Tuesday, March 26, 2013

2013-2014 Officer Elections!!

Hi everyone!

We had some great speeches today from prospective NSSLHA officers!!! I have posted their speeches below. Please read through them and vote for who think should be a NSSLHA officer. Please do not post your vote as a comment!! Email me your vote for each position at taly09@aol.com (ignore the name Ashley on the bottom of each blog post).

You have until 5pm Wednesday 3/27/13 to email me your votes!


Service:
Andrea Keller
Hi fellow NSSLHA members!!
My name is Andrea Keller and I’m running for service officer for NSSLHA. I’m a second year student and I just switched into CSD- Speech Pathology from Biology. I’ve been a member of NSSLHA since the beginning of this school year and it’s helped my passion for CSD grow immensely. I love being able to meet great people like you who share the same interests as me and I would like to get as involved with this organization as possible. I feel the most qualified to serve as service chair of this organization, because I’ve been involved with community service in Austin for as long as I’ve been a student at UT. I’m a member of Texas Lassos, a service organization through UT, and Best Buddies, two incredible groups here on campus that have taught me a great deal about serving others and the many options there are on and around campus to help others. Thank you for your time and please vote for me!

Treasurer
Samantha Maldonado
Hello Everybody, I am Samantha Maldonado and I am a sophomore in the CSD program. I am originally from Brownsville, Texas.  I have the upmost respect for our field and I feel that we are all going to make a huge difference in communities because we are so luck to be surrounded by such great teachers and fellow students who are always willing to lend a helping hand. I feel that NSSHLA is an enormous asset to fellow peers and myself because of the service, fundraising, and of course the friendships we all hope to make with each other.  I know I am a new member but I would really like the chance to be your Treasurer this up coming year. I feel that I have great organization skills and good financial background. I know that the Treasure is one of the most important members of the executive board because the have make sure all the members are getting the most of the experience and that all fundraising monies are being allocated to where they will be most beneficial.  I know that I would make a great Texas NSSHLA Treasure and I hope you feel the same.
 Thank you,
Samantha M. Maldonado  

Ashley Dowell
My name is Ashley Dowell and I am a second year Speech-Language Pathology major.
This is my fourth semester in NSSLHA and I have been interested in running for
an officer position since the fall of my freshman year. Because of my dual
credit from high school and my eagerness to start graduate school, I will
actually get my undergraduate degree in three years meaning that I graduate next
spring. This being said, I would love to take advantage of the time I have left.
I am currently a Resident Assistant at a private off-campus dorm which has kept
me very busy this past year but it has taught me valuable lessons about time
management, responsibility, and professionalism. These qualities, along with
various others, are what I can bring to NSSLHA as an officer. As treasurer, I
know that I would process everyone's dues in a timely manner and work hard to be
available to any member. I have also spent many hours observing at the UT Speech
and Hearing Clinic as well as Austin Speech Labs which has increased my love and
knowledge of this field. I would love to be able to share my experiences with
others, which is what I believe NSSLHA is all about. I have enjoyed my time
spent in NSSLHA and in my classes interacting with different people who all
share the same interest in communication sciences and disorders. I would love
the opportunity to represent NSSLHA to the rest of the UT community. Thank you
so much!

Secretary

Laurin Rodriguez
"Hi everyone! For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Laurin. This year I’m a junior and a speech pathology major. This is my second semester in NSSLHA, and I have to say that I’m proud to be a part of it. As all of you know, I’m here today to tell you why I’d make a good secretary for the coming year. As secretary, I can promise that I will remain organized and work to maintain everyone’s hours for every activity- including service, fundraising, and social points. I am definitely capable of keeping track of everyone, and you can rest assured that I am the girl to do it! Also, if elected, anyone should feel free to e-mail me about concerns with hours and schedule issues. I will always be available to help and can promise a timely response. All of my friends and family would tell you that I'm not only super nice but also always open to adjustments, so if I ever make a mistake or if something were to go wrong for any reason, I know that I'd be able to fix the problem quickly. I consider myself to be a responsible and punctual person, so there should be no worries. If elected, I can promise that I wouldn't JUST be a secretary, but I would be a great secreatary. I guess that's all I have for now, so thanks everyone! Vote for me!"
Thanks!
Best,
Laurin Rodriguez

Sarah Schmitt
My name is Sarah Schmitt and I’m a junior CSD – Speech Pathology major. I just changed majors to CSD this year, which means I’m very enthusiastic about finally getting to study CSD. This is my second semester in NSSLHA, and I really want to get more involved.
I think I would be an effective Secretary because I enjoy being organized and taking notes, and I have experience taking minutes and making meeting agendas from when I was president of my high school choir.
As secretary I want to try to make it faster and easier to sign in at meetings, and I also want to make attendance and records of everyone’s social, fundraising, and service points available online so anyone can check their attendance or how many points they have at any time. I know sometimes I’m not sure how many points I still need, so I think this would be really helpful.
I think NSSLHA is a really valuable organization for CSD majors, so I want to help keep it organized and running smoothly. Vote for me, and I’ll make sure you’re kept up-to-date and always know how many points you have. Thanks!

