Embracing Diversity: First Cohort of SLHS Clinical Graduates Earns Multiculturalism Certificate
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This May, the Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences celebrated the first cohort of students to complete its new Multiculturalism Certificate in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences. Five students – Audiology candidate Sabrina Gemme and Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) graduates Moira O’Sullivan, Jessica Suriano, Marci Rohtstein, and Evona Eldayha – completed the yearlong program designed to provide in-depth academic and clinical training in multiculturalism and diversity.
The 9-credit certificate program is open to both Audiology and SLP graduate students in the department. Each track contains one course in their standard curriculum that contributes to their certificate. In addition, the department developed two new courses: Multiculturalism in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences and a yearlong Multiculturalism Capstone Seminar.
“Our entire department has been working to infuse multicultural issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion into our curricula, and the certificate offers a more in-depth opportunity to engage in this material for interested students,” says Assistant Professor Sara Mamo, who along with fellow Assistant Professor Megan Gross and clinical instructors Tomma Henckel and Jane Sackett, was instrumental in helping to launch the new certificate program. “Our profession serves multilinguistic and multicultural populations in educational settings and in health services. There is a critical need to improve equity for diverse and underrepresented populations in these service areas. In addition to better preparing our future clinicians, we hope to attract a more culturally diverse student body into our profession, which is currently comprised of approximately 90% white women.”
For Moira O’Sullivan, the decision to pursue the certificate was an easy choice.
“I know as an SLP I will be working with many clients who are different from me and I was nervous about not being prepared to work with diverse populations,” she says. “I knew that the certificate would be a good first step to understanding myself and my own bias that could impact my ability to work with clients and learning more about social justice and our role in it.”
“I believed it would make me both a more educated person and a more educated clinician,” adds Sabrina Gemme, who will begin her clinical audiology externship year with Atrius Health - Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates at the end of the month. “I acknowledge that I never know what [cultural perspective] a patient is bringing with them into the clinic, but I also acknowledge it is my responsibility to see and treat them in their whole personhood. I believed the certificate would teach me how to do that. I also have always had an interest in bringing multicultural education into Hearing Healthcare.”
The cohort began their journey together in Spring 2023 during their first year in the program and finished together at the end of their second years. “I think the set-up of the certificate is unique,” says O’Sullivan. “I loved the ladies in my cohort because they shared perspectives that were different from mine. There were many ‘oh, I didn't even realize that’ moments in our discussions. The discussions were natural and quickly flowed as we all shared our ideas.”
“We had hard conversations about identity, ability and culture that caused us to challenge the views we had and the language we use,” adds Gemme. “My favorite aspect by far was my cohort, my fellow ‘founding mothers.’ Our Zoom call was the best place to be on a Wednesday night and I cannot thank them enough for everything. They taught me a lot and are a very valuable part of my graduate school experience.”
Two key components of the certificate are embedded in the yearlong course. First, the students must engage in a reflective journaling practice over the course of a full year during their clinical training, and second, they must also complete an immersive, yearlong service-learning project.
“I grew a lot throughout the certificate, both as an aspiring clinician and as a person,” notes Marci Rohtstein. “The coursework in the certificate was a big part of that. This coursework helped to increase my awareness of intersectionality, specifically for clients, myself personally, and how these identities interact. I think one of the most beneficial aspects of the certificate is that I truly engaged with multicultural issues through reflection both as part of class discussions and through journal entries. One of the most valuable lessons from these reflections in class is that we all have moments where we make mistakes, which we refer to as ‘having spinach in our teeth.’ We can hope to reduce these moments with spinach in our teeth through personal reflection and learning over time, but how we react to finding out that we have spinach in our teeth in a moment is also critically important.”
(For more on Rohtstein’s thoughts on the “Power of Reflective Journaling,” read the department’s blog site.)
To complete their yearlong service learning projects, students selected a partner organization to work with and engaged in mutually beneficial learning experiences that culminated with the development of some type of resource for the organization and/or other professionals. Gemme’s service learning project involved a partnership with the Massachusetts Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and the development of an “Allyship Portfolio” for use among audiologists and members of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community.
“The two groups have historically had a lot of strife largely in part due to audiologists misunderstanding and ignorance surrounding the Deaf community and American Sign Language,” explains Gemme. “Through this project I learned a lot about the Deaf community and challenged my own biases. The main thing I learned from both hearing healthcare professionals who work with and from members of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community was that communication options do not have to be limited to either/or. A person can use spoken and signed language and have a full rich life and community. The other big thing I learned was that there is also an interest from the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community to work with audiologists as well. The desire for reconciliation and collaboration is there. We just have to be brave enough to reach out and learn.”
Earning the multicultural certificate required the students to put in time and hard work, but they all express that it was worth the effort.
“I am more aware of the systematic issues and how they impact our clients, especially in schools and healthcare,” says O’Sullivan. “I have more of a whole-person approach to my clients. Culture impacts every aspect of our lives, especially communication.”
“I need to approach every patient with humility and curiosity,” concludes Gemme. “This certificate program has made me a kinder and more patient professional.”
The department faculty were also thrilled with the program’s results.
“Our first cohort of a students was amazing,” says Mamo. “They were engaged and willing to explore—especially, given that we were constantly trying to figure out the best way to bring to life the ideas we’d put in the certificate proposal. They embraced the role of building the foundation of this certificate with us in order to develop a process that would be most beneficial for students’ learning.”