ECU Speech and Audiology Student Association earns gold honors from national association
East Carolina University College of Allied Health Sciences students studying speech-language pathology and audiology who comprise the East Carolina chapter of the National Student Speech Language Hearing Association (NSSLHA) have been awarded gold honors for 2022 for their community outreach activities and volunteerism.
ECU’s chapter — which retained gold honors for a fifth-consecutive year — is one of only two from North Carolina to be awarded the honor this year.
The NSSLHA is the national organization for students studying communication sciences and disorders. The association is also affiliated with the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, which serves as the nation’s professional organization for audiologists, speech-language pathologists, speech, language and hearing scientists, and students of these disciplines
To earn gold honors, chapters are required to have a percentage of student members join the national association, hold monthly meetings, engage with state and national elected leaders to advocate for speech and hearing causes, and participate in at least two community outreach events.
To fulfill part of the gold honors requirements, members of the chapter organized the Meta M. Downes Speech-Language and Hearing Symposium last October — its 51st year of being a student-led conference that focuses on speech and communications impairments and advances in the fields of speech language pathology and audiology. The 2021 symposium was the first since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to integrate in-person and video conferencing, which required extra planning and execution from student organizers.
Communication Sciences and Disorders students paint Valentine’s Day gifts for residents of a nursing home near ECU’s campus in Greenville. (Contributed photo)
Some of ECU’s student-led events included hosting and planning the annual ECU Speech and Hearing Symposium for professionals and students; collecting toys for the Great Toy Takeaway; visiting residents at nearby assisted living facilities; stocking Little Free Libraries in local parks with books; and organizing food drives.
“We like to partner with a lot of the assisted living places near ECU like the Brookdale assisted living facility in Greenville, so we’ll do events where we take things there. Since COVID, it’s been a little bit different,” said Julia Scott, a graduate student and the president of ECU’s NSSLHA chapter.
One of the highlights of the organization’s outreach, in past years, was a trip to a Greenville assisted living facility, particularly during the holiday season to visit with the care center’s residents. The COVID-19 pandemic curtailed in-person visits during the past school year but that didn’t stop the NSSLHA students from improvising to continue the tradition — with some modifications to their plans.
“I participated in an event — we decorated the outside of the windows and they loved that but I haven’t been in yet because they’ll only let two or three (visitors) in there,” Scott said. “I feel like it’s hard because the past few years we haven’t gotten to do a whole lot within the community because we used to do a ton — we helped with clean up when Hurricane Matthew came, but not it’s like everything is virtual.”
One of the bright spots for the association members this past academic year was the chance to hold an in-person graduation ceremony for the communications sciences and disorders students — an event that parents and family members could attend for the first time in several years.
“The turnout was amazing,” said Tricia Carter, a licensed speech pathologist and teaching instructor in the college’s Department of Communications Sciences and Disorders, who serves as the student association’s faculty advisor. “It brought staff and faculty in to meet parents and families which gave a chance for the students to walk them through the clinic area and show what they’ve been up to. You could see the light on their faces, to be so proud to share that with their families.”
Student association members also supported the Greenville nonprofit Great Toy Take Away which ensures children have gifts during the holiday season as well as visiting assisted living facilities near the ECU campus.
“When I was a sophomore, we were actually able to take the toys and wrap them at the location but of course the past few years we haven’t been able to do that,” Scott said.
Carter takes pride in working with the speech and audiology student particularly because of their enthusiasm for, and dedication to, their intended career field.
“One of the things that stood out to me about this particular class was how excited they are about learning and the passion that they have about what they are doing,” Carter said.
Scott agrees that the speech and hearing students are a motivated group.
“We have a lot of undergrads in the organization and well and they are all very passionate because at ECU you have to be accepted into the undergrad program and then also into the graduate program, if you choose to do that,” Scott said. “As a whole, the organization — every single person is very passionate about the field.”
While competition for acceptance into the speech and audiology programs in high, both the undergraduate and graduate programs have seen expansion over the past few years.
“Our undergraduate program doubled,” Carter said. “We went from accepting, I think it was 30 undergraduate students. Now, this cohort, we just accepted 60.”
Ninety nine percent of graduates from ECU’s audiology and master of science programs are report getting a job as a speech-language pathologist or audiologist within six months of graduation.