Carly Miller
Hi everyone! My name is Carly Miller and I am so excited to be running for secretary of NSSLHA. I am currently a sophomore CSD major studying speech pathology, but I’m considering studying audiology as well. I think that NSSLHA is such an incredible organization, and it is so great to be a part of a club 100% filled with people who have the same interests as me, and that is why I would love to be even more involved. Being a part of NSSLHA has allowed me the opportunity to meet more people in my major and to learn even more about CSD, and as an officer I would love to provide the same opportunities to other students. I know that I am qualified to be secretary of NSSLHA because I’ve had other positions like this one before. I was the secretary of the French National Honor Society my senior year of high school as well as a secretary of my youth group outside of school and other leadership positions throughout high school such as vice president and vice president of membership where I was responsible for most of the organization’s activity planning and organization. As secretary, I will try to make it easier for members to track how many points you have. I know that it was hard for me to keep track of my points last semester because I didn’t know where they were being posted, and I will try my best to make members’ points easy to find on the website, and I will update them on a regular basis on a Google doc for everyone to see. Thanks, and I hope that you will trust in me to be your secretary for next year!!

Historian

Robyn Ward
Secondly, I'm running for historian. I would make a great historian because I'm one of those people that takes way too many pictures of everything. My friends know they never need to whip out their phones to capture a moment because I'll be posting about 100 pictures on Facebook later that day. I just bought a very expensive new camera but I never have the opportunity to use it! So if you elect me as historian, you can guarantee I'll be capturing all of NSSHLA moments in high quality. Thanks for your time, and again, my name is Robyn Ward.

Social

Kaleen Timon
Hello,

My name is Kaleen Timon, and I would like to enter into the ballot for NSSHLA's social chair. Currently, I am a sophomore CSD (Pre-Speech Pathology) major. Although I went straight into the major immediately my freshman year, this is my first year on NSSHLA. I think I would be an excellent choice as social chair, because I am very organized, and I used to be a (pretty successful) social officer on my high school dance team. This year, I also attended TSHA, so if I were to become social chair, I would not be completely in the dark with expectations and all that entails with the responsibility. Although there would still be the normal socials, I would like to maybe start a "study social" where members can meet to study/collaborate with other individuals that have the class/or have had in the past. It is just a work in progress, but I thought it would be a great way to incorporate school with getting to know others in NSSHLA. I will be sure to have enough socials to choose from, and I want to make these socials fun enough where you want to go, and not just have to. If you have any questions for me, or concerns, my email is kaleen.timon@hotmail.com. Thank you for considering me as social chair for the 2013-2014 year! :)

Hillary McNutt
To my fellow NSSHLA and CSD friends:
My name is Hillary McNutt and I am a sophomore double majoring in CSD (SLP) and Spanish- Hispanic Linguistics. For those of you that don't know me, I'm a pretty social person and love to make friends. I've been a part of NSSLHA for 4 semesters now and have loved getting to know my classmates through the social events during Nsslha. Not only am I crazy about CSD and helping others, I love getting all of us with that in common connected in order to unite and encourage each other. As social chair, I would continue to plan fun and creative events that allow us to reach out to others as well as our fellow CSD students! Also, I have been to TSHA twice and so I know I would enjoy planning that event and making everything go smoothly. I'm a very organized person so I feel that I can take on the responsibility of an officer position, but still keep it fun and exciting. I hope that you vote for me because I love NSSLHA and would love to expand the NSSLHA family while making it closer too! Thank you :) 

Jenny Nguyen
Hello,
My name is Jenny Nguyen. I am currently a Sophomore doubling in Speech Pathology and English. I’m running for either the social or publicity position, because I couldn’t decide on one. I feel like I would be a good candidate for both positions because I am very organized and I strangely really enjoy organizing schedules and making calendars, and planning events.
I’ve had a lot of experience with planning socials for my church and going through lots of UT paperwork for grants for my church group and getting approval for event locations and for advertising. I’ve also had experience in advertising, using Photoshop for flyers, tabling, and running our church Facebook group, events, and websites. I’ve always been very good with deadlines and details and so I feel like I would be a pretty good candidate for either of these positions.
Again, my name is Jenny Nguyen and you should vote for me for either the Publicity or Social position!
Thank you!

