by Carl Alberico has been teaching at Herkimer College since 1996. He is a beloved sign language teacher who told me a bit about how he got to this point in life.
Alberico learned sign language on the job. His first experience was teaching deaf students in the School for the Deaf in Rome, New York. He was attending a small liberal arts school in Vermont, at the time called Windom College, living off campus and working in the school cafeteria. Worried about being sent to fight in Vietnam, Alberico stressed about what he would do after college.
Luckily enough, he heard of an opportunity to work in Rome teaching deaf students, he believed this was his ticket out of the war. The only downside was that he had absolutely no experience, he had only obtained a bachelor’s degree in art and English; so, he wasn’t exactly qualified. Other than this, he heard of a job opportunity in Connecticut, but this one paid significantly more, so he gave it a shot.
While teaching at the school, he had a couple students who were not fully deaf, but hard of hearing, who helped him learn sign language. He also ate lunch with a deaf woman everyday which he said helped him progress in his skill. “That wouldn’t fly in 2025, getting somebody off the streets to teach the deaf, but they needed warm bodies.” says Alberico. Of course, there was more to his life than just what he did for work.
Alberico loves to travel and collect cool clothing and items. Every day he comes to class with a stylish outfit and a neat accessory, being a watch or pin. He’s traveled from New York to California on a bicycle which was around 5200miles for him. He has also traveled to Nova Scotia and shared his crazy experience on this trip where he got hit by a car on his bike. Thankfully he was okay. Alberico takes a lot of pride in his vehicles. He’s had a lot of motorcycles and rare cars; for example, he told me about his rare Italia sports car and his Mercedes 300 SL which apparently had only 1800 of them produced.
Alberico enjoys traveling all over. Once, he helped clean up and rebuild in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and when I asked if he had any future plans or dreams, he said that he would love to revisit there. He also loves to read; he told me he is currently reading a book about that situation and that it is interesting to him to know the exact streets the author speaks of because he was there. “It’s a memoir of somebody that stayed in New Orleans instead of evacuating… It’s like reading about an old girlfriend, I’m getting teary-eyed because all the streets that he’s talking about, I know those areas,” he says. Other travels include his trip to Europe for eight weeks and Canada.
Clearly, he has lived a full and exciting life and Herkimer College is lucky enough to have him on the staff. He always has a positive attitude and has shared that he does not teach here for the money but simply because he enjoys it.
