The Marina Ewald & Kurt Hahn Address

Jean Berube has a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Physical Education from the University of Maryland. She has undergraduate minors in English and Biology. She has graduate degree minors in Physiology and Health Education. She has additional classes in health Education and a certification in Natural History with 22 classes from the United States Department of Agriculture ( USDA).  She has  training in conflict resolution , mediation, anger management  and a 16 month class in Peace from Anne Arundel Conflict Resolution Center. 

She taught at Gallaudet University for 45 years (1965-2010). She taught physical education, health education, and physiology of exercise.  She coached Field Hockey (1965-1973) and co-ed gymnastics (1965-2010). She founded the Personal Discovery Program in 1979 and still continues to help with this program.  She has traveled with Discovery staff under the Gallaudet Young Scholars’ Program to Japan (1995); India (1998); Mexico (1999), Johannesburg, South Africa (1999); and Romania (2000) doing 7-8 workshops in each country. She has traveled with Discovery staff to Russia (1993-2000), the Philippines (2003), Haiti (2013-2020) and Guatemala (2014, 2015). She has traveled independently for the Discovery Program to Australia (2000), Taiwan (2010, 2012), and China (2010).  She has been involved in three International Peace Programs with Julia Shevelova (1996, 1998, 2005).  She has been running a camp for deaf children at Institut Montfort in Haiti since 2013.  She has just  completed (2024) a visual Haitian Sign Language (LSH) Dictionary with help from Haitian deaf and with members of  Friends of Montfort in an attempt to save the LSH sign language.

Some awards received are: Distinguished Faculty of the Year presidential award (2007), The Michael Stratton Practioner’s Award given by the International Association for Experiential Education (2001), Faculty of the Year award by Delta Phi Epsilon (2003), Dedication of the Tower Clock  by the year book staff(1995-96), Mother of the Year award by ASP fraternity (1996), Faculty of the Year award by Delta Phi Epsilon sorority (1994), and Woman of the Year award by the Bisonettes Club (1992-93).

Articles and books published are as follows:

“The Power of Metaphors and Rituals”, The Ripple Effect, the Voice of T.E.A.M., Northeastern 

               Illinois University, Spring, 1998.

“Learning Through Participation,” Proceedings from the 19^th International Congress on    

               Education of the Deaf and 7^th Asian-Pacific Congress on Deafness, July 9-13, 2000, Sydney    

               Australia.

“Personal Discovery in Theory and Practice”, Proceedings from the 19^th International Congress     

               on Education of the Deaf and 7^th Asian-Pacific Congress on Deafness, July 9-13, 2000, Sydney,   

               Australia.

Contributed to the writing of High Point of Persistence: The Miriam Richards Story ;2007, 

   www.lullu.com.

Contributed a story for The Revised and Expanded Book of Raccoon Circles, Dr. Jim Cain and Dr. 

              Tom Smith, Kendall/Hunt, 2007, pp.216-218.

Haitian Visual Dictionay, Jean Berube, editor; copyright, 2023; printed, February, 2024.

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Some favorite quotes and words of wisdom:

Jean believes that every person has abilities (“gifts”) which need to be shared. When groups and societies learn to value and respect all life and learn to use each other’s “gifts,” the groups and societies will grow and the world will become a better place.

“All things are interrelated. Everything in the universe is a part of a single whole. Everything is connected in some way to everything else. It is therefore possible to understand something only if we can understand how it is connected to everything else.”  The Sacred Tree

“Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful; for beauty is God’s handwriting – a wayside sacrament.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Every individual has a place to fill in the world, and is important in some respect whether he chooses to be so or not.” Nathaniel Hawthorne

“To look at anything,

If you would know that thing,

you must look at it long:

To look at this green and say

I have seen spring in the woods;

will not do – you must

be the thing you see:

you must be the dark snakes of stems

and ferny plumes of leaves,

you must enter in to the small silences between the leaves,

you must take your time and touch the very peace they issue from.”

