Biography

Jackie Schertz comes from a Deaf family and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. She chose to come to RIT/NTID because it offered the best of both worlds…an excellent education with support services such as interpreting and notetaking and a large deaf student body optimal for peer socialization.

Jackie has had a varied career. This was possible by her education in the RIT Social Work Program, and later, the Career and Human Resources Program, also at RIT. This foundation gave her broad flexibility to pursue many employment opportunities. Jackie benefitted from many rich experiences in leadership roles when she was a student at RIT. Examples include NTID Student Congress Vice President and editor of NTIDLife Yearbook. These skills were easily transferred and applied to her career.

Currently, Jackie is Practicum Coordinator with the ASL and Interpreting Education program at RIT/NTID. She had a stint as a weekly TV talk show host with ASL as the official language of the program called “Hey, Listen!” In the Rochester area, she also worked as a substance abuse counselor, directed community programs serving the deaf population, and taught ASL at RIT. In addition, Jackie is an RID Certified Deaf Interpreter. These are examples of careers that utilize people skills, as well as organizational, advocacy, language and networking skills.

Jackie is an artist, primarily in the stained glass medium and a docent at the Memorial Art Gallery. She and her husband live in a 1905 house in Rochester’s Park Avenue neighborhood. She enjoys walking to stay fit, and sampling ethnic cuisines.