For the past one week, students and teachers from Purdue University in the US were on a journey of discovery.
They were with students and teachers at the National Institute of Speech and Hearing (NISH) in the capital, learning about the speech and hearing clinical services in India even as they savoured in the greenery of the Kerala countryside and the life in the most literate Indian State.
“We were very excited about interacting and making friends with the students from the USA,” said Swetha Preman, NISH student.
Sharing the same sentiments, Juhy Paily from the Purdue University, West Lafayette, said, “It was a very good learning experience for both of us, and it should be a great start for the coming years.”
Programme’s purpose
The week-long event, jointly organised by Purdue University and NISH, started on July 2 and concluded on July 7, enabling the students from the US to learn about speech and hearing clinical services in India.
“The purpose of the programme is for the US students to learn about and experience speech and hearing clinical services in India and be immersed in the Indian culture,” said Dr. Lata Krishnan, clinical professor from Purdue University.
The team from Purdue consisted of two professors and nine students, of whom seven are undergraduates and two postgraduates.
Each student from the US was paired with one NISH intern as her ‘buddy’ (friend).
The buddies had started e-mail communication in March 2018 to know each other before the meetings. Throughout last week, the student buddies interacted with one another at NISH for professional activities and in the evenings on social outings.
“It was interesting to see the similarities and differences of how we test children,” said Madeline Kaiser, Purdue student, after a morning of observations in the Audiology Clinic.
“It has been really fun to interact with students who are the same age as us and studying the same things,” observed Meridith Klinker, while Janelle Dean added, “I wish we could come back”.
Positive feel
NISH students were equally positive, saying it had been an exciting experience. The week-long programme concluded with an outreach camp on Saturday, which took the students to a one-day camp at Pullampara, near Venjaramood, where 41 persons underwent hearing screening at the camp that was organised with the support of the Integrated Child Development Service (ICDS), Department of Women and Child Welfare.
Awareness
“Camps are conducted to raise awareness of local people regarding hearing disorders and the importance of early identification of speech and hearing issues. These camps are useful for both the students and the community,” said Saumya Sundaram, clinical coordinator, NISH.
“Let this be a pioneering study-abroad programme for all those programmes that are yet to come. We hope our students would get an opportunity to study abroad and for the foreign students to study with us,” NISH executive director K.G. Satheesh Kumar said.
