Friday, September 18, 2015

We've Moved!

For the 2015-2016 school year, NSSLHA now has a new website! For all information regarding current officers, membership requirements, or other pertinent info please visit utexasnsslha.wix.com/nsslha 

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Officer Elections

Good evening NSSLHA! It's that time of year again and we are excited for the future of the NSSLHA officers during this year's election. Below are the last few events we have for this semester and each of the speeches from the candidates for each position. Because they were running unopposed, the following individuals will be our new officers for the new year! Congratulations to all :) 

Service
Stroke Awareness Talk: April 30th 2015. Because the actual talk is happening after our banquet, you can publicize the event and share it with your friends via Facebook AND use the template below to email other organizations officers for a point. We are trying to gear towards health occupations organizations so if you are interested, send your email and CC Diana Mendoza to earn a point and help spread the word about Austin Speech Labs.

Template:
Subject:  NSSLHA invites you to the 1st Annual Stroke Awareness Talk
Good morning/afternoon/night,
The National Student Speech Language and Hearing Association invites your organization, (insert organization name here), to the 1st Annual Stroke Awareness Talk.  This event will feature discussion on the etiology, types, and treatment of strokes, as well as the latest research and talk on the subject.  It is to our knowledge that subjects covered at this event could greatly interest those in (insert organization name here), and stir up new ideas!
For further information, please contact dianamendoza@utexas.edu.

We hope to see you there!
Stroke Awareness Talk
Thursday, April 30, 2015
University of Texas at Austin
Student Activity Center
2.412 Ballroom South
6:30 pm

Best, 
(insert name here) 

Miscellaneous
Class Review: Because registration is going on now, you can submit 3 quality reviews for 1 miscellaneous point. You are free to do more than those 3 reviews, but you can only receive a maximum of one points. Follow the links below to the form and the class reviews!
Class Review Form
Class Review Results

TSHA Grad Student Representative 
This information applies ONLY to undergraduate seniors who are going to Graduate school this fall!

Each year TSHA elects an incoming graduate student to their executive board (EB). This position gives the student an opportunity to delve deeper into the profession and association by attending EB meetings and learning from passionate EB members. As graduate student representative, you will be responsible for facilitating communication between universities with undergraduate and graduate programs with communication disorders and audiology degrees. You will have the opportunity to meet many leaders across the state and network with individuals who are invested in making these professions better for professionals and the populations who are served with communication disorders. On top of advancing your professional career, you will have fun! As graduate student representative, you have the opportunity to travel across the state and build lasting relationships with fellow graduate students.



Banquet!!!!!
Robyn has sent out an email for those interested in attending our annual banquet on April 28th. The deadline to sign up is tomorrow, 4/22 at noon. The link to this form can be found in your most recent email from Robyn or via our Facebook page. If you are a graduating senior, please send pictures to robyn.ward@utexas.edu


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Secretary

Kari Yanez
My name is Kari. I would first like to tell you why I am running for secretary of NSSLHA. Similar to many of you, I did not start off as a CSD major. I was a Biology major and when I realized that I wanted to make the switch, I joined NSSLHA and tried getting involved in the major as much as I could. NSSLHA is an extremely beneficial organization for our major. They offer a variety of service projects that allow us to experience different populations. For this reason, I would like to see more involvement in the chapter and I really think that the easier access to information to events increases attendance. Although I do not know everyone by name, I truly do care about the success of everyone. Our field can be extremely competitive and it’s overwhelming at times, but as secretary of NSSLHA, I will strive to bring all information from meetings, and other research I do to you in a timely and organized manner. I will also keep the points spreadsheet updated weekly since points are important. I would love to find a way to connect our chapter to the national NSSLHA organization. They have various honors and awards that I would like our chapter and individuals to be recognized for. 
As a junior, I think I’ve finally mastered the art of time management. I have an on campus job and maintain full-time student status. I constantly find the best ways to manage my time and because of this, I know that you can trust me to make all information available to you. As secretary, I will also be available to answer all questions. I look forward to the success of UT NSSLHA. Thank you!

