Investing in Our Students’ Trajectories

INVESTING IN OUR STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL TRAJECTORIES

At Lurie College, we believe that a little bit of support for our students can go a long way. That’s why we provide a range of grants for our students to conduct research with faculty, to acquire research supplies, and for travel to attend conferences and leadership development opportunities. Learn more about the experiences that some of our outstanding undergraduate, graduate, and credential students had as a result of receiving these grants over the past academic year.

Luz Nicacio and Liliana Adler, undergraduate students in our Child and Adolescent Development program, received financial support to attend the Latinx Leads Conference in New York with Student Success Center Director Janene Perez and Chicanx/Latinx Student Success Center Program Director Lily Gangai.

“I think it’s important that everyone knows that there’s people who grow up a lot differently than you do and have different values than you do, so it’s important to educate yourself about those kinds of values and be an open ear and an ally to people who may not look like you,” said Adler.

Listen to our podcast episode with Luz and Liliana at bit.ly/lurie-luz-liliana

James Chow, graduate student in our Speech Pathlogy program, received financial support to conduct research on alternative methods to help people with aphasia communicate with medical providers and received faculty support and mentorship from Associate Professor Nidhi Mahendra.

“Something challenging or surprising that I’ve seen and experienced this year working with this project is just how little resources we have for adults in geriatrics with these types of communicative disorders such as aphasia or dementia,” said Chow.

Alexandra Murueta, Michelle Ballou, and Liz Cagle, undergraduate and graduate students in our Department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences, recieved financial support to attend the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) convention.

“I really encourage any of the students in the CDS program to apply for the ASHA convention sponsorship next year and any other student who is contemplating going for a scholarship or sponsorship just to go for it and take the plunge because it really is life changing,” said Murueta.

Listen to our podcast episode with Alexandra, Michelle, and Liz at bit.ly/lurie-ali-michelle-liz

Monica Gonzalez, graduate student in our Department of Special Education, received financial support to conduct research on the development of a graphic organizer for ELLs with high incidence disabilities.

“I noticed that there was specific research on English language learners, specific research on children with autism, specific research on children who have a specific learning disability, but not a lot of research on English language learners who have autism or a specific learning disability,” said Gonzalez.

Listen to our podcast episode with Monica at bit.ly/lurie-monica-gonzalez

Kyah Cobb and Robby Abarca, undergraduate students in our Communicative Disorders and Sciences program, collaborated with Professor Paul Cascella on a project that explores communication supports for edlers dually diagnosed with dementia and an intellectual disability.

“The whole research project is about the connection between intellectual disabilities and dementia. What we have been looking into focuses on aspects of Down syndrome and the correlation in communication strategies for those who are also dual diagnosed with dementia,” said Abarca.

Listen to our podcast episode with Kyah and Robby at bit.ly/lurie-kyah-robbie

Joana Gaeta and Samuel Bland, graduate students in our Special Education program, collaborated with Assistant Professor Saili Kulkarni on a project that examined beliefs about disability and race among special education teachers of color.

“We’re trying to see how teachers position themselves to help out our students when we see disparities – whether it’s behavioral issues or academic issues within the school setting – and then how we as the special education teachers contend with that on the education front,” said Gaeta.