News Releases

Listen: Can you recognize bias in language?

Speaker and author Amy Roloff, known for her appearances
on TLC’s “Little People, Big World,”
will be the featured speaker during a daylong event
hosted by the Clark College chapter of Phi Theta Kappa,
the international honor society of two-year colleges

VANCOUVER, Wash. – Words have power. Many are positive. Some are negative – often unintentionally. On Monday, Dec. 5, Alpha Sigma Phi, the Clark College chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, will host a daylong event, “History and Bias Encoded in Language.” 

The keynote event will be a reader’s theatre presentation from 7-9 p.m. in Clark’s Gaiser Student Center.  Speaker and author Amy Roloff will be the featured presenter.  

Roloff, who is known for her appearances on TLC's “Little People, Big World,” established the Amy Roloff Charity Foundation, which advocates for children and youth who face social, mental, physical, emotional or economic challenges. 

She will be speaking about disability biases as well as biases in general. During the program, members of Alpha Sigma Phi will narrate readings related to biases including appearance, race, disability, gender, sexual orientation, and education.

From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the Phi Theta Kappa chapter will host bias awareness displays in Bauer and Gaiser Halls and in the lobby between Foster and Hanna Halls. At each of the displays, students and visitors may obtain a punch card for visiting. Each booth will have a different hole punch. People who obtain all six punches will be entered into a drawing to win a $100 gift card to the Clark College Bookstore. The winner will be announced during that evening’s reader’s rheatre presentation.  The winner must be present to claim the gift card.

All events are free and open to the public. Clark College is located at 1933 Fort Vancouver Way, Vancouver.  Driving directions and parking maps are available at www.clark.edu/maps.

Additional information about Amy Roloff is available at http://amyjroloff.com/  Information about Alpha Sigma Phi is available at http://clarkptk.com/

An international honor society, Phi Theta Kappa was established to recognize and encourage the academic achievement of two-year college students and provide opportunities for individual growth and development through participation in honors, leadership, service and fellowship programming. 

About Amy Roloff

A graduate of Central Michigan University, Amy Roloff earned a BSBA (Bachelor of Science degree in business administration) in personnel and hospitality.

Roloff has worked as an early education teacher, manager of a soccer club, and youth team soccer coach.  She is president of the Amy Roloff Charity Foundation.   She is also a long-standing member of the nonprofit organization, Little People of America, and has served on its board of directors. 

Roloff's dwarfism is the result of the most frequently diagnosed cause of short stature, achondroplasia.  Achondroplasia is a genetic condition that results in disproportionately short arms and legs.  It occurs in one out of 26,000 to 40,000 births.

Amy Roloff and her husband Matt have four children, Jacob, Jeremy, Molly and Zachary.

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