Betsy Rich

“You are never too old to live and learn!”

Elizabeth (Betsy) grew up in Michigan and after completing high school in 1981, decided to move to Texas and begin working in the oil industry. Shortly thereafter, she befriended a deaf girl and became fast friends through learning American Sign Language. Over the course of her life, she continued to meet and gain friendship with many deaf and hard of hearing individuals. She started interpreting in Texas, in the 1990's, in college settings, which led to working in an educational capacity in many different locations including California, Florida, and Massachusetts. Betsy first began to realize that Deaf culture was unique, when she volunteered to go to Russia in 1997 and immersed herself in RSL. She also worked in the Recovery setting in Texas for hearing persons, which later proved to be helpful in working in the Recovery/Rehabilitation setting in California for the Deaf/HH as a sign language interpreter/peer counselor. After marriage, she and her husband decided to increase their efforts to volunteer in a foreign “Sign Language” field, by moving to Malaysia and working with deaf and hearing people there, to learn sign language and teach Deaf individuals to become socially supportive within their community.

Credentials

Betsy has worked as an ASL interpreter in a variety of settings since 1990's. She has held certificates of competency on State levels in California and Florida, and currently holds an EIPA level to be able to interpret in educational settings. She has also received a TESOL Certificate (Teach English to Speakers of Other Languages), as well as a SLAM Certificate to teach ASL (Second Language Acquisition Method). Her volunteer work with a non profit organization has taken her to a variety of international locations such as Russia, Belize, Europe, and recently SE Asia. Her life goal is to live and learn as much as possible about people and to make a difference in the world.