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 :)

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