Communication Sciences and Disorders - Summer 2024 Newsletter

Graduate Program News

MS-SLP Class of 2024 Graduates

The Thiel College MS-SLP Program graduated its fourth cohort of students in a special commencement ceremony on August 1, 2024. Twenty-one graduates received their diplomas and then enjoyed a reception with proud family and friends at the Glen Johnson Center.

Congratulations Class of 2024!

A special congratulations went to Christa Reese, MS, CF-SLP for being named the 2024 Dr. Sonya Wilt Outstanding SLP Graduate Student. This award was established in honor of Dr. Sunny Wilt, the founding CSD faculty member at Thiel College, to honor the student who exemplifies overall excellence in each graduate cohort. Christa was an undergraduate student at Geneva College. She was highly recommended by Geneva faculty and her application was very impressive. She graduated from Thiel College with 4.0 GPA and completed a master’s thesis.

Christa demonstrated both academic strength and excellent work ethic during all her clinical, academic, and service endeavors at Thiel College. She performed well above expectations on assignments and examinations and is consistently the top student in all of her classes.

Additional honors went to Alana Hellmann, MS, CF-SLP who was named the 2024 Dr. Nancy Antonino Outstanding Graduate SLP Clinician. This award was established in honor of Dr. Nancy Antonino, the longest serving CSD faculty member at Thiel College, to honor the student who exemplifies excellence in clinical practice. Alana completed her undergraduate degree at Penn State University.

Alana has a gift for clinical practice. She was easy to instruct and eager to learn. With all of her clients, she had a warm, engaging and energetic demeanor. She demonstrated great creativity with selection of therapy targets and activities to facilitate them. She is not afraid to try new techniques and accept new clients and challenges. Her externship supervisors noted that Alana demonstrated exceptional ability to processes new information and apply it in a variety of therapy situations, and that she excelled in communication between families, co-workers and other individuals regarding patients’ needs, outcomes and recommendations.

Kendra Harper was the recipient of the Jordan McCoy Perseverance Award, an award given to a student that has shown real perseverance to successfully complete the program in the face of significant circumstances. The award is named after Jordan McCoy, a student from the first cohort who beat cancer during her graduate studies and is now a successful speech-language pathologist, wife, and mother. Kendra dealt with the tragic death of her sister during her undergraduate program, endured multiple health issues, and then welcomed an adorable baby boy in the middle of graduate school, yet she still finished the program on time with stellar grades and a strong clinical performance.

Third Annual Professional Development Day

The Thiel College Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology Program held the third annual Professional Development Day on Thursday August 1, 2024, in the James Pedas Communication Center. The event was complimentary to all Thiel College MS-SLP externship supervisors, students, alumni and faculty.

Laura Reeger, MA, CCC-SLP presented an introduction to PROMPT Therapy, a holistic approach to therapy that is most known for being a tactile-kinesthetic (touch and feel) approach in which the speech-language pathologist places his/her hands on the client’s face to guide the jaw, lips, and tongue to move correctly to form words. Students and professional in attendance enjoyed the video case studies and interactive portions of the presentation.

In the afternoon session, the graduating students from the MS-SLP program presented posters on the Critical Appraisal of Treatment Evidence across the Scope of Practice and Lifespan. The posters were the culminating projects of the final capstone course in which students learned how to be critical consumers of research in order to practice at the top of the license and apply evidence to their daily practice. The students were mentored by Dr. Mason.

Clinic News

Cohort 5 is off to a strong start

Graudate clinicians in Cohort 5 of the MS-SLP program were busy this summer providing clinical services at the Thiel Center for Speech-Language Services and throughout Mercer County. In addition to over fifty weekly individual speech therapy sessions and the implementation of the licensed SPEAK OUT! Program for patients with Parkinson’s Disease, the clinicians provided four successful group therapy programs for preschool age children, school-aged children who use augmentative and alterantive communicaiton (AAC), and adults with hearing loss and neurogenic communication disorders.

