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Awardee Spotlight
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Beth Spencer
2007 Student Research
Grant in Early Childhood
Language Development
recipient |
Hooked on Research
After completing her master's degree in speech-language pathology at Vanderbilt University it was a foregone conclusion that Beth Spencer would enter the PhD program. Thanks to her classes with Melanie Schuele (herself a 1999 recipient of an ASHFoundation award), Spencer was already "hooked on research."
Spencer's dissertation, partially funded by her ASHFoundation 2007 Student Research Grant, investigates word learning in young children. Her work, she hopes, will lead to support for increased services and preschool opportunities for low-income children at risk of school failure because of vocabulary limitations.
Spencer's ASHFoundation award is allowed her to purchase necessary materials and provide incentives for subject recruitment. But the impact of the award extends far beyond its monetary value. "It's the recognition that encourages the desire to succeed," says Spencer. A little success breeds more.
And one mentoring experience leads to the next as well. That is, if Beth Spencer—in ASHFoundation terms—is the spiritual daughter of Melanie Schuele, then Schuele is about to become a grandmother: Spencer is already mentoring the next generation of scholars. She has already collaborated on two posters with master's students and is working on her research with an undergraduate student. How lucky we are that sometimes what goes around does indeed come around.
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Awardee Spotlight
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Suzanne Adlof
2007 New Century
Scholars Doctoral
Scholarship recipient |
Predetermined for Success
Suzanne Adlof's pursuit of an academic career in speech-language pathology was, you might say, predetermined from an early age. As a child, Adlof underwent nine surgeries to remove cholesteatoma, a result of chronic ear infections. Without precisely realizing it yet, she was already being drawn to her future career.
She is now a doctoral student at the University of Kansas studying children identified as "poor comprehenders," those who can only partially understand the texts they are able to read, and a population Adlof believes has been largely ignored and certainly diagnosed much too late, often not until the 4th grade.
Adlof is looking for markers in the children's oral language, similar to those in children with specific language impairment, which would enable earlier identification and timelier intervention and thus prevent later reading comprehension difficulties.
Her ASHFoundation New Century Scholars Doctoral Scholarship is making it easier for her to recruit participants and collect and analyze her data for her dissertation Adlof hopes that "more people will donate to the ASHFoundation so that other doctoral students can focus on what's important—pursuing research to help people with communication disorders."
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Awardee Spotlight
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Diane Williams
assistant professor
Duquesne University
1996 Graduate Student
Scholarship recipient |
A Second Career Saved
Diane Williams was saved by the bell. Or, anyway, the phone. And maybe not exactly "saved," but certainly reclaimed.
Williams, who had put her husband through his advanced degree program, raised three children, and was a practicing clinician for 20 years, was finally back in school herself, in the PhD program at Bowling Green State University. Despite her long-held and ardent desire to complete the degree, the stress of holding it all together—family and academic lives and financial concerns—was becoming overwhelming. She had decided to quit.
Then redemption called—literally. The ASHFoundation awarded Williams a Graduate Student Scholarship. The vote of confidence represented by the award resulted in renewed dedication. She stayed in school, finished her degree, and then began work as a post-doc in autism at the University of Pittsburgh. Williams is currently an assistant professor at Duquesne University. She also works with Marcel Just at Carnegie Mellon University using functional imaging to study cognitive processing of individuals with autism.
Williams says the moral and financial support provided by her ASHFoundation award allowed her not only to complete her degree but to receive a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH-K23) designed to help scholars develop research skills. The result is that she is currently sharing the fruits of her work in publications and at ASHA Conventions. "I wish more ASHFoundation student scholarships could be awarded," says Williams, "so more students would receive the same phone call I did."
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Awardee Spotlight
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Maria Ivanova
2007 International
Graduate Student
Scholarship recipient |
International Aspirations
Maria Ivanova, a certified neuropsychologist with a passion for research, was seeking to gain international experience and become more familiar with different research methodologies outside of her native Russia. The quest ultimately led her to Ohio.
Since neuropsychology in Russia encompasses aphasia and aphasiology, great interests of Ivanova, the area of speech-language pathology—and the work of Ohio University's Brooke Hallowell—were natural fits for the young clinician.
Ivanova's dream is to make substantive changes to the research base and to the practice of speech-language pathology in Russia. She plans for her work "to contribute to developing specific assessment tools targeting people with language disorders who also have concomitant deficits in attention, memory, and motor skills," she explains. She also plans to work with quality of life issues and on evidence-based practice, approaches that are beginning to be implemented in Russia.
Ivanova, recipient of the ASHFoundation's 2007 International Graduate Student Scholarship, is using her award to complete her PhD and support her research. The scholarship, she says, "has been a great inspiration to me. It reassures me that I'm on the right track and that I'm making progress."
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