-John Moffitt 

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A Feature-Length Documentary About Jean Is Coming Soon!

TB8 Films is currently producing a feature-length documentary called,  'Journeys of Discovery'. The film is about Jean Berube, who led a quiet revolution in educational engagement. She is a pioneer in experiential education, using physical challenges and team building with deaf and hard of hearing students at Gallaudet University to build personal confidence and community.

In 1992, Berube began taking Gallaudet students to locations around the world (Japan, India, South Africa, Romania, Philippines, Mexico, Russia, Haiti, Guatemala), providing experiential learning activities as a model for bringing people with disabilities, minorities, and diverse communities together in orphanages, prison schools, theater companies, peace-building organizations, non-government organizations, hearing public schools, and schools for the deaf and hard of hearing. Each workshop changed people’s lives and perspectives of their fellow humans and the planet.

Berube created opportunities to respond to conflict and cross-cultural barriers with love on a global scale, all the while working with students at Gallaudet. For over 45 years, tens of thousands of students, local community members, and people all over the world participated in this experiential learning program with transformational impact in their own lives and success.

Journeys of Discovery will examine the ways that this quiet revolution changed lives and influenced our world.  The documentary includes re-enactments, multi-cultural traditions, interviews with Berube, and with a range of leaders and participants representing both the students and their counterparts in other nations.  

Uniquely, this film will incorporate both American Sign Language and spoken speech, conveying the full emotional range of ASL communication as a featured part of the story.  Innovative filming techniques will familiarize the audiences with the visual and kinesthetic aspect of storytelling that is part and parcel of the deaf experience. 

At a time when our world seems to be more divided than ever, Journeys of Discovery presents a model of bridge-building and heart-to-heart connection that is desperately needed today.

Written by Jean Berube

Receiving this award was totally unexpected. I am a person who is not good at receiving awards. I highly respect this award and those people who have received it in the past. When Jay [AEE Board President] called me and left a message and in the message received, told me I had been selected to give the Keynote address for the “Eva” award for the AEE conference, I thought, what is this? I called the number he had left and he explained. I had to think about everything because I wasn’t planning to attend AEE this year due to the time of the year and possible weather conditions and the fact that I hadn’t turned in a workshop offering.  As I thought about Jay’s and my conversation, I realized that this was an opportunity to show the AEE members what it means to start with a single purpose and how from that beginning something even more meaningful can grow. It is also an opportunity to show what the deaf can do. So, the next day, I called Jay and told him that I accepted the nomination.

Many people have helped to shape me in this wonderful field of adventure education. Once I started the Personal Discovery Program at Gallaudet University in 1979, I took every training and workshop I could to develop my skills. I was a physical education and health education person with a gymnastic and sport background which gave me a good foundation. I attended 11 different trainings from Project Adventure and Jim Schoel and his way of working with people and the ABC curriculum gave me my beginning. Inner Quest and trainings by Randy Smith and his staff not only helped me, but my staff too, especially in technical skill.  AEE, my first conference was around 1982, became my family. Every year I attended, I gained new knowledge and skills, made new friends, and felt revitalized. I guess I have attended over 40 AEE conferences. I met Tom Smith, Karl Rohnke, Dan Creely, Michelle Cummings, Noel Pompa and Gino Antonio at AEE and they each became a mentor and friend. Dr. Mansuk Patel, who has walked many miles across the earth for peace, impacted me as did the people in Russia, Japan, Mexico, South Africa, Romania, India, China, Taiwan, Guatemala, and Haiti.

No matter where one goes in the world, the needs of the people are the same. We all need to be valued, supported, respected and loved. AEE teaches those traits. People learn best from hands-on, visual activities. AEE teaches that. All life must be valued and AEE teaches that. AEE members must enter the classrooms, hospitals, prisons, the fields, the woods and the water and share the skills learned at AEE with all of those around. Each member of AEE is making a difference. AEE and all of its members should never give up. We must work together to unite the world and overcome the darkness.