When it comes to looking for the right school, often times a visit to campus to meet faculty and students can make a world of a difference. Last week, prospective audiology students did just that as a part of the University’s third annual Audiology Learning Experience (ALE).
ALE is based on the success of the Optometry Learning Experience (OLE), which has been held annually since 1979. Originally conceived as a two-week campus stay with a single institution, OLE has evolved to more than two and a half days of experiences for students from several different institutions.
Designed by the University’s Office of Admissions, the academic and career-related program gave students an in-depth look into the University’s Doctor of Audiology program and the audiology profession as a whole.
When the students arrived on campus Friday morning, they enjoyed breakfast as the Admissions staff welcomed them to campus and provided an overview of what the day would entail. Next, Radhika Aravamudhan, PhD, CCC-A, dean of the University’s Osborne College of Audiology (OCA) presented a brief overview of the audiology program here at Salus.
For the next few hours, the Admissions staff provided the prospective students with admissions tips and application review sessions in order to prepare them for the application process. Afterward, current audiology students Jimmy Brand, ‘22AUD, and Samantha McMahon, ‘21AUD, provided a campus tour, which included the on-site clinical facility, the Pennsylvania Ear Institute (PEI), before breaking for lunch.
“It was refreshing to see the joy and anticipation perspective students bring both to Salus and the field of audiology,” Brand said. “Choosing a school is hard, finding your community is harder and I hope the students were able to experience both clinical excellence and the supportive culture Salus has to offer.”
For the last sessions of the day, the students were led through a clinical skills demonstration by Jonette Owen, AuD, assistant dean of the Practice and Assessment of Audiologic Medicine in OCA, and participated in a panel discussion of OCA faculty.
At the end of the day, Madison Harnish, a senior at Bloomsburg University majoring in Communication Sciences and Disorders said, “This experience really opened my eyes to everything Salus has here, the three labs are amazing, the students were so nice to talk to, they were so open and honest with our discussions. It’s a really nice school, I really love it, it’s so beautiful too – Salus really raised the bar.”
"It was great to see these students take initiative to learn more about the Audiology profession and our program," Aravamudhan said. "We look forward to offering this ALE program every year and interacting with these motivated students! We hope to see them next fall as OCA AuD students!"
