Haley Laycock, 3rd year AuD student, and Tessa Castrejon, 2nd year MA-SLP student, partnered with Entheos Audiology Cooperative to participate in the Hearing the Call Humanitarian trip to Nuevo Progreso, Guatemala. The mission involved providing audiologic services to community members in need at the Hospital de La Familia Foundation and helping to support their audiology clinic.
Haley served in the audiology clinic, where 110 patients were seen and 68 were fit with hearing aids. Additionally, 20 students from a nearby school received hearing screening services. Tessa assisted in the audiology clinic with hearing screenings, interpreting services, and educating and demonstrating to parents on the use of communication boards. Tessa traveled to various schools in the area to present to and educate parents on normal speech and language development, as well as communication strategies.
Haley and Tessa partnered with AuD students from California and professors from South Dakota on this mission, where they were able to build new relationships and gain an invaluable learning experience! A very notable highlight from the trip is that while previous trips have been able to partner with ENTs, this is the first trip in which equipment was available to perform sedated ABRs. Haley and Tessa are extremely grateful for this life-changing opportunity and encourage others to embark on this mission!
