Building a Reputation- Communication Sciences & Disorders Majors Takes First in Statewide Video
The Ohio Speech-Language-Hearing Association (OSLHA) held its first university video competition and the Cougars came out on top.
Cleveland State University, Miami University and the Universities of Cincinnati and Toledo were the other contenders.
The winning video was submitted by majors in MVNU’s Communication Sciences and Disorders program.
Royce Lyons was a freshman when the Communication Sciences and Disorders major started at MVNU. She has watched the program grow from five students to now 26 students.
The other universities entering the contest have 100 to 200 students in their programs, “which was very intimidating at first,” Lyons said.
But, “winning this showed us that the numbers don’t really matter,” Lyons said. “A few passionate people can create major change — and that is what the pioneers of the CSD program strive to do and it showed in our video.”
The upbeat video portrays a teacher reading a storybook to her class. The narrative is the history of the CSD program at MVNU.
Creating the one minute and 40 second video was a class effort.
Junior Katelyn Dufur came up with the plot of the video, many students within the major were actors and journalism and media production major Eddie Dilts produced the video.
His goal was to turn the students’ vision into “something that I was proud of, that I thought the department could be proud of,” Dilts said. “I’m glad that we have the opportunity to partner with each other at this university to produce great things and gain invaluable experience.”
Senior Hannah Loughman said the process was easier than she anticipated.
“Making the video was less challenging than I thought. Several students met up on one day and we shot the entire video within a couple hours. However, we couldn’t have done it without the help of Eddie,” Loughman said.
Program Director Florence Lim-Hardjono said she feels “very good” about the direction of the program.
“We must build our reputation. All the other programs now know about us,” Hardjono said.
Communication Sciences and Disorders students at MVNU have access to work in a clinic on the first floor of Hunter Hall, a “unique opportunity that larger schools can’t offer.”
Though the major is growing, the small class sizes are beneficial for the students.
The low student-to-teacher ratio allows the students to be supervised by a licensed speech pathologist while in the clinical setting.
“I feel like our clinic has a really good reputation so far,” Hardjono said.
Currently six student clinicians work with 12 patients on a weekly basis.
“We would love to have more students. The field really needs more speech pathologists. We would like to serve more,” Hardjono said.
While they are seeking incoming freshmen for the major, this spring Loughman will be the first senior to graduate from the major.
"I am very thankful that God called me to MVNU and the major came just in time,” Loughman said. “It has been an honor to learn from professors who have invested in my life academically, spiritually and emotionally. I will miss the community that MVNU has given me over the past four years.”
To see the video and learn more about the Ohio Speech Language Hearing Association video competition, visit www.ohioslha.org/about-us/bestinohio.