Service Chair

Leslie Abdelgani
Good afternoon everyone, my name is Lesli Abdelgani and I am currently a 1st year, SLP major. I am running for NSSLHA Service Chair. I just like to say I hope to become your next Future Service chair in order to keep increasing the impact NSSLHA has had on the community. We can already thank Diana Mendoza for having a great year, planning various service events that I for one found the most influencing. For this coming year I plan on doing some volunteer events that would also include audiology, which Tyler & I really want to get that going.  I’ve always been involved with service organizations ever since High School. I’ve had other leadership positions and I’m used to meeting deadlines and creating organized events. I can work with different kinds of people & I’m extremely social. I enjoy giving back to the community in every way possible. I currently volunteer at Austin Speech Labs and I look forward to volunteering there every week. Hopefully I can give everyone the opportunity to feel how great it is to volunteer. 

Fundraising Chair

Bridget Black
My name is Bridget Black and I am a junior majoring in Audiology. I am running for the Fundraising office chair of NSSLHA. I am running for this position because I feel that I have the potential to bring new ideas and people to NSSLHA. The qualities that would make me an effective leader for NSSLHA is that I am punctual and very organized. I always think it is important to take in other member’s suggestions and input to improve in this chapter. I work well with others and always try to do my best. 
            The experience I have in fundraising is that I am a co-founder of Run To Hear. It is a nonprofit corporation that has been found by my profoundly deaf friends and I who have cochlear implants. We hold an annual 5K run with the goal of raising money not just for assistance of cochlear implants but also for deaf and hard of hearing individuals to access whatever services and equipment they need, nonetheless of their ability to pay. All of our donations raised by our participants go to our beneficiaries: Any Baby Can, Dallas Hearing Foundation, and Children’s Hearing Aid Texas (C.H.A.T. Program) 
            This is our fifth year running this organization and we have been awarded with a 2015 Philanthropy Day Awards by the Kelly Davidson Memorial Outstanding Philanthropic Youth to the co-founders of Run To Hear.  The first year we were able to raise ten thousand dollars, which went to an Amish girl who wanted cochlear implants. As the years progressed within our organization, we were able to increase the amount of donations and make long lasting connections with sponsors. Last year we were able to raise 20 thousand dollars. The sponsors were a huge help to make the organization more efficient and allow us to have more connections. I believe that this experience would allow me to be an efficient fundraising leader of NSSLHA. 
            Being a member of NSSLHA at UT of Austin is important to me because it gives me a sense of belonging. When I first learned there was a chapter that has students who aspires to be audiologists and speech pathologists, I was beyond thrilled. Through this chapter, I have made some amazing friends and met inspiring people who changes lives everyday in our field. I wouldn’t trade this organization for anything else. 
            The ideas I have to improve this chapter is to bring in more students with deaf-ed and audiology because we all aspire to work to help others with hearing loss, communication disorders, or other disorders. I would like to involve more events with the UT hearing clinic and raise money with other chapters on campus. I would love to be a fundraiser officer for this chapter and I thank you for your time.

Social Chair

Nathalie Fuentes
Hi, my name is Nathalie Fuentes! I am currently a Junior here at the University, majoring in SLP. I’m running to be your Social Chair for NSSLHA! Like many of you all, I, personally, keep finding a growing interest in this major! I believe that I’d do a great job at making events for our members to network with each other and possibly our faculty members. This next Fall semester is especially busy, so I will try to have events close to campus at a convenient hour like in the past. However, we can always car pool to go do stuff we haven’t tried as a group yet. It’d be great to work with the fundraising chair, so it doesn’t get too pricey. NSSLHA shouldn’t just be something we put on our resumés; I want each of you to feel part of this great organization! With that said, vote for me as your Fall 2015 NSSLHA Social Chair! Hook ‘em! \m/

