Audiology Students Volunteer at the Special Olympics

The Special Olympics Pennsylvania Summer Games were held each at Penn State University in State College on June 6-8, 2024 after a two year pause due to the pandemic. The event brings together over 2,000 athletes and 750 coaches from across the state to compete in in aquatics, athletics, basketball, bowling, equestrian, golf, gymnastics, softball and tennis. One of the unique features of the event is the Special Olympics Healthy Athlete initiative which involves seven discipline specific services. 

The Special Olympics Healthy Athlete initiative involves the following services: Healthy Hearing (Audiology), Opening Eyes (Optometry), Fit Feet (Podiatry), Special Smiles (Dentistry), FUNFitness (Physical Therapy), Strong Minds (Mental Health), and Health Promotions (dietitians, etc.). 

This year, 13 Commonwealth University-Bloomsburg audiology doctoral students (Grace Beierschmitt, Grace Dull, Tatiana Guzman-Carides, Jessica Izzo, Sarah Mace, Emily Moyer, Waheeda Nur, Yuval Pinchasov, Makaylia Ray, Sree Reddethu, Kelly Rice, Kaleigh Resnick, Shayla Swartz) and one Audiology Faculty member (Thomas Zalewski, Ph.D.) volunteered at the Healthy Hearing initiative. This year, Healthy Hearing screened the hearing of over 200 individuals during this 2-day event.