Jul 02, 2009 - 11:06 AM

By Crystal Crimi

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DURHAM -- Growing up, Drew Mastromartino often cried himself to sleep.

As a deaf boy raised in a hearing world, he wasn't bullied, but often felt ignored and frustrated.

"It's easy to forget the childhood sometimes," Drew said, sitting at his kitchen table in Whitby -- his hearing impairment almost completely unnoticeable now.

On his way to York University this fall with $37,500 in scholarships, Drew hopes to inspire others with special needs to overcome the struggles they face.

"I saw the bad was actually necessary for me to have the successes," said Drew, winner of the Terry Fox Humanitarian Award Scholarship, the Millennium Excellence Scholarship, and other awards in recognition of his struggles, achievements, and community contributions.

Drew was born deaf, but his parents didn't know it until he was nine months old, mistaking his reaction to light and shadows to that of sound.

He has cochlear paralysis, which prevents nerve endings required for hearing from responding to sound.

Drew received hearing aids and wore them until he was 12, but they didn't work well. The hearing aids increased the sound of everything in an attempt to move the nerve endings in the cochlear. After that, he received cochlear implants, which electrically shock the nerve endings to register movement.

The difference the implants make is amazing and sometimes, it's easy to forget how difficult things were without them, he said.

Growing up, he had a tough time understanding people and sometimes had outbursts which would result in fights. In class, he didn't want to ask for help for fear of standing out. Leaving French class to go work with his deaf-specialist teacher, Melissa Church of the Durham Catholic District School Board, was also frustrating, he said. It bothered him that he had to work extra hard and relearn lessons just to be at the same level as hearing kids.

But Ms. Church pushed him hard -- sometimes causing him to storm out in frustration. She got him to do his work and to ask for clarification when needed. Looking back, it was positive that she pushed him so hard, he added.

Ms. Church helped him find the confidence to compete in sports as well and modify his approach to play visually. He does better at individual sports, such as track and field, compared to team sports that require listening to instructions. While in school, he started sign-language clubs - in Grade 9 at Notre Dame Catholic Secondary School and in Grade 12 at Pickering High School.

Drew learned sign language from Ms. Church and by attending the Ontario Camp for the Deaf.

His parents sent him to the camp because they wanted him to be exposed to deaf culture as well. While there, he took out his hearing aid so he could really know what it is to not hear and signed for two weeks.

"It was a completely different world from the hearing world," he said. Since then, he has continued going back and has volunteered as a counselor.

As Drew got older, he realized there's a stigma attached to being deaf which causes people to be feel embarrassed signing sometimes. At Canada's Wonderland, he saw some people from camp trying to communicate without sign language so they wouldn't draw attention. He realized it was his responsibility to teach others to sign to help them openly communicate.

A friend of his has a dad who is deaf, and although he told the cashier at a McDonald's that he can lip read, they still asked his daughter what he wanted to order. Providing education on deaf culture can help prevent that and help deaf people operate in a hearing world, he added.

"When you hear deaf you think nothing," Drew said. "They underestimate their ability."

He stopped feeling sorry for himself in Grade 11, after participating in a speech writing contest with the theme, Why me? Why not? In writing it, he saw the bad was necessary in making him prove he could be as good as anyone.

So far, he has provided more than 1,000 volunteer hours. He was president of IMPACT, a social justice group, as well.

A big movie fanatic, Drew has been successful in drama, directing a high school production and winning a festival award.

He's taking film production at York University to help send his message that no matter what challenges you face, you can make a difference. To do that, he's hoping to make films using the fictional style, but based on true stories.