Leading by Example

Southeastern Communication Sciences and Disorders senior Maya Gauthier has been awarded a national leadership scholarship by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.

Gauthier, a Hahnville native, will receive one of 40 Minority Student Leadership Program (MSLP) scholarships in the nation. In November, she will participate in leadership training at the 2016 ASHA convention in Philadelphia, where she will take part in leadership-focused educational programs and activities to help build and enhance leadership skills and gain an understanding of how the association works.

“Maya may be the most extraordinary undergraduate I have taught in the 23 years I’ve been at Southeastern,” said Roxanne Wright Stoehr, instructor and clinical supervisor for the communication sciences and disorders program. “She is always prepared for class and demonstrates an uncanny ability to understand complex and abstract material and to reflect on subjects at an unusually high level for an undergraduate. In addition to her scholastic ability, she is a mindful and caring person.”

Stoehr has many examples of Gauthier’s character. When she was a sophomore, she completed studies on autism, leading her to organize a fundraiser. She collected about $2,000 for local families of children with autism.

Gauthier, who last year earned the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders’ Charles W. Campbell Award for the outstanding junior in the program, plans to graduate in spring 2017, and to continue graduate studies at Southeastern in CSD.

This is the second consecutive year a Southeastern CSD student has been honored with this distinction.

Southeastern’s Communication Sciences and Disorders program is in the College of Nursing and Health Sciences and provides students with an excellent academic and clinical education in normal and disordered communication. Offering both undergraduate and graduate degree programs, students engage in independent and cooperative learning and demonstrate problem-solving in simulated and real clinical situations.

The four-year Bachelor’s Degree curriculum prepares students to serve individuals with communication disorders and careers in fields such as acoustics, audiology, linguistics, phonetics, psychology, speech-language pathology, and education. The program’s faculty that have received high student evaluations and state, national and international recognition and an honors curriculum is available.  Visit the Health and Human Sciences Department page for more information.