The Communicative Disorders Club gave a presentation to the Saint Mary's Student Government Association (SGA) about the National American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention they attended in New Orleans with sponsorship money from SGA during the meeting Monday night.
Communicative Disorders Club president Kendra Fallet and member Christine Dits spoke about what they learned at the national conference. The members who attended had the opportunity to see cutting-edge technology in their field, Fallet said.
For example, they learned about a new technology that tracks how much a child talks and how much they are prompted by their parent. This new invention will provide effective screening for autism, Fallet said.
The club members also attended a luncheon for students where Fallet was randomly selected and won a $500 scholarship for graduate school.
Dits was able to meet up with a group she was interested in at a career fair called Friends, who work with stuttering, an area that she is particularly interested in, having battled stuttering herself.
Thanks to her attendance at this and other conferences Dits was offered a position to help man the booth for Friends at next year's convention.
"The conference was fabulous and we learned a ton," Fallet said. "One girl met a speech pathologist from Indianapolis who she is going to shadow."
The Communicative Disorders Club was grateful for their sponsorship as it helped them attend a conference that will help further them in their career paths.
In other SGA news, as a board SGA has decorated the six trees outside the Student Center to spread holiday cheer, Jenny Hoffman, student body president, said.
SGA had a short meeting Monday night but are getting ready to undertake some bigger goals such as writing new by-laws and creating an SGA handbook which they will begin work on at their meeting next Monday night, Hoffman said.
