Vania Leon,20, changed her major from interior design to deaf studies after a horrible first semester at CSUN. Photo Credit: Amber Starling / Staff Reporter

For 20-year-old Vania Leon, her first semester at CSUN was the worst.  She started as an interior design major but her art classes weren’t of interest to her.  She soon felt that finding a job in interior design would be difficult because of the competitive nature of the business.

Her plans had come into question, When applying for college, Leon wasn’t really interested in USC and UCLA because they didn’t provide programs in interior design.
“I looked into those schools and I didn’t find anything interesting about them,” said Leon.  “I mean yes they’re UC’s but what about them.”

Leon interests soon shifted though while sitting in a math class at CSUN one day not paying attention to what was going on. She was amazed by the deaf students in her class.

“There were two deaf people sitting next to me and I would never pay attention in class. I didn’t really understand what was going on,” said Leon.  “But I was fascinated by this woman who was sitting there telling the math problem, just signing to them.  It was really amazing to me.”

Leon then began to research the possibility of being an interpreter and discovered deaf studies is a major.  After her first semester, Leon switched her major  and began taking American Sign Language classes.

For Leon, the deaf studies program at CSUN is one of the best.  She hopes to get her bachelors and masters in interpreting She’d like to attend Gallaudet University in Washington D.C. since it has a notable deaf studies program.  She says that Gallaudet is one of the proudest places to be for deaf people.

She doesn’t know if the deaf studies program was something that was meant to be, but she is glad that she was not paying attention in math class that day.