ABOUT ME

Hello, my name is Juan Angel Reynoso. I was born and raised in San Diego, California. A Native American Indian from the San Pasqual Band of Kumeyaay Indians, I grew up on my tribes reservation and proudly strive to preserve my culture and heritage. 

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I became interested in American Sign Language in 2000 while attending high school. During this time period I took ASL 1-3 to fulfill the California Foreign Language requirement for graduation. After graduation I moved to Santa Barbara and attended the University of California Santa Barbara for a year. Homesick I moved back to San Diego and began attending San Diego Mesa College, taking classes in general education and business administration. I entered into a career in Casino Operations Management and worked at two large gaming enterprises for most of my twenties. 

At age 30, I began to realize that I was no longer happy in my career choice. While financially my career kept me satisfied, I no longer felt driven and motivated in my work. I wanted more from my work and more importantly, I wanted to make a difference.

I had always been interested in American Sign Language. I can recount the endless hours of ASL musical interpretations that I watched on YouTube, thinking to myself, "This is what I want to do!"Just like that, I made the decision to go back to school and pursue a degree in American Sign Language. After completing my fourth year of ASL, I entered into my local community college's American Sign Language/English Interpreting program and graduated in 2016. 

Since graduation, I have done community volunteer interpreting work for organizations like San Diego Pride, San Diego Comic-Con, and Deaf Community Services of San Diego.

Currently I work for the Escondido Union School District as Signing Aide in a Self-contained classroom for Deaf and Hard of Hearing students.  I am also concurrently obtaining my teaching credential in Special Education.

This Fall, I will graduate with my Bachelors of Science in Interpretation Studies from William Woods University. I will be applying to the University of California San Diego's Masters of Bilingual Education this spring, continuing a degree in Special Education while still being involved in the Deaf and Hard of Hearing program.