SAN ANTONIO \u2013 A successful San Antonio woman is turning her life of silence into an inspiring testimony for others with disabilities seeking to enter the workforce. <\/p>\n
Yesenia Ballesteros has been working in the e-commerce department with Goodwill San Antonio since 2016. <\/p>\n
Just by looking at her, you wouldn\u2019t know she lives her life with an invisible disability of deafness. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was born hearing, but at 6, I got meningitis and lost my hearing,\u201d she said. \u201cIt took a few months for my mom to realize I was deaf because I was responding to vibrations and not sounds.\u201d <\/p>\n
With that being her new reality, Ballesteros said she learn to communicate quickly with the resources she was given. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was first in my school to get a cochlear implant, so I have some hearing,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is interesting because the school I went to was a special program called Sunshine Cottage. I had intensive speech therapy focusing on hearing, and at home, I was using speech to communicate with my family.\u201d <\/p>\n
She said she spoke really well until she entered the real world. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a real challenge for me because I wasn\u2019t familiar with everyone\u2019s voice or sounds in the world,\u201d she said. \u201cI went to a mainstream school, and a lot of students who didn\u2019t have disabilities really looked down on me at that time, and I rely on facial expressions to communicate. I didn\u2019t learn sign language until I was a teen, and not being able to communicate made me feel disheartened.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said having her implant helped her make sense of her surroundings, and attending public school also helped her prepare for the real world. <\/p>\n
Her mother wanted her to focus on education, so after graduating high school, she went on to The Rochester Institute of Technology in New York.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey had a program there specifically for deaf and hard-of-hearing people, so I got the technical skills for real life and my curriculum.\u201d<\/p>\n
In her young life, Ballesteros held small jobs here and there but never had a permanent position. <\/p>\n
Without that job experience, she found herself struggling to get hired after college. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a lot of challenges for me,\u201d she said. \u201cI had filled out application after application and not getting any calls back.\u201d <\/p>\n
But then Goodwill San Antonio<\/a> answered her prayers. <\/p>\n