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Kirstie Kampen is more than ready — even against long odds — to step to the microphone before thousands of graduating students and their guests at fall commencement on Saturday, Dec. 11.

The student speaker — selected through a competition — has spent a lifetime learning how to speak after the early loss of her hearing.

“It’s going to be awesome,” said the Visalia native, who will earn a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences after one more quarter of study.

Kampen will address about 750 graduating students and their guests at the annual fall ceremony for the colleges of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Biological Sciences, and Letters and Science. The ceremony is set to begin at 10 a.m. in The Pavilion at the ARC.

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“I am so very proud of her,” said Janet Sward, who was Kampen’s speech therapist for 10 years and will be attending the ceremony with at least six members of Kampen's immediate family. “I’ve had the privilege of witnessing this bright child with a hearing loss develop into the confident, high-achieving and motivated young woman she is today," said Sward, also of Visalia.

Kampen’s public speaking experience ranges from making presentations in front of high school classmates to winning community speaking contests and speaking in front of her church and high school assemblies. She counts among her heroes the late Jonathan Rainbow, a high school English teacher who was generous with his feedback on her speech and writing.

For Saturday, Kampen polished her delivery by working with Virginia Hamilton, a lecturer in the Department of Communication. And Kampen said she plans to practice with a teleprompter and participate in a stage party rehearsal the day before commencement.

She will tell her story in three to five minutes. “I am a deaf student who learned to use what I still have — an intelligent mind, an unwavering spirit and the encouraging support of my family,“ Kampen wrote in her prepared speech.

Then her speech will challenge other graduates to tell their own stories of inspiration and courage “with conviction, with words, with actions, with your heart, with your life.”

The daughter of a dairy farmer and nurse, the 22-year-old was diagnosed with mild hearing loss at age 3, and by age 13 she had profound hearing loss. The cause is still unknown.

Kampen uses a hearing aid as well as a cochlear implant, an electronic device that provides the profoundly deaf with a sense of sound but requires them to learn to understand the sounds.

“I listen to sound and I watch for visual cues,” Kampen said. “I try to integrate the sound with the meaning. It takes a lot of hard work.”

Kampen transferred to �ٺ���Ƶ from UC Merced as a senior in the fall of 2009. Her brother Kevin, also at �ٺ���Ƶ, is a sophomore majoring in electrical engineering.

Because her hearing family does not use sign language, Kampen has become skilled in reading lips. So she doesn’t miss out when a speaker is not facing her or several people are talking, the Student Disability Center on campus provides two interpreters for her classes (they alternate signing for 20 minutes at a time) and one for exams.

“The interpreters here are excellent,” she said. “It isn’t always easy to interpret college concepts and scientific words.”

Kampen has applied to medical school to pursue her dream of becoming a cardiac surgeon. “I’ve always been a patient,” she said. “What about the other side? What about becoming a doctor?”

A summer internship at the �ٺ���Ƶ Medical Center reinforced Kampen’s desire. “I learned how to read a CT scan, how to suture, how to tie a surgical knot, how the body works and how it is magnificently designed.”

Tickets are required to attend the ceremony.