Sarah Keathley has been an American Sign Language (ASL) teacher at Lafayette for 16 years. She said has always been fascinated by sign language, even for other countries’ signing systems. And, learned and practiced the art of classical Indian dancing, jazz and ballet.

“The facial expressions and body movements in sign language go very well with dancing,” Keathley said. 

Keathley loves learning new languages and knows over four of them including Malay, Tamil, Cantonese, some Mandarin, American Sign Language and English

“It’s [ASL] unique and different from spoken languages,” she said.

She knew from a young age that she loved children because of their honesty and wanted to incorporate her love of language into her career. She has taught for more than 30 years and is soon beginning her retirement, hoping to go on some new adventures. 

“It’s time for someone different, a little more youthful with more energy to take over,” Keathley said. 

In her time away from teaching, Keathley will enjoy spending time with her friends and family and traveling whenever she likes. She is going to kickstart her retirement with a celebratory trip to Cabo San Lucas, then to Florida, the North East, Florida again, Australia and finally the UK all by next year.

She said she is excited to be able to make her own schedule everyday and spend more time in her condo in Florida, but will miss all of the students.