Special Guests

Jean Irwin is a Teacher of the Deaf at the high school level for the Washoe County School District in Reno, Nevada. She has taught in grades pre-school through 12th grade in 12 schools. Jean was a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar in 1989. Her talk helps us to see the long term effects of investment in the Foundation.
The scholarship Jean received allowed her to do research into reading and deafness 15 years ago which earned her a Master's Degree from Nottingham University in England. She will show tapes of how she teaches her students to speak, although they are profoundly deaf. Her story is but one example of how Rotary can support a teacher to meet the challenges to educate all of our children.
She has spoken to 120 conferences for both Rotarians and teachers of the deaf. Having access to this wide of an audience has helped her to educate even more people about what she has learned in Nottingham in regards to methods to teach Reading. This has afforded her opportunities to work individually with families and teachers of children struggling with reading.
Jean became a "real boy" and is a charter member of the Rotary Centennial Sunset Club of Reno founded in 2005. She is the Foundations Chairman this year. Last year she participated in her club's very first International Project at an orphanage in Mexico. She has also become involved in the Outbound Training of Ambassadorial Scholars in the hopes that returning scholars will have their talents mined to a greater extent.
She is the mother of Kent, aged 16 and Katy who is 22.