Kate Maddox

Marion High School

Class of 2003

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Kate Maddox - Class of 2003 - Marion High School

First Name	Kate
Last Name	Maddox
Graduation Year	Class of 2003
Gender	Female
Hometown	Marion, Michigan
Relationship Status	Engaged
About Me	Her commencement address, the Marion High School salutatorian told her classmates, “In this game we call life, we must deal with the cards that are dealt to us. Life consists not in holding the good cards, but in playing those you have well.” While all of the seniors were listening to her speech, there was only one who used the sign language interpreter to hear the important words spoken by her friend a the podium. It’s perhaps this graduation senior, Katherine Maddox, to whom salutatorian Holly Carter’s quotation best applies. When Katherine was born to Tony and Francis Maddox of Marion, she was healthy, hearing infant. It wasn’t until she contracted meningitis at six months old that baby Katy lost her hearing. Because she was so young, she does not remember ever being able to process sound. She does remember being transported to Cadillac on a school bus as a little girl to attend McKinley Elementary School with other children like herself. She made friends and began to learn sign language as early as preschool. In the second grade, she received a cochlear implant, a computer chip that improved her sense of hearing. “It’s did help me to hear a little bit, but it bothered me so much,” recalled Maddox. The external portion of the device continually fell off and was cumbersome to Katy. It was just easier for her not to use it because it seemed to give her so much trouble. She began to rely more and more on reading lips and sign language. The members of her family also started to learn sign language, and Katy used a group interpreter in class to help her learn and understand other school subjects. She was progressing well and enjoying school. But in the middle of third grade, the decision was made to close her special education school in Cadillac. For Katy and other deaf children in the area, this meant being sent back to the public schools in their hometowns. Maddox says the closing of her school and the separation from her deaf friends was of the saddest memories in her life. Thrust into a new environment. Maddox used a personal interpreter in a regular classroom to continue her education in Marion. Although she says a lot of the time she felt lonely and isolated because she could not communicate like she wanted to with the other children, she made the best of her situation and did not complain about her circumstances. “Katy has taught me about being more patient. She’s really good at getting along with other people. She’s dependable, very sociable, and very even temped. She never gets mad,” said Mrs. Linda Taylor, who has worked with Maddox for 14 years. “ She is not at all selfish, and she never complains. She’s one of the very nicest people I’ve met in my whole life.” Maddox refused to let her handicap prevent from her doing things that she wanted to do. She was active in girl scouts for many years, and played baseball from a very young age. When she got middle school, she played basketball and was god free throw shooter. In high school, she signed on the manage the girls’ softball team, as well as the girls’ basketball team. She joined 4-H and enjoyed riding horses. She tried her hand at student council and joined SADD. “ Nothing ever slows her down.” Said Holly Carter of Maddox. “She’d frequently go to school dances and go out and dance and have a good time, even though she couldn’t hear the music. Anything that she can do, to the best of the ability, she’ll do it. Because her kind, warm heart, she has a lot of friends. She somehow manages to turn lemons into lemonade everyday.” Another typical teenage activity that Maddox has not missed out on is talking on the phone. She uses the Michigan Relay Center to make phone calls, and loves to converse with her friends. For Katy, the process involves putting her phone on a machine and dialing a number in Lansing. When the Michigan Relay Center answers, Katy types in whom she wants to call and what she wants to say to them. That person reads the type and then becomes Katy’s voice on the phone. She’s have the special calling machine since second grade and enjoying using it, as well as emailing messages to communicate and keep in touch with her friends. “Learning to speak has been one of the biggest obstacles Katy has had to overcome.” said Mrs. Taylor. “ She’s still working on it and she’s getting better. The kids in class are starting to understand what she’s saying more and more.” In school, no one understands Maddox any better than her personal sign language interpreters. She’s had eight different people fill the position for her over the years. While all of them have been helpful, none of them have been as special to Maddox as a young