Ithaca College Quarterly
The School of HS&HP has a long tradition of providing community-based outreach programs that link classroom theory with community needs. This report highlights some of our academic programs that unite theory in the classroom with innovative community outreach and service projects.
Twice a week at Oak Hill Manor, a long-term care facility, students provide diagnostic and therapeutic services. Students work with residents who have communication needs due to dementia, post-stroke language impairments, other neurogenic difficulties, or communication breakdown. Innovative work with music groups and augmentative communication systems has been incorporated into the program.
At the Ithaca Area Christian Center and Coddington Day Care Center,
students have provided diagnostic, preventive, and therapeutic services to preschool children, some of whom are English-as-a-second-language students and some of whom are atypical learners. Services have been provided twice a week in five different classrooms for the last six years. Faculty and students also provide a language enhancement program.
The ESL program sponsored by BOCES involves graduate students working at the Greater Ithaca Activities Center. Teaming with classroom staff, students assist clients with accent reduction and language intervention.
The Lansing and Dryden Head Starts are the focus of the department’s newest community outreach program, which integrates language, literacy, and phonological awareness into the curriculum. Last fall clinical assistant professor Chris Cecconi presented the model for this at the American Speech and Hearing Association’s annual convention in Seattle.
The department also provides hearing screenings at Challenge Industries and in schools in Lansing, Cortland, Homer, and Marathon. Clinical faculty and SLPA students have assisted clinicians at the Special Children’s Center with speech-language and hearing screenings on Head Start children in both Tompkins and Cortland Counties.
Students in the course Applied Health Care Management, taught by Stewart Auyash, Robert Riter, and Karen Edwards, conducted consulting projects with local community agencies. This year students worked as a consulting group with AIDS Work of Tompkins County, Hospicare, Kendal at Ithaca, and the Tompkins County Health Department. In addition, students enrolled in Fieldwork in Gerontology were placed in local agencies serving the elderly.
This department has also been involved in innovative community outreach projects. One of the longest-standing activities has been a project in Sarah Rich’s Introduction to Special Populations. Students in this class work in an aquatic program with preschool children from the Special Children’s Center. Most of these children have disabilities.
The Introduction to Adapted Physical Education class provides students the opportunity to work with disabled students at BOCES.
Assistant professor Mary Bentley has developed and implemented a creative community-based project that is designed to offer a cultural and informational exchange between residents of the MacCormick Center and students at Ithaca College. Students and residents meet one-on-one each week for the entire semester.
Community-based practice is nothing new to the PT department. This year juniors Denis McCarren and Erica Hananel gave a presentation entitled "Fit Kids" to second-grade classes at the McLean Elementary School. Coordinated through the College’s Partnership in Teaching program, the presentation gave information about exercise, back care, and wellness in a fun and interactive way.
In February associate professor Debbie Nawoczenski was a member of a medical team that traveled to Jamaica to teach and assist with health care in a poor rural parish. The project was sponsored by Medical Ministries International. This was Nawoczenski’s second visit to Jamaica; this year she presented two two-day workshops on mobility training for 28 health care aides.
The Community Based Resource Mapping Project for Children with Physical Disabilities is a collaborative project with Ithaca College, the Greater Rochester Schools Are for Everyone organization, and the Strong Center for Developmental Disabilities. Under the direction of assistant professor Angela Easley, PT students assist in the development of a computer database of health professionals, families, community providers, community advocates, and special educators. The database is then used to cross-reference and match services for children and their families.
Assistant professor Steve Mosher conducts an annual spring clinic, "Coaching Youth Baseball --- Developmental and Philosophic Issues for the Ithaca Youth Bureau’s Kiwanis Baseball Group." This program introduces new coaches to the responsibilities of teaching good sportsmanship, balancing fun with winning, teaching skills effectively, and maintaining a good attitude.
Ann Tronolone ’96 was recognized as the "outstanding undergraduate student in New York State" at the annual meeting of the New York State Federation of Professional Health Educators.
Physical therapy major Teresa Lemery received a Phi Kappa Phi graduate fellowship for 1997--98. The $7,000 fellowship supports students in their first year of graduate study and is awarded by the board of directors of Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society. Only 50 fellowships are awarded annually, and Teresa is the first HS&HP student to be recognized as a graduate fellow.
In February two physical therapy graduate students, Jennifer Cuozzo and Kristen Ryan, presented their research paper "The Effectiveness of BAPS Board Training on Individuals with Chronic Ankle Sprains" at the Combined Sections Meeting of the APTA, held in Dallas.
Assistant professor of health services administration Robert Riter published an article, "The Future of Nursing Homes: Facing the Contradiction," in the Journal of Long-Term Care Administration, fall/winter 1996.
Gary English, associate professor of health promotion and human movement, published "The Future of Health Education: The Knowledge to Practice Paradox" in the January/February 1997 issue of the Journal of Health Education.
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