ILAA Announces Scholarship Winners

The ILAA Scholarship and Honors Committees and the ILAA Board of Directors are pleased to announce the 2008-2009 winners of the annual Doctoral Scholarship Awards for selected outstanding students in an Illinois Au.D. or Ph.D. program. This is the sixth consecutive year that ILAA has offered scholarships with funds raised through the generous contributors and purchasers at the annual auction and raffle. Each recipient demonstrated outstanding academic and clinical abilities, as well as numerous personal accomplishments and activities. The recipients are Jaqueline Busen and McLorn Carpenter from Rush University, and Jessica Levine from Northwestern University.

Ms. Busen graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she received her Bachelor of Science in Speech and Hearing Science in 2006 prior to entering the Rush University Au.D. program. While at U of I, she actively researched the effects of cell phones and bystander productivity, as well as wrote an independent research paper on Meniere's Disease. Since starting her studies at Rush, Ms. Busen has worked and volunteered in a number of leadership roles.



Ms. Carpenter obtained her Bachelor of Science in Speech and Hearing Sciences, Audiology and a minor in Psychology from Indiana University, where she maintained a successful academic career founded on research and volunteer experiences. Since starting her graduate studies in the Rush University Au.D. program, she has continued her dedication to these principles through a university-granted research assistantship and has an extensive vita of extra-curricular and co-curricular volunteer and work experiences including serving as the Lead Student ILAA Board member.



The Clinical Research Award recipient is Ms. Jessica Levine. Ms. Levine is a 2006 graduate of Tufts University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biopsychology and Biomedical Engineering. Having been profoundly deaf since birth, her interest in finding ways to contribute to hearing research and its application to clinical practice has led her to pursue a career as an audiologist and researcher. Prior to entering the Au.D. program at Northwestern University, Ms. Levine participated in several studies as a Research Aide Intern and co-authored an article in Neuroscience titled Dendrites of Medial Olivocochlear (MOC) Neurons. At Northwestern University, Ms. Levine currently is working on a study of eletrophysiological measures of the auditory brainstem for subjects listening to Vocoded speech and musical sounds

ILAA is proud of these distinguished Illinois scholars and offers its congratulations to the three scholarship recipients.