2008 Monthly VCE Achiever Winner

June: Sophie Li

Being an advocate for the deaf community has been an important part of Sophie Li’s life from a young age. Sophie, from Melbourne Girls’ Grammar, was born profoundly deaf and as a child became one of the first children in the world to receive a cochlear bilateral-implant (two bionic ears).

Since then Sophie has endeavoured to develop her language skills, which she believes is her greatest personal achievement. ‘I am able to go to a regular school. I can hear and speak fluently. I am also learning Chinese, which is my father’s native language. This has inspired other hearing-impaired people to improve their language skills, which motivates me to keep going.’

One project Sophie is passionate about is the Vocal Empowerment Research program conducted by Melbourne University. This program aims to improve hearing-impaired people’s ability to communicate through the use of sound, vocal and performance training. ‘I am actively involved in this program as a volunteer and group leader. We get together as a group, do vocal exercises and encourage each other. This program helps deaf people gain confidence and encourages them to come out of their shell.’

Sophie also raises awareness through public speaking and fundraising events for the Bionic Ear Institute and Deaf Children Australia. At one Bionic Ear fundraising event, which raised over US$100 000, she spoke and played piano for the audience.

Recently Sophie has been helping to organise a Deaf Formal for the end of the year. ‘This is a good way for hearing-impaired youths to meet; it can be a difficult age to meet people. By creating a social environment, it helps to create community identity as well.’

Sophie is highly passionate about dancing. Despite the challenges of being born profoundly deaf she has pursued her dreams of being a dancer. She was recently awarded a Premier’s Award for VCE Dance and also performed in the VCAA’s Season of Excellence Top Acts at Hamer Hall. At the community level she teaches Intermediate and Advance Jazz and Tap dancing to 9 to 12 year olds. ‘I love contemporary dance. When I was nine years old my mother took me to a jazz and tap concert and it was dazzling. I realised then that that was what I wanted to do.’ Through dancing Sophie hopes that she is able to inspire other people to pursue their dreams regardless of the obstacles they may face. ‘I do hope to make a positive impact; it may be little or it may be massive but it is about making a difference and I hope to pass this on to others.’

At school, Sophie takes a leading role in the school council which involves fundraising for various organisations and charities. For instance, she was involved in a successful week-long campaign to encourage blood donations to the Red Cross. Sophie is a mentor to junior students, provides support to international boarders and other hearing-impaired students. Sophie’s tenacity also saw her rewarded for her efforts as House Music Conductor; again this was another challenge which Sophie took on despite her hearing impairment.

Although Sophie would like to study Commerce and then pursue her other interests overseas, her immediate plan after VCE is to go to China. Sophie will spend a year in Tianjin, which is near Beijing, to enhance her Chinese skills and also teach English part-time. She is looking forward to immersing herself in the culture and language and being self-sufficient. ‘My aim is to be fluent in Chinese and I will be supporting myself through teaching English. I am really looking forward to it. People in China are very curious about Australia and I want to help them understand us.’