Reaching Students Who Are Often Overlooked

by Amy S. Nordness, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, asnordness@unmc.edu

In an effort to promote the field of speechlanguage pathology and audiology to those students who have often been overlooked and failed to have knowledge of what a speech-language pathologist (SLP) does, the SLP Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee at Munroe-Meyer Institute (MMI) at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska, presented an overview of the professions to diverse high school students at Blackburn Alternative High School in Omaha Public Schools (OPS).

Members of the team provided an educational presentation, and engaged the students in hands-on learning activities, including “decoding” familiar words in phonetics, preparing and tasting thickened liquids, and programming and communicating with the TD Snap software on augmentative and alternative communication devices. They partnered with the school’s SLP and the career exploration team to reach a group of students actively exploring careers after high school. One goal was met: to promote these professions in both an educational and medical setting. To ensure they were crafting an ideal message and actively reaching the students, the Committee invited their DEI mentor, Dr. Kia Johnson, to join them in observing and providing feedback to help craft their presentation even further.

The students were actively engaged, participated in all the activities, asked thoughtful questions, and even inquired about how to obtain speech devices to help members of their families. The MMI SLP DEI Committee is taking feedback from the presentation back to their team to revise the content, and prepare to roll out a year-long promotion about a career in speech-language pathology and audiology to high school students at the most diverse high schools in OPS. Photo: