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 Chad Cunningham, WIUSSLHA President, aka Mr. Rogers and special guest. The Western Illinois University Student Speech-Language-Hearing Association (WIUSSLHA) of the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders held their annual Halloween Party for clients and families of the WIU Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic on Thursday, October 27, from 6:00-8:00 p.m. As advertised, it was a “spooktacular event”! The students decorated the clinic lobby, halls, and therapy room areas and were in costume to greet the attendees, young and not so young, also in costume. Face painting, cookie decorating, coloring, trick-or-treating, story reading, witch’s hat ring toss, and pin the tail on the black cat were among the activities provided, along with refreshments and plenty of candy and prizes. The event was well attended by clients and their families and caregivers. Officers of WIUSSLHA are President Chad Cunningham, Vice President-Internal Courtney Richardson (co-chair of the event), Vice President-External Morgan Leffelman, Secretary Kaytee Loudenback (co-chair of the event), and Treasurer Kara Newell.
 She-Devil from Bridgeway. |
 Face painting. |
 Clinician Nicole, aka angelic grad student, supervises bucketball. |
 Clinicians Morgan and Courtney with a friend. |
 Friends of CSD enjoy an Open House in their newly renovated space in Memorial Hall. Homecoming weekend for the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) was special this year. On the evening of September 30, CSD held an Open House to toast its new academic offices, state-of-the-art laboratories, and speech-language-hearing clinic all of which are now housed on the entire second floor of the newly-renovated Memorial Hall. After four years in the basement of Currens Hall, CSD completed its move to Memorial in December of 2010.
The weekend provided a huge turnout, with current CSD students, alums, current and retired CSD faculty, and members of the university community connecting and reconnecting over wonderful hors d’oeuvres, a cash bar, and excellent music by the President’s String Quartet.
 CSD Faculty celebrate the Maureen G. Marx Scholarship kick-off. Front row, Jane Brown, Maureen Marx, Donna Quesal, Amanda Silberer. Back row, Kate Pohlpeter, Ellen Ehrgott, Amy Burke, Cheri Gipson, and Bob Quesal. |
 CSD provided a delicious appetizer buffet during their Homecoming 2011 Open House. |
 A WIU Jazz Ensemble warms up the evening for the CSD dinner at the Macomb Country Club. |
Departmental tours were offered between the homecoming parade and the football game on Saturday, October 1. The weekend ended with a dinner-silent auction Saturday evening at the Macomb Country Club. The dinner and silent auction provided a kick-off of the Maureen G. Marx Undergraduate Academic Excellence Award, which marks the first undergraduate scholarship established by CSD in honor of Maureen Marx, who will retire in July 2012.
The evening was another huge success made even more special with music by a WIU five man jazz ensemble. A great time was had by all and the scholarship is on its way!
 Donna and Bob Quesal, seated third and fourth from far right, attend the National Stuttering Association conference. Bob Quesal, PhD, participated the National Stuttering Association (NSA) Research Symposium on July 5-6 in Ft. Worth, TX.
Bob, Donna Quesal, CSD faculty and Kevin Mahoney, CSD grad student, attended the NSA conference, July 7-9. Donna and Kevin were minority participants, as most participants are people who stutter (PWS) of all ages.
 David Seidler, screen writer of The King's Speech, presented at NSA. David Seidler, screen writer of The King’s Speech was the keynote speaker, and shared his personal story as do others at this conference.
Participants attended workshops on therapy strategies, current research in stuttering; met people who stutter and their families from all over the world; and talked to anyone and everyone they met for a few days. There are parent, sibling and family sessions; open mikes for PWS; sessions for speech language pathologists; and community activities for socialization in a comfortable communication environment.
For more information about the NSA programs for people who stutter, go to www.westutter.org.
The Western Illinois University Student Speech-Language-Hearing Association–WIUSSLHA– held their 5th annual Bowl-a-thon at Digger’s College Bowl on Saturday, April 30, 2011.
WIUSSLHA members, students from the Department of Communication Science and Disorders, family members, faculty, and clients from Mosaic group homes participated in the fun.
This event has become the major fundraiser for the group, with this year’s proceeds going to Autism Speaks, an organization that exists for the support and dissemination of information to families and the public about autism spectrum disorder. WIUSSLHA was able to purchase a communication device for a client during this school year using past funds generated by this event.
WIUSSLHA wishes to thank the many Macomb businesses that donated money and/or prizes for the raffle held at the event.
 WIU CSD Students at ISHA Faculty and students in the Communication Sciences and Disorders Department attended the Illinois Speech-Language- Hearing Convention at the Rosemont Convention Center on February 11-13th. The faculty and students attended sessions on dysphagia, autism, and stuttering. Some of the main presenters at the convention were Jeri Logemann, Jeanane Ferre, and Ehud Yairi.
