Christy Smith (born September 13, 1978) is an American activist and television personality. She is the first

deaf Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an audiological condition. In this context it is written ...

contestant on the CBS reality television series '' Survivor: The Amazon'' and co-founder of Discovering Deaf Worlds.

Early life

Christy Smith was born premature, weighing less than . As a baby, she pulled out her air tube and ended up losing 90 percent of her hearing. As such, she is skilled in lip reading and

American Sign Language American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States and most of Anglophone Canadians, Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual language that i ...

. She resided in

Basalt, Colorado Basalt is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule town located in Eagle County, Colorado, Eagle and Pitkin County, Colorado, Pitkin List of counties in Colorado, counties, Colorado, United States. The town populat ...

.DDW Co-Founder - Christy Smith
Retrieved November 13, 2016.

Education and career

Smith attended high school and college in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

She obtained a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree in sociology with a minor in criminology from

Gallaudet University Gallaudet University ( ) is a private federally chartered university in Washington, D.C., for the education of the deaf and hard of hearing. It was founded in 1864 as a grammar school for both deaf and blind children. It was the first school ...

in 2000. After graduating from Gallaudet, she worked at Aspen Camp School for the Deaf as a guide. After competing on ''Survivor'', Smith created ''Christy's Kids: Challenge Yourself'', a television show that debuted on Rocky Mountain PBS in April 2005. In January 2007, Smith co-founded Discovering Deaf Worlds, an organization which uses world travel to increase deafness awareness.

''Survivor''

Smith is the first

contestant to appear on the CBS reality television series ''Survivor''. As a contestant on '' Survivor: The Amazon'', Smith shocked her tribe members on the first day when she announced her disability. She competed on ''Survivor'' to bring awareness of deaf culture and in the hope of bringing home the prize money. On Day 33 of the show, Smith was voted out in a 4-2 decision by Jenna Morasca, Heidi Strobel, Matthew von Ertfelda, and Rob Cesternino. Smith came in sixth place and became the fourth member of the jury of seven that would ultimately vote for the winner of the show. In the end, Smith voted for Morasca to win the $1,000,000

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it int ...

grand prize.

References

External links

*
Christy Smith biography
for '' Survivor: The Amazon'' at CBS.com
Discovering Deaf Worlds
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Christy 1978 births Deaf television personalities Living people People from Aspen, Colorado Survivor (franchise) contestants People from Basalt, Colorado American deaf people Gallaudet University alumni