Fundraiser

Morgan Anders
Hi ya'll! My name is Morgan Anders and I am a 3rd year speech pathology major. I have been in NSSLHA since last semester. I would love to become more active in NSSLHA by being in charge of fundraising and hope to add a couple of new things! In addition to profit shares (Juicytart, Red Mango, etc.) I hope to add more restaurants to the mix, like the one we had just recently at Chili's. Also, with past experiences, I think putting on a silent auction would be huge, it always raises a ton of money. And also, we will continue to hold the bake sale! I know from the past, it is nice to see a plan of all the fundraising events for the semester, so you can plan out which ones you'll be able to go to, so I will make this a priority to make it easier on everyone. Thanks! (:

Publicity

Carly Miller
Hi everyone! My name is Carly Miller and I am so excited to be running for NSSLHA’s publicity chair. I am currently a sophomore CSD major studying speech pathology, but I’m considering studying audiology as well. Being a part of NSSLHA has allowed me the opportunity to meet more people in my major and to learn even more about CSD, and as an officer I would love to provide the same opportunities to other students. I think that I am extremely qualified to be your Publicity officer because I am extremely reliable and when I am given a responsibility, I will always get the job done. I will never miss a deadline, and I will be sure to keep all members informed of what is going on in NSSLHA by making Facebook events for meetings, fundraisers, and other events and posting flyers where everyone can see them around the Belo center and the CMA. I will be a resource to anyone whoever has a question about NSSLHA events, and I will try my best to help other officers whenever they need it. I have had a lot of leadership experience in the past and I promise that I will use this experience to be a dedicated, responsible, and organized officer. Thanks, and I hope that you will trust in me to be NSSLHA’s publicity chair for the upcoming year!

Amber Steely
Hi everyone, my name is Amber Steely. I am running for publicity officer. This is my first semester in NSSLHA and second semester her at U.T. I transferred here last fall and dove right into the wonderful world of CSD! I am currently an SLP major, but I am considering changing to audiology (decisions, decisions!). While I am new to NSSLHA, I have had experience in a position with responsibilities similar to those associated with the position of publicity officer. While in attendance at Temple College during fall 2011 and spring 2012 I worked as the student editor of the school’s literary journal, Stones.  We featured written works including poetry, creative essays and short stories as well as photographs of visual art created by students at the college. In addition to overall editing duties, I was also responsible for: creating fliers used to advertise and solicit works from students, communicating with our faculty sponsor and public relations departments, coordinating with the printer to ensure the journal would be published on time, organizing the layout of the journal as well as accepting or rejecting which works to feature within its pages. I think that the experience I have had as the editor of Stones will help me be an effective publicity officer. If you agree, please vote for me!

Sania Panjwani
Hi everyone, my name is Sania Panjwani and I am a freshman this year at UT. I am majoring in communication sciences and disorders and hope to  be a speech language pathologist in the future. This is my second semester as a member of this organization.  I am running for publicity chair. The reason I decided to run for this position is because I have always been good with people and have been able to "spread the word" through social media, flyers, and  word of mouth. I believe I can help this organization through many of the positions I have had in the past. For example. my junior and senior years of high school I was one of two people from my high school that represented our school at the district level. We would meet different professionals in the medical field, business, and government. We did service projects and for one of them we had to raise dresses for girls who could not afford prom dresses. I worked with my partner at my school to make announcements, flyers, banners, and ask different organizations to donate. In the end, my high school had raised the most dresses out of all of the high schools in my district. So I feel I have experience with successfully spreading the word and being a leader when needed.  Thank you! 

Bethany Valadez
Hi everyone I’m Bethany Valadez. I’m a first year speech pathology major and this is my first year in NSSLHA as well. I’m running for publicity chair. I’m a well organized person and always on top of everything which is important for this position as I’m going to be needing to keep everyone up to date on the events during the semester. I’m good with technology, which is also important because if chosen I’m going to be the one to maintain the Facebook page and sometimes send e-mails. I’m responsible and trustworthy so you’ll always be able to count on me to get the information out on time. I’m down to earth and easy to get along with so I’d be able to work well with others. I volunteer on a weekly basis at the UTSHC, am a Texas Wrangler Darlin’ and in a Christian ministry called the Navigators so I’d be able to post flyers and notifications in many locations. I would bring more ways of publicizing NSSLHA by maybe creating a twitter account for our club or doing something once a month such as tabling or selling food, anything to promote our name more to the students. Thanks everyone for this opportunity and for your time.

