Honors Board Chair Presents at The American Speech, Language, and Hearing Association Conference
Tell us about yourself.
I’m Sam Bartolo, a fourth year student studying Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences (SLHS) and Sociology. On campus, I’m the chair of the Honors Program Student Advisory Board among a couple of other things, including working in a research lab in the SLHS department! I’m currently applying to graduate school for Speech-Language Pathology and one day hope to work in a hospital or rehabilitative care setting.
How did you spend your Thanksgiving break?
Over the first weekend of Thanksgiving break, I presented my current thesis results during a postering session at the American Speech, Language, and Hearing Association’s National Conference in Orlando, Florida. Preparing for and flying out to the conference was a bit of a whirlwind, so I was glad to spend the rest of my break relaxing with family and friends in Rye, Colorado (a small mountain town in southern Colorado)!
What is this event? How did you get involved?
The American Speech Language, and Hearing Association (ASHA) Conference is an annual convention for people interested in communication sciences and disorders. This includes undergraduate and graduate students, faculty at universities, and clinicians like audiologists and speech-language pathologists. This year, the conference was held in Orlando, Florida — so needless to say it was a bummer coming back to all the snow in Colorado! The ASHA conventions hosts lots of different events, including educational seminars, postering sessions and a graduate school fair. For students like myself, it’s a great networking opportunity!
Last spring, my honors thesis advisor, Dr. Christine Brennan in the SLHS Department, recommended I apply to present at the conference — she often takes her undergraduate and graduate students to present. I found out I was accepted to present in July!
What is your thesis on?
My thesis considers the relationship between phonological awareness, a skill that involves manipulating the sounds in a language, and components of socioeconomic status, like household income, parental education levels, and free and reduced lunch status. Understanding this relationship is important because phonological awareness is a key skill for developing readers of the English language. To collect our data, we’re recruiting 8 – 12 year old participants in both Boulder County and Otero County (which is located in South Eastern Colorado, also where I’m from).
How did the presentation go? Any takeaways?
The presentation went very well! I was fortunate to have a lot of faculty from CU’s SLHS department come by my poster, as well as a few of my classmates. I also was able to present my research to faculty from other universities, and I really appreciated their insight and feedback. It’s always great to hear the thoughts of experienced researchers and chat about their research interests!
Anything else you want to include?
I would like to thank my mentor, Dr. Brennan, for lending me her expertise and helping me prepare my handout and poster. Both my presentation and thesis would not be possible without her guidance. Additionally, I’d like to thank CU’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) for supporting my research and the Professional & Academic Conference Endowment (PACE) for supporting my travel to the conference.
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