Trysta, born deaf, received cochlear implants soon after her first birthday.

“My parents have taught me that the cochlear implants are just a part of who I am,” she says. “Similar to how people wear eye glasses to see, I wear cochlear implants to help me hear. It is part of who I am, though they don’t define me.”

She started attending Clarke’s CEE Program when she was four. As a teen, Trysta is achieving her full potential, enjoying a busy schedule dancing competitively, and was even featured in a video about the UMass Memorial Medical Center’s Cochlear Implant Program.

“My life outside of school is a lot of dance,” she says. Trysta has been dancing since she was eighteen months old, and practices with her dance school every day following school. She dances competitively and has even placed first in competition.”