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For more than 150 years, Gallaudet University has led advances in deaf and hard of hearing students and deaf rights worldwide. Today, students from across the United States and more than 25 countries-diverse in perspective, backgrounds, interests, and communication styles-form an exciting learning community as they prepare for dynamic careers and a lifetime of growth. Gallaudet University is the premier institution of learning, teaching, and research for deaf and hard-of-hearing students. For more than 150 years, Gallaudet has produced leaders and innovators who have influenced history. There is no other place like this in the world. When President Abraham Lincoln signed Gallaudet's charter as created by Congress, our country created a beacon in the world for visual learning, visual language, social justice, and full rights for deaf and hard-of-hearing people. This singular Act recognized the importance of higher education to advance deaf and hard-of-hearing people's lives and opportunities. Consequently, Gallaudet is the go-to source of knowledge about the deaf and signing community - a hub of history, achievement, and inspiration. A comprehensive liberal arts university with the feel of a small college, Gallaudet is distinctive in that our students learn in American Sign Language and English, a bilingual approach built into our mission and identity. Science has since proven the substantial value of both languages as a foundation for lifelong learning and literacy. Gallaudet is a rich multicultural and multilingual community. Our students are from all over the world. They come from private, public, and state schools they sign, are learning to sign, can hear, can hear with technology, and do not hear at all. Everyone who comes seeks the bilingual learning and multicultural community here at Gallaudet. Gallaudet is rooted in academic excellence, discovery, and transformation of knowledge and possibilities. It was here that American Sign Language was first recognized as a language, advancing sign languages worldwide. It was here that young people led a seminal movement for deaf people's right to lead at Gallaudet. It was here that students led national awareness about people with disabilities' rights, accelerating the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Gallaudet offers exemplary education at every level - from graduate degrees to programs for deaf and hard-of-hearing students in high school, elementary school, and infancy. Our learners experience remarkable self-discovery and clarity in their growth. Undergraduate students have challenging choices across more than 40 majors and can engage in every campus life element and work opportunities. Our home in the nation's capital provides our students with the opportunities of an international city. Our graduates have great success moving into careers or advanced education, and our alumni work in every field and influence attitudes around the globe. A Gallaudet degree is an exceptional value. Affordability and access for American students are achieved by keeping our cost to attend Gallaudet below the national average for a liberal arts college. Most students receive financial aid and finish with low debt. This is Gallaudet: An American institution that teaches and transforms like nowhere else. The world comes to us to learn. Moreover, our students learn to discover their world. Through the University Career Center, students receive internships that provide a wealth of experiential learning opportunities. Recent internships were offered at Merrill Lynch, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Institutes of Health, and the World Bank. Students also benefit from an array of services provided by such campus units as the Burstein Leadership Institute, Language Planning Institute, Hearing and Speech Center, Cochlear Implant Education Center, and the Center for International Programs and Services. Today, Gallaudet is viewed by deaf and hearing people alike as a primary resource for all things related to deaf people, including educational and career opportunities, open communication, and visual learning deaf history and culture American Sign Language, and the impact of technology on the deaf community. In 1856, Amos Kendall, a postmaster general during two presidential administrations, donated two acres of his estate in northeast Washington, D.C., to establish a school and housing for 12 deaf and six blind students. The following year, Kendall persuaded Congress to incorporate the new school called the Columbia Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb and Blind. Edward Miner Gallaudet, the son of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, founder of the first school for deaf students in the United States, became the new school superintendent. In 1969, President Lyndon Johnson signed an act to create the Model Secondary School for the Deaf (MSSD). That same year, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare and Gallaudet President Leonard Elstad signed an agreement authorizing the establishment and operation of MSSD on the Gallaudet campus. A year later, President Richard Nixon signed the bill that authorized the establishment of Kendall Demonstration Elementary School. Today, the two schools are part of Gallaudet's Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center, which is devoted to creating and disseminating educational opportunities for deaf students nationwide. View full university