Caption: Graduate clinicians visit a local cinema to explore hearing assistive technology as an educational activity for the Harmony in Hearing aural rehabilitation group program. — Graduate clinicians visit a local cinema to explore hearing assistive technology as an educational activity for the Harmony in Hearing aural rehabilitation group program.

NSSLHA News

NSSLHA Upcoming Events

September 7^th: Walk to End Alzheimer’s

The Thiel College Chapter of NSSLHA will participate in the Alzheimer’s Association Walk to End Alzheimer's®! at Buhl Park on September 7^th at 11:15am. Alzheimer’s isn’t stopping, and neither are we. By participating in this walk NSSLHA is raising awareness and funds to advance the fight against this disease — funds that allow the Alzheimer’s Association to provide 24/7 care and support while accelerating critical research.

The team and has reached 50% of the team’s fundraising goal of $1000. Consider donating today by clicking this link: https://act.alz.org/site/TR?fr_id=17896&pg=team&team_id=896356

September 22^nd: Bleacher Buddies at St. Paul’s Senior Center

This year the annual Bleacher Buddies event will take place on September 22nd at 1:00pm at St. Paul’s Senior Community. NSSLHA members and the residents will have football watch party when the Pittsburgh Steelers take on the Los Angeles Chargers. Students will bring munchies for all to enjoy and pom poms to cheer the Steelers to victory!

October 22^nd: Legislative Advocacy Day

The Pennsylvania Speech and Hearing Associations (PSHA) is conducting a Hill Day on Capitol Hill in Harrisburg on Oct 22^nd. The Thiel Chapter of NSSLHA will be collecting materials and creating posters to display at a table to promote awareness and advocacy. The goal of the day is to inform Pennsylvania legislators about key issues and upcoming laws that impact the field of speech-language pathology and the services provided to patients. Examples of key house bills include supporting teletherapy for those who are unable to travel for services, making stuttering therapy reimbursement standard, increasing Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates, and supporting the interstate compact which makes it easier for SLPs to move and practice in other states.

November 2^nd: NSSLHA Tailgate Fundraiser

Students will have a hot chocolate bar and bake sale at the Thiel Collage Football Game on November 2^nd to raise funds for the purchase of the Enersound Assistive Listening System which will be donated to Thiel College. The system would help accommodate individuals with hearing impairment by bringing the audio signal wirelessly straight to the listener’s ears, thereby avoiding the degrading effects of noise and distance. The system meets the needs of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards for accessible design and would benefit students in the classroom as well as visitors to campus who come to enjoy events in the colleges many public gathering spaces.

Faculty News

Professor Leads Concussion Awareness Initiative

Professor Julie Kobak was invited to be a guest panelist for a webinar hosted by the Brain Injury Association of America on August 26^th at 2:00pm. Over 3,000 concussion awareness champions will come together to “Start the Conversation” about concussion in recognition of this year’s National Concussion Awareness Day. The Brain Injury Association of America will share tools and resources that will help healthcare professionals elevate the conversation around concussion in their communities. Kobak, who will be joined by Erin Bain the Coordinator of the Abilities Resources Center, will share details about the successful concussion awareness day that was held on the campus on March 21^st, 2024 and was previously featured by the BIAA in their national newsletter.

The Thiel Concussion Management Team, chaired by Kobak, and consisting of faculty and staff from various departments as well as students has been continuing the initiatives to advance awareness of concussion on the campus. They recently gathered to shoot a thirty second PSA video using the theme for this year. Watch the video which features our own Tommy Tomcat! The team is also leading a Concussion Peer Education Program on August 21^stwith various fall sports teams. The primary goal of the program is to train student-athletes to become peer concussion educators to transform the culture of concussion from within the team itself as opposed to relying exclusively on experts from “outside” the team.

Please join the team when they celebrate Concussion Awareness Day on September 20^th in the Howard Miller Student Center.

Julie Kobak, Professor and Director of Clinical Education, joins other members of the Thiel Concussion Management Team to shoot a concussion awareness video.