Students who volunteered and attended the convention were: Allison Rolinskas, Lauren Kubik, Kayla Rossi, Jamie Monier, Jill Kevorkian, Bailey Crenshaw, and Kevin Mahoney.
Now that CSD has moved back to Memorial Hall, Donna Quesal thought people might like to see how the spaces are shaping up. Thanks to Donna for taking the pics.
 Materials library  Materials library with Madison Mershon  Undergraduate work space  Grad student work space.  Computer Lab
Over the winter break, the department of Communication Sciences and Disorders moved from their temporary space in Currens–can you still call in temporary after 4 years–back into Memorial Hall to some fantastic new “digs.”
The department is located on the second floor of the newly renovated Memorial–all the CSD faculty offices, the Speech Language and Hearing Clinic, the therapy rooms, and the audio booths. Everything is in one place. Classrooms are to follow as the physical plant is creating the electronic environment for the most tech savvy classrooms available.
The brand new soundproof audio booth was lifted by crane into the building piece by piece and then constructed on site. It’s pretty amazing to see this freestanding room-size booth in the consultation room.
Faculty and administration are waiting on some new furniture, but otherwise they are making themselves at home in their very bright, very clean, very new digs.
 Becca Sims, senior, Macomb, in the consultation room  Becca Sims at the double door of the audiology booth  Becca Sims in the clinician side of the audiology booth
Dr. Maureen Marx, Chair of CSD and Lauren Kubik, first-year graduate student in CSD traveled to the Chicago area in November to recruit high school students for WIU’s CSD department. They attended York High School in Elmhurst, St. Joesph in Westchester, and Nazareth Academy in La Grange Park. During their visits, they gave a presentation on the WIU CSD program, played Jeopardy using questions about CSD, and answered many questions the students asked. It was a successful trip and many students showed interest in the Communication Sciences and Disorder program and what Western Illinois University has to offer.
 Kayla Rossi and Lauren Kubik and the CSD Jeopardy game  Cheri Gipson and Kayla Rossi At the same time, Cheri Gipson, CSD undergraduate adviser and instructor, and Kayla Rossi senior CSD major, completed a recruiting visit to two Springfield area schools to increase awareness of CSD and to promote the program at WIU. The students at both Springfield Lutheran and Sacred Heart-Griffin High schools enjoyed the interactive presentation which was written by Lauren Kubik and Kayla Rossi.
 Western Illinois University Student Speech-Language Hearing Association held its annual Halloween Party for clients of the clinic on Tuesday evening, October 26th. WIUSSLHA members transformed the Speech-Language Clinic into a spooky funhouse, complete with games, crafts, and treats, and greeted their guests in costume. Clinic clients, their families and caregivers, and student clinicians, as well as faculty attended and had a spooky good time.
 Pictured above: Haleigh Haddix, Taylor Vincent (WIUSSLHA treas.), Cassie Henry (WIUSSLHA VP), Kayla Rossi (WIUSLLHA pres.), Kevin Mahoney, and Katie Smith.
October was a busy month for WIUSSLHA. They elected officers: President Kayla Rossi, Vice President-External Erin Downs, Vice President-Internal Cassie Henry, Secretary Jessica Vose, and Treasurer Taylor Vincent.
They held an Annual Fall Picnic on October 1st at the Everly Park shelter. Old and new members got acquainted with each other and some of the faculty.
Kayla Rossi, Taylor Vincent, Katie Smith, and Haleigh Haddix represented WIUSSLHA and the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the Majors Fair held in the ballroom at the Union in October. They had the opportunity to share their enthusiasm for the CSD major with several students who were trying to make a decision about a major at WIU.
 Stephanie Chang teaches Chinese to Will County high school students. CSD grad Stephanie Chang, MS 2002, has spent 4 weeks of her summer teaching Chinese to high school students in Will County. During the school year Chang is a speech language pathologist in the Aurora West School District. Chang is teaching at Lewis University which received a $60,000 “STARTALK National Security Grant to teach a four-week summer Chinese language camp for Will County high school students.” Read more in The Herald News.
In a recent note to Donna Quesal, Stephanie said, “Thank you for your encouragement. The training I received at WIU helped me a lot in teaching language. I still have a lot to learn, and will keep working hard on being a good SLP. . . . In fact, my proposals to ASHA have been accepted this time (both poster and speaking sessions). I am very grateful for WIU faculty’s support.”
Stephanie is the kind of grad everyone is proud of–the department, the college, and the university.
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