June 20, 2019
Audiology student Colleen O’Brien ‘16C has been awarded two prestigious scholarships in her field: the CaptionCall Scholarship and the American Cochlear Implant Alliance Scholarship.
The competitive CaptionCall Scholarship provides $3,000 for academic expenses. The American Cochlear Implant Alliance Scholarship offers funding to attend the organization’s 2019 Symposium on Cochlear Implants in Children. Both scholarship awards attest to Ms. O’Brien’s outstanding record of academic achievement and service in the field.
Ms. O’Brien began her Doctor of Audiology program in 2016 and landed a graduate assistantship with Shruti Deshpande, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders. She continues to assist Dr. Deshpande with research that covers how apps and social media impact perceptions of the Audiology field, as well as how to increase hearing loss awareness in adolescent youth. Ms. O’Brien has accompanied Dr. Deshpande on Academic Service-Learning (AS-L) programs to local middle and high schools to provide hearing screenings and educate youth about hearing conservation.
Under the supervision of Dr. Deshpande’s husband and colleague in the Long Island Doctor of Audiology Consortium at Hofstra University, Aniruddha Deshpande, Ph.D., Ms. O’Brien is completing a capstone project that investigates how patients with tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, respond to misinformation online. Ms. O’Brien has found that misinformation about tinnitus and other hearing disorders spreads quickly online, especially through social media platforms. She has published, along with Dr. Aniruddha Deshpande and Dr. Shruti Deshpande, three peer-reviewed articles related to her capstone research in the American Journal of Audiology and Hearing, Balance, and Communication.
Ms. O’Brien completed a B.A. in Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology from St. John’s in 2016. She minored in Psychology and Theology, and was inducted into the Skull and Circle Honor Society in 2015. She chose Audiology as her career path after accompanying her grandmother to audiologist appointments.
“Audiology offers a straightforward treatment path for most patients,” she said. “There’s a lot we can do to help people recover their hearing and prevent hearing loss. Yet, there are still populations – like school-age children – who fall through the cracks for hearing screenings, so there’s still more work to do.”
Originally from Queens, NY, Ms. O’Brien attended the Mary Louis Academy. She came to St. John’s for her undergraduate degree because she found the faculty welcoming and was drawn to the close mentoring relationships faculty establish with students.
As a graduate student, Ms. O’Brien has found opportunities to serve. In January 2019, she traveled to Peru with the Starkey Hearing Foundation and worked to fit hearing aids and provide hearing testing for those in need. She and her group members saw more than 2,000 patients across four cities during their trip. Ms. O’Brien also visited Guatemala in 2016 on a trip lead by Associate Professor and Chair Nancy Colodny, Ph.D. There, she worked with Dr. Colodny and her fellow students to assist special needs adults with swallowing disorders.
“You really appreciate everything in a third world country,” said Ms. O’Brien. “Those experiences taught me not to look so myopically at issues but rather to see the bigger picture. There’s always a way to treat everyone.”
In 2016, Ms. O’Brien participated in the St. John’s Campus Ministry Plunge to Los Angeles, CA. The plunge theme was homelessness, and along with ten other students, Ms. O’Brien spent a week living in the conference room of a homeless shelter, working with the homeless population in soup kitchens, and getting to know some homeless individuals in the area.
“It was an eye-opening experience that really sparked my passion for service and giving back to those in need, both within the U.S. and around the world,” she said.
During the 2019-2020 academic year, Ms. O’Brien will complete a residency at NYU Langone’s Cochlear Implant Center. After graduation, she plans to pursue a Ph.D. and a dual career path as a practicing audiologist and researcher, specializing in cochlear implants.
“Colleen has worked with me as my graduate assistant from 2016 through 2018, and has extensively helped me on various projects,” said Dr. Deshpande. “She’s a coauthor on several of my presentations and publications. Additionally, I had the privilege of serving as her mentor on some of the student grants to which she applied. Colleen is not only academically exceptional, but is also authentic, genuine and a great person to work with. I have seen her grow over the past few years and I couldn’t be more proud of all of her accomplishments.”