Since 2012, a team of faculty and students from Missouri State University’s (MSU) Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) have been impacting the lives of hundreds of Nicaraguans with hearing and speech disabilities. Through the study away service learning program, faculty and students travel to Nicaragua and spend a week in the country providing hearing aids and screenings, speech and language assessments, and follow-up services to adults and children. The program came to birth in fall 2011 when Dr. Michael Steer, then an audiology doctoral student, approached Dr. Neil DiSarno, the department chair at the time, with a proposal for a service-oriented study away program that would provide hearing aids to individuals in Nicaragua. With help from Barry and Chris Lydon, Dr. Steer’s in-laws, who are missionaries in Nicaragua, the first trip came to fruition in March 2012 with Dr. DiSarno and Dr. Letitia White, the current department chair, as co-directors. Following the success of the initial trip, there have been four other trips led by Dr. White and CSD … [Read more...] about Bringing the gift of hearing and speech to Nicaragua