Starkey University Mission Opportunity

1.     How can audiology support the mission of Starkey Hearing Foundation?

“Starkey Hearing Foundation uses hearing as a vehicle to reflect caring and sharing and improve the lives of individuals, families, and communities around the world.” There are so many ways to care and share, and just one way is by providing a service we know best: audiology. There is need all around the world for food, water, medical help, the list goes on and on. Giving the gift of hearing aids to hundreds of thousands of people in need is something within Starkey’s realm of possibility and they have grasped it with both hands, putting forth an immense effort to improve individual lives and communities all over the world. It is life changing, for both those receiving the care and those giving it.

2.     How do you want to help spread the gift of better hearing?

After speaking with several Starkey employees who have traveled all over the globe with the Starkey Hearing Foundation, I would love to volunteer on a mission myself. Hearing them talk about fitting thousands of hearing aids on people who have traveled hundreds of miles to meet them and waited hours to see a volunteer makes my heart seize up. The Starkey Hearing Foundation makes an enormous impact on peoples’ lives every day in a big, dramatic way. I want to be a part of it. But I can’t forget about the impact I make every day in the clinic.

As a first year graduate student at the University of Northern Colorado, I have fit a fair share of hearing aids and have seen what joy the gift of hearing can bring to those ready to accept it. One of my favorite experiences in my short career thus far was reprogramming hearing aids on a man who was once a wonderful musician, but hadn’t been able to stand the sound of music with his new aids. After adding a music program and making some slight adjustments, we tried out the sound by pulling up a youtube video. I will never forget the look on his face when the first chords of Willie Nelson’s “Always on my Mind” came on. Spreading the gift of better hearing doesn’t have to mean going to the ends of the earth, you can make a big difference right in your own backyard.

One of my first hearing evaluations, coming up on 3 years ago! 

Part of my wonderful graduate cohort at the Starkey U Workshop! From left: Erika, Brenna, Dani, me, Christine.