Horizons Fall 2014

8 HORIZONS NSU student Sherry Rauh was on spring break in Nicaragua, studying at a small language school along with her son. There, she ran across an organization called Los Pipitos, which identified children need- ing hearing aids, but lacked the resources to provide them. Back in South Florida, Rauh had an idea—maybe students like herself in NSU’s Depart- ment of Audiology could get involved. That was the start of a beautiful story with quite a happy ending. That would not be Rauh’s first game-changing impulse. In her first career as a producer for CNN (her undergraduate degree was in journalism), she was assigned a story about children receiving cochlear implants. See- ing children hear for the first time made such an impression that she switched careers. CNN’s loss was NSU’s gain as the mother of two enrolled to pursue a career in audiology. Currently, audiology is considered among the best careers. CNBC, U.S. News & World Report , and others have listed it as a hot job, promising career, or best job. One study even touted it as the least stressful profession. But for many entering this field, the attraction is just as often the desire to serve and make lives better. Certainly that seems to be the case for Melissa Cordova, one of the six NSU audiology students who, in February, went on the trip that Rauh organized. Born in Miami to Cuban parents, Cordova served as a transla- tor in the two cities they visited to fit children with hearing aids. She will never forget when one child’s father, whose son had never spoken a word before, burst into tears. He’d just heard his son repeat a word he’d spoken to the child. “It was so emotional,” she said. By John Dolen Now & Advances in Audiology at nsu