Kole Krier
Kole Krier was born and raised in Maple Grove, Minnesota. He was born deaf. He received a cochlear implant in his right ear. He uses spoken English using lipreading skills and hearing with his cochlear implant to communicate. He has been learning ASL. Kole contributes his success in K-12 by utilizing resources available: “I do push for using closed captioning on videos or anything like that. And having a speech therapist throughout that entire time in school made me the person I am today.” Upon graduation from high school, Kole attended St. Cloud State University where he got a bachelor’s degree in Information Technology (IT) and Cybersecurity.
Currently, Kole is a snowboard coach for G-Team. He works at various ski resorts around Minnesota, coaching high school snowboarders. While he is coaching, Kole is actively looking for a long term career job in the IT/Cybersecurity space.
As a coach, Kole instructs and trains children and teens in learning different types of snowboarding tricks to help them prepare for competitions. He also coaches the young snowboarders at competitions around the state, and at nationals, which will be held in Copper Mountain, Colorado. He was recently there for three weeks in April, training and coaching.
“I love coaching and working with kids. It inspires me to inspire the kids not only to entertain them, but help them get better at something they love doing. It is so much fun every coaching session and competition I coach.”
When coaching Kole faces some challenges in communicating with the young snowboarders: “I face the communication barrier, but I make sure my athletes understand my situation, and that I need to see their lips to be able to communicate effectively.” He mentions that the ski masks they wear can be problematic to communicate as well as it blocks visuals of the face and mouths. He also uses live captions on his phone for phone calls, and he sometimes uses the audio recording feature if it's hard to hear in certain environments. “They make my life so much easier and it's turned on with a triple click on the power button of my phone.”
Prior to coaching, Kole has worked as an assistant manager at a retail store. He did a summer internship at Cardinal Glass Industries as an information security analyst, which he loved dearly. He also has volunteered to be the tech person at G-Team, helping build websites and web applications using Google Workspace and more.
Kole shares the following advice: “Communication is a barrier, but it's a bridge you can cross if you put the effort in and communicate with people so that they are aware.”
“I absolutely love snowboarding, it's my lifestyle; but whenever I'm not snowboarding, I'm making content for everyone as you can see with my Youtube channel and social media pages. During the warm months Kole plays golf everyday and also plays on a town ball baseball team. “I would consider myself a very active person.”
“If you would love to see or hear more from me please subscribe and follow my social pages! Don't be afraid to reach out to me with any questions as I am always responding to everyone!”
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!