Treasurer

Lauren Kelley
Good evening everyone! My name is Lauren Kelley and I am running for treasurer. I am a first year speech pathology major; I have gotten the opportunity to take multiple CSD courses and I absolutely love UTs program and professionals.
First I would like to talk a little about why being a member of NSSLHA is so important to me. I am very grateful to have such a wonderful organization with great leadership for our major. Coming to UT is intimidating, it was for me, and having an organization that you know you can relate to and enjoy is a wonderful opportunity. NSSLHA focuses on serving others, helping others and it is imperative to those individuals who we work with such as the patients at Austin Speech Labs. I am proud to say I am a member of NSSLHA although most people have never heard of it, I love explaining it.
I love being busy and I have experience being in leadership positions. In high school I served in various officer roles and I learned to be responsible and trustworthy. At UT I am a lector at UCC, a member of Gamma Beta Phi National Honor Society, and a gateway scholar, along with working at the University Interscholastic League as a journalism intern. As an intern, I handle financials and I also interact professionally with others. Through all these activities I have become skilled at juggling and balancing my school work and other responsibilities, as well as learning what it takes to be a good leader.
I want to become a NSSLHA officer because I want to become more involved in this wonderful organization. I am very organized individual and know that I can handle the treasurer responsibilities effectively. Also, as an officer I will be able to directly contribute my ideas and opinions. For example as treasurer, handling the money, I can help with fundraising ideas and any others. An idea I have related to fundraising is to perhaps do a raffle for an item that we sell tickets for.

I hope you take all these into consideration when you vote. I am looking forward to getting to know all of you more next year!


Historian

Payten Spielberger 
Hey everyone, my name is Payten Spielberger and I am running to serve you as your NSSLHA historian for the upcoming year. Since I have served as an officer for several organizations in the past, I am prepared for the responsibility and dependability that this position demands. I am very proud of this organization and all of the great things we have accomplished. Because of this, I want to show all of our accomplishments to the UT community through pictures and the end of year scrapbook to highlight some of our favorite memories. I love anything that requires creativity and crafting which would make me a good fit for this position. If elected, I promise to serve you well to the best of my abilities.

Publicity 

Megan Nations
Good evening NSSLHA members,
My name is Megan Nations, and I am a Junior CSD major studying Audiology.  My interest in serving you all as publicity chair comes from my desire to apply my talents in a professional manner.  As a potential candidate for the 2015-2016 publicity chair, I would like to ensure the following points of my expertise and approach to successfully fulfilling this position.
First, publicity will require that I deliver information to members and nonmembers through every means possible to increase active participation.  Being a past officer of my service organization Circle K International, I created creative new strategies to deliver emails to the membership so that they may be able to scan to the sections they deem important to them.  As busy students, we do not have much time to read through long paragraphs.  So, I will work to design a color scheme and bulletin point system for all publicity materials.
Second, I will be responsible for keeping in touch with members and delivering information to faculty on a regular basis.  With my past experience as a secretary for my service organization, I was required to report information to all members and officers concisely and efficiently on a regular basis.  My professional communication skills are most keen through email.
Finally, my role as publicity chair will require that I keep the email list and create facebook events.  I have done this many time, and have even made record breaking success through my advertising skills being an event planner for my service organization.  It is important to deliver information in a creative and appealing fashion.
Publicity chair is important because I will be responsible for keeping each and everyone of you informed about what is going on in NSSLHA.  It should not be your responsibility to put off your valuable time to find information.  Information should be delivered to your readily.  I am ready to be the new liaison for NSSLHA.  If you would like to know more about me, please do not hesitate to reach out to me and ask questions.  My email is meganhope512@utexas.edu and I am always happy to have a new facebook friend! 


Again, congratulations to all of our new officers! We hope to see you all at banquet :)

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

NSSLHA Annual Banquet

Our banquet will be held at the end of the month on April 28th from 5-6pm in the Santa Rita room in the Texas Union. During this event, we will be recognizing our top members from each semester, graduating seniors, and our new officers for the coming year. We will be providing a FREE full catered dinner. If you would like to attend, please fill out this google form asap. Let us know if you have any questions!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1IxIYjt1lw5gS7Vd2FgPywN5_3SuVv9OQxYYsgle6lCE/viewform?hc_location=ufi

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

NSSLHA General Meeting - Student Academy of Audiology

Hi NSSLHA! Thank you for coming out to our meeting today and as per usual we have our upcoming event announcements below :)

OFFICER ELECTIONS

Please keep in mind that officer elections are coming up and will be taking place on April 21st! I sent out an email last week with a run through of what elections will look like and how to prepare beforehand. If you are interested in becoming an officer, please fill out this google form asap. Also, there are already several people running for both Historian and Publicity and we still need candidates for Social Chair, Fundraising Chair, Service Chair, and Treasurer. The deadline to submit a speech and indicate an interest is April 20th

