Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Date of Degree

6-2025

Document Type

Doctoral Capstone Project

Degree Name

Doctor of Audiology

Program

Audiology

Advisor

Dorothy Neave-DiToro

Subject Categories

Medicine and Health Sciences

Keywords

Mentorship, Speech Language Pathology, Audiology

Abstract

Introduction and Background

The professions of Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) and Audiology have had a long-standing history of racial, ethnic, and linguistic disparities among practitioners. In recent years, despite the increase in diversity of the United States population, and research that shows the benefits of increased diversity in healthcare, this lack of representation persists.

Purpose

The current pilot study describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of an evidence-based mentorship program aimed at supporting historically underrepresented undergraduate students in Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) at Brooklyn College (BC) to prepare participants who plan to apply for graduate programs in SLP and Audiology.

Methods

The proposed mentorship program is comprised of four structured sessions and a mock interview session, each addressing different components of the graduate application process, including professional development, navigating the Centralized Application Service for Communication Science and Disorders (CSDCAS), writing personal statements, preparing for the GRE, obtaining letters of recommendation, and preparing for graduate-level interviews.

Results

Two pilot cohorts were conducted with preliminary results indicating that participants found the mentorship sessions to be beneficial and effective in familiarizing and preparing them for the graduate school application process. Proposed data collection for future cohorts will consist of a pre-program survey to collect demographic information and a post-program survey to obtain feedback and assess participants’ perceived benefit from completion of the program.

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