When Jody Lee Bell was a young learner at the Carel du Toit Centre for children with hearing impairments, her mother, Dr Diane Bell, went to listen to a talk by an alumnus of the school which is on the grounds of Tygerberg Hospital.

“This alumnus had two cochlear implants and played the piano and spoke about how she can do anything she wants. This made my mother – a high school teacher at the time – understand that I too could do anything. My mother enrolled me in mainstream schools and set the bar that 'I can do anything and more'. Because of that standard and expectation, I learnt to believe in myself and it has carried me through my life."

Her mother's philosophy has clearly paid off. Jody Bell recently graduated from Stellenbosch University with a Master's degree in Pathology.

"If you know the limits on what you are not able to do, then you realize that everything else is limitless. That's my message to fellow hearing impaired students," Bell said.

Dr Diane Bell, believes her 26-year-old daughter – who was second princess in the 2017 Miss Deaf SA pageant – is the first hearing impaired person in South Africa, “if not on the continent", to graduate with a Masters in Pathology.

A delighted Bell said she felt very accomplished to achieve her degree. “I knew I could do it if I worked hard and persevered," she said in an interview.

“I can't do cellphones and calls, but I can study anything I put my mind to – and so can anyone else with a disability."

Bell was born with a profound hearing loss which was discovered when she was one-year old. She received cochlear implants – at age 16 in the left ear and at age 18 in the right – which helped her greatly and increased her mark average at school. She uses spoken language acquired through the use of this technology, as well as the Carel du Toit auditory/verbal methodology for deaf children to acquire language.

Being hearing impaired came with many academic and social challenges for Bell. She took extra lessons both at school and at university but said that being a hearing impaired student was “really tough" at an under-graduate level and during honours.

"I mostly struggled during lectures and seminars as it is difficult to hear in some lecture halls. I am a visual learning student, not auditory."

This struggle was not so bad during her research-only masters, so the only challenge she had was her writing skills.

"As a hearing impaired person, our grammatical correctness is often a challenge. Some countries provide concessions for this so we are not penalised on language errors when our thesis/work is marked. In South Africa, it is not yet done – hopefully we will get there as a country."

However, according to Bell, Stellenbosch University's Disability Unit did its utmost best to provide her with the support she needed and the Molecular Genetics Department and the NHLS/SU Biobank at Tygerberg Hospital.

Bell said the highlights of her journey towards getting her masters were learning a work ethic and "striving for something bigger than myself, and for myself instead of what the world expected of me."

Bell is currently in Melbourne Australia taking a break “to breathe" and is enjoying her passions of cooking, baking and crocheting.

She hopes to start working soon – preferably in a research project management position – and plans to further her studies with either another masters or a PhD."