American Sign Language Organization

Sylvya Boyd has been profoundly deaf since she was three weeks old. She attended pre-school (John Tracy Clinic) in Los Angeles, California. Her mother realized that Sylvya was not learning academically since the school was focused on her speech skills for a period of time. So, her mom decided to take her out of that school and placed her in the California School for the Deaf in Riverside, California where she learned ASL by interacting with deaf peers. She fell in love with that school was her happy second home.

While growing up, Sylvya also went to two other residential schools in Frederick, Maryland and Tucson, Arizona. After her graduation from Arizona School for the Deaf, she enrolled at Gallaudet University, majoring in Sociology-Social Work.

After graduating from Gallaudet College, Sylvya worked a lot with deaf clients as a job vendor with vocational rehabilitation. She also taught American Sign Language classes in community colleges for more than 30 years in New York, Georgia, Iowa, and Tennessee. Sylvya even taught ASL classes at WKU until she retired in 2017. She received the American Sign Language Teachers Association (ASLTA) certification in December 2014. Currently, Sylvya is working part-time as a Deaf interpreter in Nashville and Kentucky.