February 28, 2023 - Brad Hardin was born and raised in Graham, North Carolina. He is the only Deaf person in his immediate family, but he did have a second cousin who was Deaf. He was fortunate to have a family who learned sign language so he could have communication access at home. He attended Central North Carolina School for the Deaf (CNCSD) in Greensboro, North Carolina. Eventually, he transferred to the mainstream programs in his hometown. There were several Deaf students in the mainstream programs and the majority of them used American Sign Language (ASL) and used ASL interpreters in their classes.
After graduating from the high school in 2002, Brad went to Lenoir-Rhyne College (later renamed to Lenoir-Rhyne University in 2008). He chose Lenoir-Rhyne because it offered a Deaf program as well as being only two hours from home. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Sports Management in 2007. He always wanted to work in the sports business such as coaching or working with a team. After a long spring season of searching for jobs, Brad decided to return to college to get his second bachelor’s degree in ASL Teacher Licensure at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. He shares “I realized that I could teach ASL in the K-12 settings, then coach sports after school which was a perfect job for me.” In 2013, he moved to Jackson, Mississippi to work at Mississippi School for the Deaf as an ASL/Drama teacher and he also coached the football team that won the 8-players national championship in 2013. After a little while, he realized that K-12 settings were not for him, so he decided to go back to school to get a master’s degree. Brad graduated from Gallaudet University in the Masters in Sign Language Education program.
Brad currently works at the University of Minnesota at the Twin Cities campus. This is his seventh year as an ASL instructor. He taught all ASL Level 1-4 face-to-face, synchronous, and asynchronous courses as well as the Deaf Culture course. He recently got promoted to Senior Teaching Specialist. The ASL Program used Canvas as their Learning Management System (LMS) and Signing Naturally books which is part of their curriculum. Plus, they have been developing some of their own curriculum, too. Brad had made numerous videos for the lectures, vocabulary, quizzes/tests, assignments, and some projects for his classes.
What Brad enjoys most about his work is his relationship with the students. Since the University of Minnesota is one of the largest universities in the country, the ASL program has approximately 700 students per semester. He says “I love to meet so many students since I’m a people person, and I enjoy teaching them.“ Two of his favorite teaching philosophies are Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and Interactive Learning (IL). He tends to teach vocabulary, grammar, and syntax first as well as ask the students different questions while teaching. Then when it is time for activities, the students will pair up or be put in the group, they will ask each other questions about anything related to what they have been learning or have a conversation together. He believes these methods will help the students become successful in ASL courses.
Brad is fortunate to face few to no challenges and/or barriers that he faces while working since he works in the large ASL program with six colleagues that also teach ASL courses. “The only challenge I face while working is when the students are struggling or showing some frustrations, I would probably have a bit of a tough time communicating with them, to express the concerns and such.” He learned to be patient and work with them to ensure that they will succeed in the courses. “I know that the students really appreciate this kind of approach.”
Brad shares the following advice: “Just be yourself, learn what you need to know, do your best and work hard,” and the most important of all is to have fun. One of his teaching philosophies is to have a sense of humor at work. “I would always tell Deaf or ASL jokes while teaching to help the students learn ASL the fun way.“ And the students will always laugh and enjoy the ASL courses.
When not teaching, Brad always finds something to do for fun. He loves getting together with his friends such as game nights, checking breweries and local restaurants out, and trying to find hidden gems around Twin Cities or in the greater Minnesota. He is a sports fanatic. His favorite sports are basketball and football. He will always try to find a time to attend a sporting event and/or meet & greet the athletes. Brad has met many athletes such as Luke Kuechly, Muggsy Bogues, Grant Hill, Candance Parker, even Justin Jefferson, and many more. Also, he enjoys nature such as hiking, camping, or hitting up at one of the 10,000 lakes in Minnesota. He also sometimes enjoys being a couch potato on these lazy days, watching movies or playing video games. Brad also loves to travel. One of his favorite travel memories was the West Coast trip during the summer 2019 when he drove through nine states in one month. The stops included Colorado, Utah, California, and Wyoming.
The #CanDoAnything campaign showcases people who are deaf, deafblind, or hard of hearing at work, giving them an opportunity to share what they do at their jobs and explain how communication access works for them. This campaign shows what our community can do, which is anything!
