By Mackenzie Mays
Published: Wednesday, October 26, 2011
The Daily Athenaeum
West Virginia University
thedaonline.com
Mark Leekoff has spent his life taking “leaps of faith.”
The 24-year-old from Annandale, Va., took a leap last year when he was accepted into the West Virginia University School of Medicine as the department’s first deaf student.
Photo: Mark Leekoff, a second year medical student at the WVU School of Medicine, practices on a mannequin at the Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center.
Mackenzie Mays/The Daily Athenaeum
Born with a profound hearing loss, Leekoff knew medical school would be a struggle. But, with the help of supportive parents, he acquired big goals from a young age.
“At the time of my diagnosis, the doctor told my parents that I would most likely never be able to communicate with hearing people. Studies have shown that the average deaf adult has the literary skills equivalent to a fourth grader,” Leekoff said. “I would love to tell that doctor that I’m a second-year medical student at WVU. From the diagnosis all the way to med school, I’ve exceeded what people expect of me.”
At the age of three, Leekoff was one of the first children in the United States to receive a cochlear implant
