Script Draft: Speech and Hearing Sciences major

There are over 250 undergraduate majors to choose from at Arizona State University. Speech and hearing sciences is one of these choices. Speech and hearing sciences is a Bachelor of Science degree. In this major, students study the normal aspects of the communication process. There is specific focus in anatomy and physiology of the hearing mechanism, speech, language, and hearing science, and the human communication system, including normal development of speech and language. Students can take classes for the speech and hearing science major on the Tempe Campus of ASU. There are about thirty professors who lecture for the classes required for this major. This program is a stepping-stone for students to become graduates in audiology or speech language pathology.

Unfortunately, not everyone can afford the time and money it will take to obtain a graduate degree in audiology or speech language pathology, moving further than the initial BS in speech and hearing sciences. Upon declaring as a speech and hearing science major my advisor informed me that there are not many job opportunities other than becoming an assistant to an audiologist or an assistant to a speech language pathologist unless students go on to obtain an AuD or Master’s degree. I have found, after interviewing a number of professors who lecture within this major that this is true. Therefore, I think it is very important for all of the advisors to inform students of this commitment before they declare their major in speech and hearing sciences.

            My advisor, Tiffanie Flores, did just that. I had a meeting with her to declare my major and she informed me, “with the speech and hearing sciences bachelors of science degree, a student can move on from college to become an assistant to a speech language pathologist or that of an audiologist. After the bachelor’s degree students can obtain a Master’s degree to become a Speech Language pathologist or they can obtain a doctorate degree in Audiology.”

            After my meeting with Mrs. Flores and coming out with that supporting information, I decided to get more, and maybe more credible advice, from some professors who teach in the speech and hearing department at ASU. Dawn Greer, a clinical associate professor, who specializes in speech language pathology, had this to say, “To be a certified speech language pathologist and not an assistant you would need to pursue a masters degree, not a PhD. If you are interested in becoming an audiologist, then you need an AuD, which is a doctorate degree.”

I interviewed other speech and hearing sciences professors, for a further opinion, who all had the same advice. Professor William Yost says, “You do need a graduate degree to be a clinician but not a doctorate in all cases.”

Professor Zarin Mehta repeats the same advice and does so in further detail. She says, “The audiology program does have an entry-level clinical doctorate which is a four year doctorate but not a PhD. There is no Master’s degree offered for audiology anymore, so the default degree in an AuD, the clinical doctorate. The SLP is a two-year Master’s degree and you can certainly become a practicing SLP with the Master’s degree.

With each professor giving advice all alike, it is quite obvious that students cannot be more than assistants to audiologists or speech language pathologists with just the bachelors of science in speech and hearing sciences. They would need to obtain further degrees in audiology or speech language pathology, such as a Master’s degree or an AuD, which is a clinical doctorate. Informing students of this information before they declare their major is essential because the clarity of the commitment might sway a student’s decision to declare.

ASU Reacts: Broadway as Inspiration

“ ‘Broadway to Sandy: The Show is Back On’ is an NPR story about how Broadway is affected when a disaster such as Hurricane Sandy occurs. The traffic intensifies all around the city and the crew has such a difficult time finding transportation. Broadway is “a symbol of New York” as the mayor said in the interview with the writer; the show must always go on. So, when a tragedy such as Sandy occurs, dedicated Broadway members find a way into the city, whether it is renting a car, catching a taxi, riding the bus, a bike, or even walking. Cancelled shows bring about a huge loss, so even in the midst of a tragedy, Broadway tries to keep cancellations at an absolute minimum.”

Jessica Zimmer, 20-year-old Broadway fan says, “In my opinion, it is positive that the employees of Broadway tried to keep the shows going because watching a show can give the people of New York something entertaining to do during a time of crisis. There so many people without power in their homes that having a destination like Broadway can take them away from the reality of the tragedy for a few hours. However, I think it is sad for the cast because the commute to Broadway seems horribly difficult. Many actors and crew put in so much effort to make it there on time and I am sure that it was greatly stressful for them. I find it inspiring that the productions on Broadway are so dedicated and that everyone involved still finds a way to make the magic happen.”

