My name is Abigail Awad (but I prefer to be called Abby) and I was born and raised on the west side of Cincinnati. I graduated from Seton High School in 2013 where I learned a lot about who I am, where I'm going, and who I want to be, My time at Seton also provided me with a network of students, teachers, and friends who have opened so many windows of opportunity for me and who have surrounded me with immeasurable amounts of love and support. I'm currently a undergraduate student studying Communication Sciences and Disorders through the College of Allied Health Sciences at the University of Cincinnati.
In my family of six, I am the oldest of four girls and my younger sisters mean the world to me. Being only six years old, my youngest sister, Grace, creates such a fun and interesting dynamic within our family and has helped me shape my college goals and desired career path. From the minute she spoke her first word, Grace had significant speech impediments and difficulty communicating with others. Though it wasn't much of a problem when she was a baby, she soon started school and found trouble interacting with teachers and making new friends. Flash forward to my senior year of high school when I based my senior project around her and sought out to determine if alternate forms of communication such as speech therapy, AAC devices, and sign language broke down social and emotional barriers in children with communications disorders. Over the course of the year, I researched this topic while simultaneously working alongside my sister's Speech-Language Pathologist to develop and execute a learning plan for Grace. In a short amount of time, I watched Grace's speech improve, which led to her excelling in school and making many new friends. I fell in love with the idea of helping people communicate, especially since my experience in the field hit so close to home. Though I love kids and have worked with them all my life, I am thinking I want to work with the geriatric population, traumatic brain injury speech rehabilitation, or possibly voice disorders.
Through the University Honors Program, I hope to gain learning and leadership experience that will benefit me for the rest of my life. I would also love to take the opportunity to travel through the program, exposing myself to some of the vast, differing cultures of the world. I plan to graduate from the University of Cincinnati in the Spring of 2017 with my bachelor's degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders. I then hope to attend graduate school at UC and earn my master's degree in Speech-Language Pathology.
In my family of six, I am the oldest of four girls and my younger sisters mean the world to me. Being only six years old, my youngest sister, Grace, creates such a fun and interesting dynamic within our family and has helped me shape my college goals and desired career path. From the minute she spoke her first word, Grace had significant speech impediments and difficulty communicating with others. Though it wasn't much of a problem when she was a baby, she soon started school and found trouble interacting with teachers and making new friends. Flash forward to my senior year of high school when I based my senior project around her and sought out to determine if alternate forms of communication such as speech therapy, AAC devices, and sign language broke down social and emotional barriers in children with communications disorders. Over the course of the year, I researched this topic while simultaneously working alongside my sister's Speech-Language Pathologist to develop and execute a learning plan for Grace. In a short amount of time, I watched Grace's speech improve, which led to her excelling in school and making many new friends. I fell in love with the idea of helping people communicate, especially since my experience in the field hit so close to home. Though I love kids and have worked with them all my life, I am thinking I want to work with the geriatric population, traumatic brain injury speech rehabilitation, or possibly voice disorders.
Through the University Honors Program, I hope to gain learning and leadership experience that will benefit me for the rest of my life. I would also love to take the opportunity to travel through the program, exposing myself to some of the vast, differing cultures of the world. I plan to graduate from the University of Cincinnati in the Spring of 2017 with my bachelor's degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders. I then hope to attend graduate school at UC and earn my master's degree in Speech-Language Pathology.