Maggie Gleason, 14, was born without cochleas, the snail-shaped organs located in the inner ear that works to translate sound into nerve impulses to be sent to the brain. Without them, Gleason was profoundly deaf.

Though she wasn’t a candidate for cochlear implants — a small device that helps provide a sense of sound — she was a candidate for an auditory brainstem implant. The Huffington Post reported this device stimulates neurons directly at the brain stem, providing the same sense of sound a cochlear implant would. Gleason was fitted for the implant last year at University Hospitals' Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio. And this past December, the device was turned on for the first time.

“Maggie, can you hear me?” Gleason’s father asked. In a video taken by WKYC-TV, Gleason can be seen smiling, and getting emotional in light of the fact the she can now hear sound. Her father told WKYC he always felt he would have a lot to say when this moment came, but he found himself speechless.

Gleason isn’t the first to receive a brainstem implant. In June 2013, 3-year-old Grayson Clamp heard his father’s voice for the first time after receiving his implant. And later that same year, Finn Johnson became one of the youngest people to ever get an implant at the age of 2. The actual youngest person to receive an implant was 17-month-old Alex Frederick. This type of implant is considered pioneering technology.

Like the children before her, Gleason is only at the beginning of her new, sound-filled journey. She’ll need to undergo speech therapy to relearn how to talk once her implant is fine-tuned. But, with the continued support of her family, Gleason hopes to one day become a pastry chef.