Deaf artist polishes skills at Gallaudet
By Diana Schoberg
The Rotarian -- May 2009
Allumaga, with some of his art in the background, describes his work.
As a child, Hilary Allumaga drew sketches in the dirt, his inspiration the birds, cows, and goats of his native Nigeria.
Now, with the help of a scholarship from RI District 7620 (District of Columbia and Maryland, USA), he holds a degree in studio art from Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., and plans to return to Nigeria to open the kind of art school he wishes had been available to him growing up.
Allumaga is one of nearly 200 Gallaudet students who have received scholarships from the district since 1974, when District Governor Leonard Elstad, a former president of the university, set up a scholarship fund to which Rotarians could contribute.
From an original $250 donation from the Rotary Club of Potomac, Md., the endowment has grown to several hundred thousand dollars. Gallaudet, founded in 1864, is the world’s only university specifically designed for deaf and hard-of-hearing students.
Allumaga, 44, lost his hearing after contracting meningitis at age 3. At Gallaudet, he had the opportunity to learn art techniques he’d never seen before, he says.
With no access to an art teacher in Nigeria, he was self-taught; at Gallaudet, he has become an accomplished ceramics artist.
"I'll be able to take what I learned here and teach other students in Nigeria who are not able to come to the United States," he says.