Cruz Reyes, a second year Doctorate of Audiology student in the Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders, was selected as a recipient of a Trailblazers Scholarship Award to pursue graduate research with her mentor, assistant professor Dr. Michelle Arnold. This scholarship is designed to support graduate student research on the USF Sarasota-Manatee Campus and provides $25,000 for the 2021-22 academic year.
Ms. Reyes plans to conduct a community-based participatory study in which she will work with members of the Tampa, Manatee, and Sarasota-area Hispanic/Latinx community to learn about the patient education needs of Spanish-speaking families who have children with hearing loss. The overarching goal of her research will be to develop appropriate hearing loss education tools to support families who prefer to speak or read in Spanish.