“Finally being able to communicate with my little brother is so incredible,” senior April Moscati said.

For her Senior Project, Moscati learned American Sign Language at CCBC Essex and taught it to her little brother Sam, who cannot verbally communicate very well.

Moscati’s brother, Sam, was born in 2002 and was later diagnosed with Worster-Drought Syndrome, which is a form of cerebral palsy.

“My family and I can, for the most part, understand what he is trying to say, but for others it is difficult to understand him,” Moscati said. “Seeing him struggle broke my heart, so I took matters into my own hands, and have been teaching him sign language for the past 12 weeks.”

In addition to teaching sign language to her younger brother, Moscati also volunteered in the pre-k 4 classroom at Saint John the Evangelist School in Hydes, where she worked one-on-one with students, helping them with their writing and reading skills.

“While at Saint John’s, I also helped the class practice some of the sign language they have been learning,” she said.

According to Moscati, her biggest challenge was the amount of time it takes to learn sign language. However, “Sam is learning fast, and hopefully in the next year or so he will be a pro,” Moscati said.

In addition to learning ASL to teach it to her brother and pre-school students, Moscati’s Senior Projected helped her to explore a possible career field.

“I decided to volunteer at my old pre-school because I’ve always felt like teaching would be a good career for me to pursue and I love working with little kids,” she said. “I found that in one week of being in the classroom and working with the kids that it is something I love doing.”

Moscati hopes to someday be an early childhood special education teacher.

Billy Jump is a Copy Editor for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.