Middlesex College Announces Inaugural Harvey Miller Award winners for Excellence in American Sign Language

“My husband was a born teacher,” laughed Harvey’s wife Naomi. “He not only loved teaching and loved sign language, but he loved his students and they loved him back. I know because he would show me every now and then the reviews his students would write. He was very, very creative and very funny.”

Miller taught sign language (hence the tired hands) and deaf culture at Middlesex College from 2012 until his death from pancreatic cancer in 2019. Naomi and Gary Abbott, the chair of the ESL, Languages and Cultures Department at the College, helped create the Harvey Miller Memorial Award for American Sign Language (ASL) Excellence this year.

The first winners of the award, which comes with a monetary stipend for educational purposes, were presented to students Sarah Ventola and Nicole Genser in May.

“I was just thrilled to be able to do this,” Naomi said. “Gary was instrumental in helping me think through how to do it and I want to make this an annual scholarship.”

Naomi, a popular cabaret singer, was considering holding a concert and donating the funds toward the next Miller Award.

“I want a student who first cares deeply about the deaf community,” Naomi said. “I want them to be the kind of person who understands what a deaf person really goes through in daily life, especially in a hearing world. I want them to become proficient in sign language.”

Abbott said the goal of the award is to reward a student who shows great aptitude in sign language and is an excellent student. He called Ventola and Genser “easy choices.”

Ventola, 26, started her college career at Middlesex College then transferred to a four-year school before coming back to pursue her certification in ASL.

“I had many great experiences at Middlesex College,” Ventola said. “The professors have always invested in my successes and are very personable. The classes also encouraged my creativity and academic curiosity. I always tell people that Middlesex really pushed me academically, helped build my confidence and most importantly, prepared me to be successful.”

Genser, 23, grew up in Woodbridge. She was born with a hearing loss caused by Hyperbilirubinemia and that has inspired her to learn more about deaf culture and communicating through sign language.

“I got into audiology first as a patient,” said Genser. “I wanted to be able to integrate myself into the deaf and hard-of-hearing community more intensely and be able to provide services and education in multiple modalities and means.”

Both women said that receiving the award was a delight, but the best feeling was just being recognized.

“I didn’t expect it at all,” Ventola said. “I was really surprised. I was happy and thankful. I was honored to receive this award in Harvey Miller’s name. I heard he was an amazing professor with a lot of passion for this language.” “I was proud,” agreed Genser. “I have invested a lot of time in honing my ASL skills. I am so happy to be able to pursue something I genuinely care about and then be recognized in that field. The reward really isn’t why you do it, but it was nice to be recognized.”