Lindsey Foo
Hello everyone! My name is Lindsey Foo, and I am running for Publicity Chair. I would love to be elected as this chair to be one of the driving forces to spread the word about CSD and keep members up to date through social media, physical flyers, and bulletin boards around campus. As publicity chair, I would be in charge of relaying information to NSHHLA members and the UT community about our events.
I am an RA in Jester West and have been well equipped to make beautiful flyers and bulletined boards that are appealing with concise information. With this experience, I’ve learned to be a relatable leader who is organized and effective when it comes to getting work done. I have also worked at The Crown Plaza Suites Hotel in Arlington, Texas as the social media manager, where I’ve learned to manage social media sites such as Facebook, twitter, and the hotel’s site that I learned to stay on top of the latest news and posting accordingly.
I have really enjoyed being a member of NSSLHA and hope to have a larger role in the organization. I am an enthusiastic member who is ready to serve with a good attitude and is well equipped to be the publicity chair. I want to see the organization thrive not only in the CSD community but also in the larger UT community. Thank you for your consideration! 

Sarah Schmitt
My name is Sarah Schmitt and I’m a junior CSD – Speech Pathology major. I just changed majors to CSD this year, which means I’m very enthusiastic about finally getting to study CSD. This is my second semester in NSSLHA, and I really want to get more involved.
I think I would be an effective Publicity Chair because I like being organized, so I would enjoy making the event calendar each semester, and making sure everyone is kept up-to-date about what’s going on with NSSLHA. I’ve held an officer position before in high school, so I have some experience helping plan events and communicating with members and sponsors, and I’d really enjoy doing this job for NSSLHA.
I think NSSLHA is a really valuable organization for CSD majors, so I want to help keep our sponsors, members, and potential new members updated. Vote for me, and I’ll make sure everyone knows what they need to know about what’s going on in NSSLHA!

Jenny Nguyen
Hello,
My name is Jenny Nguyen. I am currently a Sophomore doubling in Speech Pathology and English. I’m running for either the social or publicity position, because I couldn’t decide on one. I feel like I would be a good candidate for both positions because I am very organized and I strangely really enjoy organizing schedules and making calendars, and planning events.
I’ve had a lot of experience with planning socials for my church and going through lots of UT paperwork for grants for my church group and getting approval for event locations and for advertising. I’ve also had experience in advertising, using Photoshop for flyers, tabling, and running our church Facebook group, events, and websites. I’ve always been very good with deadlines and details and so I feel like I would be a pretty good candidate for either of these positions.
Again, my name is Jenny Nguyen and you should vote for me for either the Publicity or Social position!
Thank you!



Monday, March 4, 2013

2-26-13 Meeting

Hey everyone!!!

I know it seems as if a long time has passed since the last update. No worries, this is only the second update for you all! The last official general meeting was this past Tuesday, Feb. 26.

We had a guest speaker, Michelle Hsieh, Au.D come and talk to us about her life as an audiologist. She works at the Dell's Children's Hospital and shared a many interesting stories with us. You can read more about her at http://www.utexas.edu/know/2011/07/22/hsieh_csd/.

We also have many events coming up this month! Below is a list of the upcoming events.

March 6:  Bowling SOCIAL

  • 7pm at the Underground Union Bowling Alley
  • 1 hour = 1 social point
March 18: Chili's FUNDRAISER for Austin Speech labs
  • Location: 183 Blvd.
  • Come support ASL by having lunch and/or dinner at Chili's! Be sure to print out the flyer and present it to the waiter. (Flyers will be emailed out soon)
  • Keep your receipt and give it to an officer in order to get a point.
  • Fundraiser lasts all day! From open to close!
March 24: Best Buddies Field Day
  • More information about time and place will be announced soon.
  • One shift = one SERVICE point
March 28: Laser Tag SOCIAL
  • 6pm at Blazer Tag (Ben White Blvd.)
  • Coming to the event will earn you 1 social point!

Last minute announcement!!! Today (3/4) starting at 7pm, Austin Speech Labs is having an online fundraiser. This is a 24-hour donation period that will benefit the stroke survivors receiving therapy at ASL. I have posted the link that includes more information.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=419810391444039&set=a.188595301232217.43555.178901565534924&type=1&theater