ASL courses change lives one sign at a time

Scarlett Phillips 16, who is homeschooled, signs “Sign language is my favorite class” on the Ocala Downtown Square in Ocala, Fla. on Monday, August 4, 2025. Phillips took the American Sign Language 1 (ASL1) class last year with the Florida Cyber Charter Academy, with her online instructor, Michael Nasso. She is also trying to learn at least five languages. Phillips wants to be an advocate for the deaf community through her chosen legal career that started with an inspiring moment of connection with a deaf man. In her junior year, she went to get her driving learner’s permit with her father and a deaf man tried to start signing with her Dad, who doesn’t know sign language. Scarlett, who was already learning sign language, took over and started signing with the deaf man. She said she saw the man’s face light up and it made her realize that she was going to pursue sign language and wants to incorporate it with her future chosen law profession. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2025.

One of the few American Sign Language resources in Marion County Public Schools (MCPS) is impacting students’ passion to communicate and aim to make a change after high school.

Florida Cyber Charter Academy (FLCCA) offers three virtual ASL courses — ASL I, II and III — that students can take to earn their language credit or explore their interests.

MCPS Director of Public Relations Kevin Christian said ASL is also available for students to take through Florida Virtual School’s Marion Virtual classes. Additional ASL services are provided through contracted individuals by the district.

Christian said, “Our traditional high schools offer options in Spanish, French, and Latin.”

FLCCA ASL Teacher 8-12 grade Michael Hernandez-Nasso told the “Gazette” that ASL is 100% something more schools should include for their students.

“I was fortunate to have a high school that offered ASL, and I fell in love with the language, and I was trying to figure out what I could do with that,” he said.

He attended Flagler College for Deaf Education, continuing his knowledge of sign language to then teach students who are hard of hearing or deaf. Nasso said that due to COVID-19, he switched from a traditional teaching role to a full-time virtual instructor, which led him to FLCCA.

Nasso said the course options have expanded since he started teaching at the charter school, adding ASL II his second year there and then, just last school year, ASL III.

He explained the progression of the classes with ASL I geared toward learning vocabulary, ASL II focused on grammar and ASL III practicing the material in different scenarios for more fluent conversations.

Compared to other languages, Nasso said learning ASL can be slightly more challenging and different due to the visual aspect of it when using hand gestures.

Where most languages require audio assignments, he said his course requires students to submit video assignments of their signing.

Nasso said learning ASL can sometimes feel awkward, especially with exaggerated facial expressions or mixing up similar signs. To help students feel comfortable making mistakes, he creates a safe and supportive virtual classroom where he lightens the mood by playfully teasing them.

He assigns engaging activities, encouraging creativity to flow freely, and makes learning ASL in a 45-minute digital window fun. Nasso said he has students create and sign their own scripts, and he keeps lessons fun with ASL games inspired by the popular online game Among Us.

“It’s nice to be able to have that option (ASL classes) while students are young and while they can also possibly change their career paths as we see that from a few students,” Nasso said.

One of his students, Scarlett Phillips, is following a similar path to Nasso’s, finding her passions in languages during high school and planning a career goal around helping underrepresented communities.

Phillips will be a senior this upcoming school year and has made it her goal to learn five languages, with English and Spanish tackled so far.

She said FLCCA was the first school she noticed offering ASL as a course and took an interest in it.

“I enjoy learning languages,” Phillips said. “I started learning when I was about 7 years old and I fell in love with it, but that was more so verbal languages, like Spanish, so seeing that I could communicate in an entirely different way was just fascinating right away.”

She took ASL I with Nasso last year and he said she “stood out” to him with all she is attempting to learn simultaneously. Phillips will be taking both ASL II and III with Nasso again this upcoming year, while also learning French and Chinese on other virtual platforms at the same time.

He said she will be the first to take both ASL classes in the same year but believes she can do it.

“I also want to major in law in the future, and I thought that this would be a great opportunity to truly advocate for victims who might not be able to speak for themselves and are in need of assistance,” Phillips said.

Part of what shaped her future career goal was a real experience she had with a deaf man.

Phillips said that when the man was trying to sign with her father, he couldn’t understand him, so she stepped in to communicate using her knowledge from ASL I.

“In the real world, I was able to apply what I learned in class, and I would honestly say that was the most encouraging part of my year and it reassured me that sign language is something that I want to pursue more in the future, most definitely,” Phillips said.

She said even though she was not fluent in sign language, the deaf man’s face lit up knowing she was trying. “I think the effort means the world,” she added.

“I was very impressed,” Nasso said. “I am very excited to see her succeed in learning all of those languages and continuing her career goal in the law system.”

When asked what advice Nasso would give Phillips for her senior year he said not to let senioritis kick in and keep pushing and doing what she is doing.

He said Phillips is not the only student having real world conversations with the hard-of-hearing community and that some students are taking his classes to communicate with their own family members.

Nasso said a student in ASL III came into class excited to share a conversation she had with someone who is deaf. He said the student was able to communicate with them and told that community member she had been in ASL classes by saying, “Hey, I am learning your language.”

Nasso said with the deaf community slowly on the rise, with more actors and actresses popping up in films like “Marvel” and “A Quiet Place,” ASL awareness is growing and is especially important to learn to hold conversations and communicate effectively.

“The more that people learn ASL, the better it will be for the future,” he said.

Nasso believes today’s generation will be the members that “make a huge change.”

Despite Phillips’ generation being adept in social media and digitally oriented, she still believes face-to-face communication is important.

“No matter the communication that is had through a phone, I don’t think it allows for the emotions that can be seen and felt when you are speaking in person with someone.”

Phillips didn’t realize how deeply ASL had impacted her until she saw her knowledge make a real difference

Nasso’s advice to anyone thinking of learning ASL is to just do it. He said do whatever needs to be done to learn the “beautiful language that lacks appreciation.”

“It is never too late to learn a language,” Nasso said.

Scarlett Phillips Learning American Sign Language

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