The Deaf Dream, I wanted to make sure that every online donation would go directly to the student. 100%. No questions asked. It continues this way today. But for all of you who understand how a nonprofit works, you know there are some behind the scenes costs. If you would like to help support my work in some way, I would be most grateful. Please contact me below.