Service 

Cochlear Implant Kids Day: Sunday April 19th at the Gregory Gym Games Room. Set up will take place from 9:45 to 11:30am. The program takes place from 11:30 to 4pm and tear dow will follow from 4-5pm.
Stroke Awareness Talk: Thursday April 30th at the SAC Ballroom South from 6:45 to 8:30pm. You can receive 1 service point for volunteering and 1 one miscellaneous point for attending


Fundraising

Tattoos for TBIs: Wednesday April 29th at West Mall (day before Stroke Awareness Talk) from 11am to 4pm. This event is to help raise money for those who have survived strokes, TBIs and other brain injuries. Sign ups will be sent out soon! :) 

Social

Midnight Rodeo: April 16th @ 10pm! Driver Doc will be posted via email and FB page 
Tattoo Social: April 28th: more details to follow! 

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Student Academy of Audiology at the University of Texas
Chelsea Burns: Social Chair
Nicole Sieck: Treasurer
Katherine Reistroffer
Currently it is a graduate student organization because it just started this year but they are currently working on expanding to undergraduate students in the time to come!

Their vision: "Creating a network and increasing awareness" about audiology and the field 

Networking is mostly geared with students in the graduate program and audiologists and professional in audiology in the Austin area to create professional relationships for the future.
Increasing awareness to the public of audiology as a profession, sharing scholarships, events, opportunities and issues in the field with students, as well as increasing awareness about hearing loss and hearing health care in the community.

Currently, they have a t-shirt fundraiser for $12 (check out their fb page) and if you are interested in purchasing one contact utaustinsaa@gmail.com

They have worked on projects such as hearing screenings for the special olympics and the KUDU Wave project where they conduct hearing tests in communities where people otherwise wouldn't receive the services with a portable diagnostic audiometer that doesn't require a sound booth!

Future projects include educating the community about hearing loss and hearing protection such as posters and passing out earplugs for ACL and SXSW.

How can you get involved? 

There are some meetings that undergraduate students can attend, such as the recent audiologist panel. They will send NSSLHA updates :)
They also recommend getting involved in any way you can with research alongside professors, such as through the IE program.

Research in Audiology at UT

Teleaudiology project (TAP) - working with UT Austin graduate students and UTHSC San Antonio nursing students by bringing audiology services to individual who do not have the means to access hearing health care through video conferencing. This is the only teleaudiology project in a university thus far!
Check out http://csd.utexas.edu/research for more info on research
There is an honors program for Audiology so check that out on the CSD website! 

Like their Facebook page here: Student Academy of Audiology


Hope you Audiology students enjoyed this information:)

See you at our next meeting for officer elections! 

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Officer Duties & Descriptions

Secretary

Responsibilities include taking minutes at meetings and posting them to the blog for online members to see; keeping track of points and attendance for all members; making the sign-ins for the meetings. Also taking minutes at officer meetings on non-general meeting Tuesdays at 5pm, helping the officers stay organized, and maintaining the google calendar linked to the blog!

Treasurer

Responsibilities include carrying the cashbox to meetings, events, and anything we are selling anything at; collecting dues from members during meetings as well as from online members at a separate time; applying for grants, taking any money, checks, etc to Chase bank on Guadalupe, being up-to-date on the amount of money in our account and helping the other officers decide on budgets for their events. Also presenting to comm council in order to receive money for the organization by explaining to them what we need and what we will use it for.

Fundraising

Responsibilities include setting up two fundraisers per month (usually profit-shares at restaurants, bake sales, or in the past selling items like water bottles). Feel free to come up with your own ideas!

Social

Responsibilities include planning two socials per month and usually one larger social per semester (last semester's tailgate). Biggest responsibility is planning our trip to TSHA (which always happens in the spring). There is a lot of paperwork involved with student travel and the social chair also makes hotel arrangements and helps get students registered for TSHA.

Service

Responsibilities include planning two service events per month. Trying to incorporate new service events. Biggest responsibility is Cochlear Implant Kids Day, which involves getting food donations, arranging for interpreters, advertising to parents of kids with CIs, setting up game ideas, getting entertainment, etc.

