This week's Graduate Student Spotlight is Lara! Lara is the first Audiology student to share about her background and she was really excited to do so!!
Hello friends! I am current second year audiology student. Audiology is a beautiful field which focuses on caring for patients with hearing and balance disorders. I felt called to become a pediatric audiologist after encountering the reality that 90% of deaf children have parents with no history of hearing loss. What a heart breaking and confusing circumstance for these parents. I knew this was where I was needed, so here I am! Here is my story:
During my time at the University of Florida, Go Gators, I majored in psychology and I gravitated toward experiences that allowed me to help students build confidence in themselves through periods of rapid change and uncertainty. I served as an Orientation Leader and Panhellenic Counsellor to work with students in periods of uncertainty and indecisiveness. I assumed that my passion for investing in others in times of transition would lead to a career as a family counsellor, however, when I learned about audiology in my ASL class, I was captivated by the collaboration between hearing families of deaf children and audiologists. I immediately I knew Jesus was calling me to serves families struggling with the overwhelming learning curve that hearing loss requires. If I was meant to work with families, then walking with parents facing this particular circumstance was the avenue where I would do it. When I graduate with my AuD in 2023, my goal is pour into families who are overwhelmed with the onset of their child’s hearing loss so they can become courageous advocates for their children from infancy through adolescence.