Work with newborns opens new career paths for UC senior

Sam Kroeger

Kroeger, who is entering his fourth year in the speech language hearing sciences program at UC's College of Allied Health Sciences (CAHS), expected his future career to involve working at an outpatient audiology clinic, performing hearing tests and prescribing hearing aids. But his experience-based learning has introduced him to a wider range of job possibilities.

"It wasn't really a population I had considered before," the senior from Mason, Ohio, said. "I wanted to push myself and see a whole other world. I never really saw myself working with kids, especially babies that young, so I wanted to see if it would interest me. It's been a really cool experience and something I could see myself continuing to do work with in the future."

Kroeger wasn't actively seeking a job when a faculty member from CAHS recommended him for the position, a job he's held since the spring.

In his field, interacting with patients typically requires credentials, so work experience as an undergraduate student can be hard to find. When the opportunity came up, he was excited to get hands-on experience in a health care setting.

"I knew I wanted to go into audiology, and I knew I wanted to go to grad school, but I wasn't really sure what setting I wanted to be in," said Kroeger, who is the president of the College of Allied Health Sciences Ambassadors, the academic chair for Theta Chi, the speech language hearing sciences representative on the College of Allied Health Sciences Tribunal, a member of the Student Alumni Council and a member of the National Student Speech Language Hearing Association.

The Ohio Department of Health mandates that all newborns undergo a hearing screening before leaving a hospital or birthing center.

These initial hearing screenings do not diagnose hearing loss, but they do identify newborns who need more comprehensive diagnostic evaluations. Early identification and intervention are key components for speech and language development.