Ahmad B. Alexander, 2nd-Year AuD Student

Louisiana Tech University

BS, May 2006, Nicholls State University

As a child, at the age of 5 years, I was hit by a truck while crossing a street. After the accident, I ended up in a coma, in two different hospitals, one in Thibodaux, Louisiana, and one in New Orleans, for approximately a week. Upon attempting to return to a normal life, while viewing the embarrassing burns that consumed my face and going through seizure after seizure, I realized that things had changed, I was a little different, and I had to receive speech therapy. For the many years that followed, I received articulation and language treatment. I can still visualize my speech environment to this day as if it were only yesterday. That was how it all began.

As life went on and many years passed, I began college at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux and majored in business administration. Throughout those first 2 years of undergraduate school, I endured hardships, struggles, failures, and experiences that molded me into the person I am today. After dropping out of school for the next 2 years, I encountered a friend by the name of Lorna Manuel who encouraged me to take a look into the Communicative Disorders program that she was currently a part of. As I toured the facility, I was reminded of my childhood and adolescence and immediately fell in love with the field that once enabled me to go on with intelligible and successful communication.

Today, as strangers, friends, and family alike ask me about my passion for this field, I graciously tell them that audiology was designed especially for me to fulfill the purpose that I have been called to in life, which is to help and give back to others. So many children with hearing loss are not identified until later years in life. Therefore, because speech and hearing go hand in hand, communication breakdowns become common and almost acceptable. I chose audiology, not just as a major or a profession or a career, but as my life, so that I could help ensure that each child born into this world is not overlooked and has an equal opportunity for the best chance at successful communication.

There is not one day that we, or anyone else, do not communicate in some way, shape, or form. Seeing individuals go through similar things that I went through inspired me to pursue audiology to make sure that every person has the choice of being able to communicate.