woman named Jen Brunn who came to Marion to help Katy during her freshman through junior years. “Jen (Brunn) Thompson always encouraged me to try things instead of just sitting back. She would always go to any extra activities that I wanted to attend. She taught me about fashion, make-up, and hairstyles. I want to thank her so much for everything she did for me. She gave to me from her soul, and because of that, she enriched my life greatly,” related Maddox. “One of the things that I love so much about Katy is that she’s very accepting of everyone. There has been some oppression and some struggles for her here, but she’s just been happy with how she is.” said Thompson. “ I think that some people may have missed out on how funny and smart she really is because the communication barrier.” Throughout high school, Maddox did all she could to overcome that barrier, spending half of her time in regular classes with the help of her interpreter, and the other half in the resource room with Mrs. Taylor. Although she enjoyed both types of learning because of her naturally social and outgoing personality, she gravitated toward regular classes and found herself especially interested in woodshop class, as well as history courses. “ Katie is very intelligent,” said Mrs. Taylor adding that she carried a 3.0 Grade point average in high school. “She is strong, honest and has excellent character, morals, and values.” She also loves reading, and spent many hours at the Marion Public Library while growing up. In High school, she served as a library aide, working a the front desk, and reading lips to help other students check out materials. “Katy has always been helpful to others,” said Mrs. Taylor. “She’s sensitive and attuned to others emotion. I think she’d be a good candidate to become a counselor for deaf children.” Thinking about her future plans and what she might become after graduation, Maddox attended a orientation last summer in Rochester, New York at the National Technological Institute for Deaf, a college affiliated with university of Rochester. She loved the school right away, and didn’t want to leave. Maddox said that having so many other deaf people around to communicate with made her feel very comfortable and at ease. Presently, Katy is making plans to begin her high education at Lansing Community College, Where she can study and prepare herself for entry into N.T.I.D. in New York. “LCC will be a good starting place for Katy,” said Mrs. Taylor. “It will teach her the skills she’ll need for college at N.T.I.D. and help her improve her English and grammar.” In the mean time, she’ll continue to work in Marion over the summer to earn money to help with college expenses. She holds a job washing dishes and bussing tables at Kel’s Ideal Tavern. She also loves babysitting children, playing with Dalmatians, Jewel and Sara, and riding her bicycle. She is also focused on obtaining her driver’s license before she goes to college. To continue learning and improving her speech, she plans to study language at the Learning clinic in Cadillac this summer, under the direction of Mrs. Taylor. “For 14 years, I’ve had different interpreters, but L.T. (Linda Taylor) and I have been together from the beginning,” Maddox explained. “ She’s helped me a lot with homework and she’s always been so good about being there for me to talk to.” Said Taylor, “I’m going to be sad to say goodbye to Katy after having her as a student for so long. She’s been a wonderful role model for other kids. She’s not follower. She’d never do anything just because someone else is doing it. She’s made good decisions in her life and I know she will continue to do so. Although I hate to see her go, we’re family, so I know we really don’t have to say goodbye and we’ll keep in touch.” Said Jennifer (brunn) Thompson, “My hope for Katie is that she never stop believing in herself and in her own abilities. If she wants to go to New York, she’s going to have to work hard to make it happen for herself.” Leaving the security of her hometown is bitter-sweet for Maddox. She is very close to her family, especially her sister, Liz. “My sister has included me in so many thing in her life. She’s my best friend. Liz had helped me through a lot of tough times. She always listens and understands,” said Maddox. “I know I’ll cry when I have to leave my family. My mom has always been there to take care of me. She’s very protective of me and she loves me very much. And my dad has worked hard to learn sign language so he could communicate with me. He’s also been there to watch over me all these years. But I’m ready to leave Marion and go to college. It’s not that I don’t like Marion, it’s just because I want to be able to change my life and be able to meet more deaf friends. It’s been hard and lonely to be the only deaf person in a small town. I have no deaf friends here, only a few in Cadillac. I want to grow and become person who can...(read more)