“Overall, from the NPR interviews, and my interview with Jessica, it is apparent that Broadway finding a way to make shows happen, no matter what, is really inspiring for the people of New York and those who experienced the tragedy of hurricane Sandy.”

Genre analysis: "Broadway to Sandy: The Show is Back On" http://www.npr.org/2012/11/01/164108465/broadway-to-sandy-the-show-is-back-on

This audio essay is entitled “Broadway to Sandy: The Show is Back On.” It is about the fact that even in the midst of a tragedy, Broadway is a symbol of New York and must be kept on for the sake of hope. Sandy, the most recent hurricane on the east coast, has created many obstacles for the cast and crew of Broadway to get to work, but these people are dedicated, and they do get there, no matter what it takes. Some workers bike, some walk, some rent cars. Audio essays have specific features and needs in the same way an essay does. There is a thesis, outside sourced information in the form of interview, outside sources from factual information, some dialogue, and an overall point to the audio essay.  This essay is written informally since it is an interview. There is more detail in the audio essay rather than the written article itself. In this particular article, the writer views himself as a reporter, using factual information to portray the coming together of Broadway in the midst of a tragedy and conducting interviews with people of Broadway and people heading to view Broadway to support the ideal that in Broadway, the show must always go on. Numbers are used to show how long it usually takes someone to get from Manhattan to Broadway and how long that takes after Sandy as well as many other time related changes to travel because of Sandy. Numbers are used to show the loss of money from the hurricane before Sandy, Irene. All of the quotations are quotes from people that the writer interviewed. The images are of the aftermath of Sandy: a flooded road, someone skateboarding instead of sitting in traffic, and a couple not so crowded street pictures of Broadway. I think the writer chose this kind of informal evidence because it helps the listener connect on a more personal level instead of just stating statistics and formal information. The organization of this document is very casual. Its core is mostly dialogue of examples of how people are helping Broadway keep the show going on after Sandy. This type of organization is often in newspaper articles, online blogs, and other simple writings similar to those. There are citations under the photos and all the quotations have either an introduction or a follow up with who said each thought. Even though there is some factual information, there are no formal citations at the end of the article indicating where the factual information about money loss or damage done comes from; all of the citations are from the people who were interviewed.

My topic for project three is going to be my major, speech and hearing sciences.

Project 2 Reflection: mind-opening

For this project I did well evaluating the benefits of Sigma Kappa. I did especially well in discovering how Sigma Kappa would benefits the women involved. This project made me realize that I undoubtedly chose the right sorority. The positive outlook on grades and networking and just making girls realize that they belong at ASU definitely showed brightly through my evaluation. I struggled with making the annotations very formal, especially since I had already talked about them in detail in my introduction. I felt like I repeated myself a lot moving from the introduction into the annotations and that I could have done a much better job at making the project as a whole flow better. From my evaluation I learned lots of things about Sigma Kappa that I did not really know. I had to learn some history for the introduction that was incredibly intriguing. I was not aware of the hazing policies and the no hazing history of Sigma Kappa. I figured that there was hazing in the past and they just recently got rid of the tradition. I also learned how much the sisters do together as a group to make sure that each sister grows as an individual mentally and socially. My writing process for this project was very bland. I feel like I could have found out more and gone into much more detail. To alter my process for the next project, I will do much more research before I actually begin m evaluation so that I have more knowledge already available to me. I will also use my sources in more detail, more often. The strength of my evaluation could honestly be better. I feel as though I should have used my sources more to make my evaluation more powerful. Also, I could have made the map much more formal. In order to do that I will use technology sources like the blog. If I still choose not to go the technological route, I will make my hand drawn map with more detail and more time dedicated to the process. Outside of the university, evaluation will be essential. I will have to continue to evaluate a multitude of things during college, and then even more once I graduate. I will have to evaluate different types of loans as college progresses, as well as different types of housing. To do these things to my best ability, I will have to do an enormous amount of research. After college, I will have to evaluate grad school options, then future career options, and so far beyond that as well. Thinking about how evaluation will affect my future has made me realize that having good evaluation skills is critical.