In making the decision to attend Princeton, knowing the caliber of the other students was the determining factor for Jeffrey Mansfield ’08, of Arlington, Massachusetts.

“I knew that I wanted more than just a great classroom education — I wanted a great opportunity to learn from the people around me,” Mansfield says.

Mansfield, who has been deaf since birth and had attended schools for the deaf, expected some difficulty making the transition to Princeton, but the University’s Office of Disability Services and Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students (ODUS) made it seamless.

For instance, they arranged for notetakers and interpreters to accompany him to class. They even arranged for two interpreters to join him for his junior year of study abroad in Denmark. ODUS Associate Dean Maria Flores-Mills “made the situation so efficient that everything was taken care of,” Mansfield says.

Mansfield, an architecture major, built on the work of Modernist architects to write his senior thesis on new strategies that eliminate the need for walls, doorways and other nonstructural elements.

“I got a grant to do thesis research in Japan, and once again, that was an unforgettable experience, studying what I love and exploring a new culture at the same time,” he says.

Mansfield, a nationally recruited ice hockey player, also was able to keep playing the sport at Princeton. He served as a goalie on the varsity team his freshman year before switching to club hockey, and he played on the gold medal-winning U.S. hockey team in the Deaflympics in 2007.

These days, Mansfield runs S2: Speed and Strength, a strength and conditioning business he started as an undergraduate, aimed at improving fitness awareness in the deaf community. He conducts personal training sessions, holds summer camps and releases a groundbreaking series of exercise DVDs in American Sign Language. He also plans to work at an architecture firm and, eventually, to open his own firm.

Princeton, he says, has motivated him to take on all of these adventures.

Says Mansfield, “The fact that everyone here makes or will make a large contribution to the world — it’s humbling, really. It motivates me to work harder, to pursue my goals with deliberation.”