Publicity

Responsibilities include advertising all events, maintaining the Facebook and website; making Prezis for meetings; posting things to the NSSLHA bulletin board inside the clinic. Usually advertise through fliers around campus, sending the flier to Lorena and Cory to send out about meetings/upcoming events, emailing our sponsors weekly event updates, making facebook events, emailing the member list-serve. It sounds like a lot but it's not bad!

Historian

It's the historian's job to come to everything! As many events and meetings as possible and to photograph everything. MUST have a camera if you want to be historian. At the end of each semester, the historian hosts a scrapbooking meeting or event (depending on the meeting schedule) to have members make a group scrapbook.

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

NSSLHA General Meeting - A Visit From Dr. Bedore, Shelley Adair, and Mayra Mata

Hello NSSLHA! I hope you all had a restful/eventful Spring Break and enjoyed attending TSHA this year :)
Below is recap of our upcoming point opportunities!

Service
Forty Acres Fest: Saturday March 28th. We will be doing facepainting and handing out earplugs! Follow up information will be coming soon.
3rd Annual Head for the Cure 5K Central Texas: Head for the Cure Foundation is a national organization that raises money for the Brain Tumor Trials Collaborative by hosting 5K events. This will be taking place Sunday, March 29th at 6am at Camp Mabry (2200 West 35th Street). Updates to follow as well!
Stroke Awareness Talk: Austin Speech Labs and Dr. Marquardt will be presenting on Thursday April 30th at the SAC 2.412 Ballroom South from 6:45-8:30pm. NSSLHA will be hosting but several students and other groups will be in attendance. We will be needed many volunteers!
Cochlear Implant Kid's Day: This event will be taking place in April. More details to follow!

Also, please start turning in your ASL service sheets ASAP, as well as any other volunteer forms you've had signed off for this semester (i.e. Growing Roots, Capitol School, TSD, Best Buddies, etc.)

Fundraising
T-shirt Sale: This Wednesday, 3/25, from 11am-4pm at the CMA plaza. This year's teal shirt will be sold for $12 and older shirts will be sold for $8. You will receive 1 fundraising point for volunteering.
Sign up below:
T-Shirt Sale sign up
Need volunteers for the 12-1 and 1-2 shift!

points have been updated so please double check and let Gabby know if there are any points missing!

Social
TSHA: One social point for attending the Praxis Bowl and one miscellaneous point for Convention Registration
AudiologyNOW! Conference: March 25-28th (Wed-Sat). Dress business casual. You will have to register for the conference on site ($75) unless you are already an SAA Undergraduate Associate. NSSLHA will not be reimbursing or paying for the conference. If you do attend, make sure to send a picture with another NSSLHA member with a sign-in in the background to utexasnsslha@gmail.com
If you are interested, please contact Tyler as soon as you know your availability!
Deaf Nation Expo: March 28th (this Saturday!) Send a picture with the sign or stage in the background to utexasnsslha@gmail.com. This event will take place at Austin Convention Center - Exhibit Hall 3 (500 E Cesar Chavez St) from 9am to 5pm.

Miscellaneous
Have any pictures from TSHA? Send to: mandy_agui123@utexas.edu or utexasnsslha@gmail.com

NSSLHA Group picture: After next meeting, 4/7. We will be walking to the tower for a quick picture. Wear your green NSSLHA shirt! :)

Interested in becoming a NSSLHA officer for next year? Attend our info meeting, NEXT Tuesday, March 31 at 5:35pm at Belo 1.202. If you are unavailable to attend, we will post notes online :)
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For the information addressed at today's meeting, follow this dropbox link https://www.dropbox.com/s/jcj51omn2p5ga4p/20150324%20171434.m4a?dl=0
(make sure to raise the volume since they didn't use mics during their presentation)
Dr. Bedore will be sending us some ppts that address the key points in becoming an assistant! I will also add those once I receive them. 


