Perspectives Winter/Spring 2019

8 | DR. PALLAVI PATEL COLLEGE OF HEALTH CARE SCIENCES welled up with tears,” said Taylor, as he reflected on the memory. “Makayla’s mother discreetly handed me a tissue. When Makayla saw me with the tissue, she stopped reading and came closer to me. She placed her arm around me and said, ‘Don’t cry, it’s okay.’ She was determined to comfort me,” he added. “I told her they were happy tears, and she said, ‘Okay, then you can cry.’ Suddenly, I needed more tissues!” When Young was asked what her initial reaction was when she received her hearing aids, her response was both honest and humorous. “I felt surprised and speechless,” she said. “You get it? Speechless!” SOUND WAVES OF SUPPORT Two other people also received hearing aids. One was Anna Mullen-Kroll. In September 2009, while she was waiting for a ride, a car struck Mullen-Kroll, who was dragged through a store’s glass window. Because her injuries were so severe, she was airlifted to a local hospital to treat her second- and third-degree burns and hearing loss. Mullen-Kroll, a PCHCS speech-language pathology master’s degree student, realized her hearing loss was an obstacle to achieving her dream. “I was expected to discriminate minute changes in sound production in children with cleft palate and craniofacial disorders. My ability to hear and identify the sounds a child was saying was only about 50 percent accurate after the accident,” she explained. “Thanks to my hearing aids, I am able to identify speech sounds with approximately 90 percent accuracy. I’m currently in a rotation working with geriatrics patients. I am able to adjust the volume on my hearing aids to hear those with soft voices, and to have them use a personal microphone clip to transmit their voices directly to my aids,” she added. “The hearing aids have made a world of difference in assisting me to be a more effective clinician.” Mullen-Kroll reflected on her NSU experience with gratitude. “Overall, professionals I’ve worked with have always been impressed with the quality of education I received as an online student. It’s some- times difficult for distance education students to be involved on campus and connect with the faculty and peers as closely as on-campus students do,” she said. “However, being an active member and an online student representative for NSU’s NSSLHA chapter has given me ample opportunity to participate in commu- nity service, engage with peers, and receive a stipend to attend an American Speech–Language–Hearing Association convention to further educate myself on current topics in my field.” OPPORTUNITIES TO GIVE Since its inception, the Jack Mills National Stu- dent Speech Language Hearing Association Fund has provided nine people with hearing aids. The fund’s specific goal is to help hearing-impaired individuals with the costs associated with hearing devices or hearing-assistive devices. It pays for the cost of the devices, while faculty members in the college’s Audiology Clinic donate the cost of their professional services to fit the devices to a person’s specific needs. Everyone wants to have a positive impact and change a life through generosity. By partnering with NSU’s clinics, and the college’s exceptional faculty members and students, contri- butions go directly to individuals who benefit from each donation. Please visit nova.edu/give/ and select any gift area under the Dr. Pallavi Patel College of Health Care Sciences tab if you would like to donate. Examples in- clude the Jack Mills NSSLHA Fund, Medical Missions, and the Dean’s Discretionary Fund. For more information on how to make a lasting differ- ence, contact Terry Morrow Nelson, Ph.D., assistant dean of student affairs, at tmorrow@nova.edu . † “We sat down together, and Makayla began to read while her mother watched. As she continued to read to me, I was overcome, and my eyes welled up with tears.” —Peter Taylor, Ph.D.