PSU Magazine Fall 1993

people." Today, with Monge famil y member numbering close to 1,000, Leon continues resea rch on the family's DNA to find a mechanism for prevent– ing the deafn ess. Maurer returned to Oregon th at year and received a commendation from Gov. Victor Atiyeh for his work developing the testing laboratory. Bu t his Costa Rica connection was fa r from fini shed. Between his trips back and fo rth to Costa Rica in the '70 , Maurer had started a project here in Oregon, a hea r– ing aid bank that sold used but perfect– ly good hearing aids to low-income patients at little or no cost. "Until now," says Maure r, "hea ring aids have been literally wasted- (veterans administration hospitals) get boxes and boxes and they can 't sell them, they can't give them away, o they sit.. .. It's a terrible waste." He col– lected the used aids-which cost from $500 to $ 1,500 when purchased new– from any urce he could find: private don r , mortuaries, and hospitals. Once they were cleaned up, most were as good a new. The hearing aid bank was such a succes at Portland State, he thought it could also work in Costa Ri ca. o Maurer began saving hearing aids, in hope of establishing the country's first public hearing clinic/hearing aid bank. By last spring he had amas ed close to 1,000. Partners for the Americas stepped in with a $5,000 grant for travel and equipment, and local hea ring aid manufacturers Starkey Laboratories donated a second acou tic chamber fo r the clinic. All told, nine boxes-$60,000 worth of donated equipment- made the trip to an Jose last March, along with Maurer, Loyal Edige r, head of audiology fo r the Eugene enter fo r Hea ring and Speech, and Walt tem– mler, an audiology graduate student. Their shared vision will oon be com– plete, Maurer hopes, with funding from Costa Rican Lions C lubs for intern– ship that will send PSU graduate stu– dent to Costa Rica to do re ea rch and train audiology technician , and bring Costa Ri can students here to Portland . "I think the next trip will be a giant tep fo rward ," says Ediger, who pent 16 PSU Magazine "long, reward ing day " this spring with Maurer in Co ta Rica, teaching some half-dozen Co ta Rican students the audi ology techniques they' ll need to use the equipment to its best poss ible adva ntage. Ultimately the clinic will be self-sus– ta ining, says Maurer, supported by sell– ing new hea ring aids to those who can affo rd them, and continuing with the hea ring aid bank fo r those who cannot. In the meantime, Maurer has heard from individuals in Nica ragua and Hon- dura , who want similar programs in their coun tri es. But fo r all his fo ndness fo r Costa Ri ca, he says he's more in– clined to turn hi s head in a different direction, and poss ibly help adva nce hea ring sc ience in Russ ia or China. Fortun atl ey fo r many Costa Ricans, their country has been a foc us for the past 20 yea rs of Maurer's time, re ea rch, teaching, and more impor– tantl y, his ca ring. D (Leslie ale is a Portland free lance writer.) SPEECH AND HEARING AT PSU Walk away from PSU with a degree in speech and hearing, and chances are you'll already have a taste of what it's like to be a professional audiologist or speech pathologist. The reason? More than half a dozen off-campus sites for gaining practical experience in the field, plus an on-campus clinic where seniors and graduate students diagnose and treat aura l and speech disorders and learn to fit and dispense hearing aids. '' PSU's department has gained a reputation for training students to creatively treat speech, hearing or language problems. '' Practical experience is required by the national a sociation that accre– dits speech and hearing programs, but urban universitie - like Portland State offer a decidedly more diver e range of opportunities. "We have wonderful working re la– tions with our community fellows, the people who are out in the field," says Mary Gordon-Brannan, program director for PSU's Speech and Hear– ing Sciences Department. Portland hospitals offer spots to students each term, as does Oregon Health Scien– ces University and the Portland enter for Hearing and Speech. This year PSU tuclents are also working with pre- chool-age home– less children at the YWCA to improve their verbal -kill . Some 80 undergraduate students are enrolled in speech and hearing sciences, a program that falls under the University's Department of Speech Communication. Students fol– low one of two tracks of study: audio l– ogy or speech-language pathology. The same two track are available to the 40 students studying for master - in the two-year graduate program. Undergraduates who choo e the speech-language pathology major can also graduate with a speech-impaired licen e, which requires a term of stu– dent-teaching with a speech and lan– guage pathologist and qua lifies them for employment with public schools. One of two national ly accredited speech and language pathology programs in the state, and the only accredited audiology program in Oregon, P U's department has gained a reputation for training students to creatively treat speech, hearing or language problems. lt also operates Portland State's best kept secret, the on-campus clinic which, besides training the speech and hearing professionals of tomor– row, offers low-cost treatment for speech impairment , testing for hearing di sorder-, and fitting and dispensing of hearing aid . For more information about department programs, the P U clinic and other spe ch and hearing services, call 725-3533. D