Elizabeth “Lizzie” Sorkin has been elected to serve a one-year term as student government president at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in NY. According to RIT, Sorkin, 24, is the first deaf student to serve in such a role at a U.S. college made up mostly of hearing students.

A resident of Elk Grove, CA, Sorkin is a film/video and animation major who attends RIT through the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (RIT/NTID). “I’m just a regular student.” Sorkin said. “I’m the same as everyone else. I’m here to study, I have final exams, I experience stress.”

Armondo Bilancione, a student at NTID said, “I voted for her of course; I was going to vote for her anyway. I knew she was going to win regardless.”

But the newly elected student body president is set apart from her peers in more ways than one. The way Sorkin communicates is different from 92 percent of the student body at RIT. “My inner struggle will be I am deaf,” Sorkin said, but being deaf didn’t stop her and her running mate from taking home 80 percent of the vote to win the election.

“This is a diverse campus. Here we have a hearing person who is also a Greek brother and a deaf student running on the same ticket,” Sorkin said. Her vice president, Boston native Daniel Arscott, is hearing. “Even though Dan doesn’t know sign, we get by with one-on-one communication like anyone else would,” said Sorkin.

“It’s not that she’s deaf. It’s that she’s Lizzie and she just happens to be deaf,” said Ellie Rosenfield, Associate Dean of Student and Academic Services.

But for Sorkin, the honor to serve and encourage her fellow students is still somewhat surreal. “Ha…haa…haa,” she laughed, searching for words to describe the feeling of being the first deaf student elected president. “Maybe it hasn’t really hit me yet. I think when a lot of people ask me ‘how do you feel’ and ‘what are you thinking’ all I can say is I’m really excited,” Sorkin said.

Her supporters are excited too and hope her leadership will draw all students closer. “The glue that binds together the hearing and the deaf here at RIT . . .sure you could say that,” Bilancione said.

Sorkin is determined to do a great job as student body president. “I’m going to work so hard to prove to them that I’m capable, that I am absolutely one hundred percent capable.”

There are 1,100 students at RIT who are deaf. They’re part of NTID and make up 8 percent of the overall student body. Sorkin can read lips, so she’s very good at communicating with someone one-on-one. But the school is also looking at getting her an interpreter.