As always, comment below to have your attendance accounted for. Have a great night and good luck on upcoming exams! :)

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

NSSLHA General Meeting - Scott Novich

Hey NSSLHA! Sorry for the late post, but here's last night's minutes! Don't forget to comment for attendance :)

Service
SXSW Earplugs: Event rescheduled - now taking place Thursday from 11-noon OR noon-1pm at West Mall in front of the Union Starbucks by the dried out fountain

You can seek other opportunities that require Volunteer Sign Off Forms:
Growing Roots - every Tuesday afternoon
Best Buddies - organization on campus that holds different events for adults with disabilities 
Capitol School of Austin
Texas School for the Deaf - does not require prior ASL experience but it is highly recommended! 

TSHA School Supplies: 3 lightly used or new school supplies = 1 point. A box will be outside of the NSSLHA office (inside the Student Leadership Suite) until this Friday to drop off the supplies if you were unable to do so at today's meeting.

Fundraising
T-Shirt Sale: tentatively set for March 25th from 11-4pm (or until we run out). Email will be sent out later with more information!
Fundraising points should be updated by tonight - if there are any discrepancies please be sure to email AFTER they are updated
April profit shares will be announced after Spring Break :)

TSHA Convention
All registrations will be completed by tonight!

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Scott Novich - V.E.S.T. (Versatile Extra-Sensory Transducer)
Current electrical and computer engineering PhD student at Rice University conducting research at Baylor College of Medicine 

Mapping sound information to touch information

Sensory substitution - emerging neuroscience that all of our sensory receptors, whether it's the ones under the skins or in your ear, they are tuned to picking up specific type of information but they don't really care about the content

What he's working on is a wearable vest which is lined with little vibrational motors (basically what's in cell phones that causes them to vibrate). He takes sound information using a device like a tablet which is responsible for mathematically converting the sound signal to a dimensionality and periodicity suitable to the sense of touch. The idea came about 4 to 5 years ago.

Through a Kickstarter campaign, they were able to raise about $40,000! And he will be at a Ted talk this coming week!

So far, they've run a simple experiment with both hearing and deaf participants by taking a set of 50 spoken word samples (single syllable words) and on a given trial, they pick a word on random and play it back on the vest, just like the word would be presented if it was spoken. They present the person with four possible options and they have to guess what the word was. As the people answer, they get feedback and they start to memorize the patterns of vibrations that correspond to the words. The participants are then given a break for 10 days, brought back, and introduced a new set of words. As a result, the participants have been able to identify words that they've never encountered before.

Q&A
What are you doing to make the vest more wearable in order for it to be implemented? (currently there are a lot of wires on the back side)
Undergraduates are currently working on weaving the wires and fibers into a fabric grid.

Was there a difference in the rate in which the hearing and deaf individuals were able to pick up the information?
There haven't been enough participants just yet - however generally speaking, the people who perform better are younger individuals (+25 and up) regardless if they are hearing or not.

Were the participants given articulatory or phonemic cues when they were wearing the vest or was it more blinded and based on guesses?
Definitely more blinded - they could make some educated guesses since they were single syllable words and base it on consonants and vowels

On the vest itself, are each of the vibrating components representing a single phoneme?
The vest works together all at once. It's mapped based on frequency, lower on bottom and higher on top. Essentially we are doing a Fourier based composition (sum of sinusoids). The intensity of the motor is the strength of the composition of a specific frequency.

Do you allow your test subjects to use lip reading when they are being tested?
At the moment, no. We have just started doing more research that involves person to person interaction but we are thinking about incorporating lip reading. But it's kind of messy because on one hand can help guide people but people's ability to lip read is on a spectrum and if you get people that rely on lip reading, it won't help in understanding the tactile stimuli.

Are the deaf participants congenitally deaf? Or was it acquired post language acquisition?
There have been congenitally deaf individuals as well as those who have already acquired language and then became deaf.

What could this mean for the future of sign language? Do you have thoughts as to what's going to happen down the road with sign language considering this technology?
We'll probably run into the same issues as what happened with cochlear implants because this is essentially a non-invasive cochlear implant. So as far as the future of sign language goes, it's maybe working against it culturally. That being said, what I think about long term as far as this technology goes, this is more about taking arbitrary information from a framework to feeding this information. If you were to extrapolate, this is definitely along the lines of a cochlear implant.

That's all for now! See you at our next meeting, March 24th, right after Spring Break :)