 Academics have also supported students working on descriptive, functional and cognitive linguistic driven analyses of sign languages.The Laura Sadlier Freshman Prize and the Laura Sadlier Sophister Award were officially founded in 2014 in recognition of the outstanding contributions made to the Centre for Deaf Studies by Laura Sadlier.These prizes will be presented annually to Junior Freshman students from the Centre for Deaf Studies who have demonstrated significant improvement in ISL proficiency and/or cultural engagement with the Deaf Community and to Senior Sophister students from the Centre for Deaf Studies.