TLC Homecoming

David Schwab Alumni Award 

The TLC David Schwab Alumni Award ((formerly Alumni Award for Service) was inaugurated in 2021 to recognize the service and contributions of alumni of TLC during their years after being an enrolled student. In 2021, in honor of our 50th anniversary, TLC presented inaugural alumni award for service to the TLC Alumni Association. 

The award is presented annually at our Homecoming in honor of an individual alumnus or alumna or group of alumni/ae who have devoted time and energy to engaging alumni in the TLC community.

2023: Shayna Unger 

In 2015, Shayna Unger, with her partner Scott Lehmann, scaled Mount Kilimanjaro. In 2020, they became the first all-deaf team to summit Aconcagua in South America. In 2021, they climbed Denali, becoming the first all-deaf team to reach the summit of North America’s tallest mountain. And if that were not enough, in 2023, Shayna and Scott reached the top of Mount Everest, making remarkable history as only the third and fourth Deaf people to summit Mount Everest. Shayna is the first Deaf woman - ever, to accomplish such an extraordinary feat.

2022: Jeffrey Mansfield

Jeffrey Mansfield is a designer, writer, and Deaflympic athlete working to advance architecture that is just and beautiful and to expand the Deaf Sports movement. Jeff is a three-time Gold Medalist, winning Gold at the 2007 and 2019 Winter Deaflympics and the 2017 World Ice Hockey Championships. Previously, he was a John W. Kluge Fellow at the Library of Congress and a Graham Foundation Grantee for his project, "The Architecture of Deafness.