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The motto of Harris College is “learning to make a difference,” and it’s
a phrase Jennifer Watson and Laurel Lynch took to heart when they
designed communication sciences and disorders’ (COSD) newest
study abroad program.
In China — a country of 1.33 billion people — there are currently
only two established speech-language pathology programs that offer
degrees. In comparison, there are more than 250 such programs in the
United States.
This means that many Chinese people who have communication
disorders are dramatically underserved and often don’t receive the
care they need.
So Watson, a COSD professor, and Lynch, a COSD lecturer, crafted
“China: Global Perspectives on Communication Health,” a service-
learning study abroad experience that will take TCU speech-language
pathology students to in-need areas of China for the summer.
The course received preliminary approval in June, and the first class is
expected to take place in the summer of 2015. The three-week course
will explore communication disorders in China through discussions of
the country’s education model, economy and regulation of
health communication.
Students will also have the opportunity to gain hands-on experience
via service-learning activities at two different orphanages, including a
home for children 0 to 3 years of age who have cleft lips and/or palates.
This will help TCU students hone their skills while providing much-
needed services to Chinese patients with communication disorders.
“In the U.S., there are approximately has 44 speech-language
pathologists and four audiologists per 100,000 people,” said Lynch.
“This access to communication disorder specialists is in marked
contrast to China, where there are only six speech-language
pathologists and three audiologists per 10 million persons.”
The new course also aligns perfectly with TCU’s quality enhancement
plan, “Discovering Global Citizenship.” Designed to globally engage
TCU by providing international and comparative experiences for
students, Discovering Global Citizenship has six main initiatives. One
of those is TCU Abroad, which encourages faculty to develop study
abroad opportunities in historically underrepresented locations, such
as China.
“In addition to the Discovering Global Citizenship program, two
significant events happened in the past year that really helped us get
the China study abroad course off the ground,” Lynch shared.
In June of 2013, through the support of the Harris College of Nursing
And Health Sciences Grant for International Studies,Watson and Lynch
visited and presented clinical and professional standards information
at a number of clinical and university sites in Beijing and Shanghai.
This February, Watson and Lynch assisted in launching the China
Consortium on Communication Health (CCCH), with TCU co-hosting
an inaugural meeting of communication disorder professionals
from across the country. The mission of the CCCH is to serve as the
international nexus for advancing education, research and services for
individuals with communication disorders in China.
“Our hope is that through the CCCH and programs like this new study
abroad course, we will be able to shed light on an important issue
and help bring China’s communication disorders services into the
21st Century,” said Lynch. “We are so excited to take the first group
next year.”
RESEARCH
NEW STUDY ABROAD PROGRAM IN CHINA
EXPANDS SERVICE-LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES
by Amy Gallagher
COLLABORATING ACROSS
CULTURES
FEATURES
Harris College Magazine
- 2014 ·
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