Study abroad in Jamaica

A Chambersburg native is participating in Goshen College's Study-Service Term in Jamaica, with nine other students during the fall semester.Goshen offers the only three-month study abroad program that has American Sign Language as its primary language into which students will be immersed.Brittany Lentz, daughter of David Lentz and Glynnette Lentz of Chambersburg, is majoring in American Sign Language. She is a 2007 graduate of Shalom Christian Academy, near Marion, and attends Marion Mennonite Church.

She left for Jamaica on Sept. 2 and will return to the United States on Dec. 1.Josh and Rachel Garrett, along with their son JP, are leading the group. Josh is adjunct professor of American Sign Language at Goshen.To participate, students had to study ASL for at least two semesters. The unit is based in the city of Mandeville, where students will live with host families, engage in deeper study of ASL and learn about Jamaican Deaf culture. The Jamaica Association for the Deaf will assist with the education component of the program. During the second half of the semester, students will work in deaf schools throughout the country as the service component of the study abroad program.There are more than eight schools for the deaf in Jamaica, most started by mission groups, in a country slightly smaller in size than Connecticut. English is the primary spoken language in Jamaica, but the deaf community signs with a Jamaican Sign Language