CSD Hosts Future Health Professionals Camp

by Corey Fawcett

It's no secret that speech-language pathologists and audiologists are commonly faced with confusion when they tell others what they do. Many of the students who are drawn to the field have had some kind of personal experience that led them to speech-language pathology or audiology. Public understanding among those with no exposure to the communication science and disorder professions is low.

To address this issue, CSD hosted the Future Health Professionals camp for two days last June. The camp was a collaborative project between UM, UT, Southern College of Optometry, and Baptist College of Health Sciences to educate high school students about the healthcare professions.

Campers spent two mornings at the school, starting off each day with a sign-language lesson by ASL instructor Sharon Fairbanks. They virtually observed several different SLP therapy sessions, followed by demos put on by CSD graduate students. The demos included interactive introductions to AAC, Visi-Pitch, and hearing aids.

Dr. Naomi Eichorn, who directed the CSD portion of the camp, would like to see the camp lead to more long-term mentorship opportunities.

"It was a great start," she said. "We're already planning what to do differently next year."