ASHFoundation Scholarship Winner is Calvin Alumna and "Knight for Life"

Calvin Speech Pathology Alumna An Dinh has received the prestigious Graduate Student Scholarship for International Students from the ASHFoundation.

When Calvin College Speech Program Alumna An Dinh packed her bags to join the PhD program at Ohio University, she figured all colleges were like Calvin. "I took for granted the Christ-centered, caring faculty-student relationships and nice facilities at Calvin."

Because of those relationships and the supportive environment she experienced at Calvin, An reached out to Calvin College Speech Pathology Professor Judy VanderWoude to ask her to be a referral in her scholarship application from the ASHFoundation: "An was the ideal speech-language pathology student. She combined her love of learning and research with a real desire to serve others." Due to those qualities and her favorable recommendations, An won the International Student Scholarship, which recognizes full-time international/minority graduate students studying communication sciences and disorders in the United States.

An Dinh receives her scholarship at the 2016 ASHA Conference in Philadelphia in November

Born and raised in Vietnam, An Dinh came to the US as an exchange student in 2006 and stayed to continue her academic career. She graduated from Calvin in 2011 with a BA in Speech-Language Pathology, and was part of the first class to graduate from Calvin's masters degree program with a MA in Speech-Language Pathology in 2013. An's interest in research and higher learning led her to enter the PhD program at Ohio University in the fall of 2013, with a focus on aphasia. Her research area has been on eyetracking and pupillometry in language processing in adults. When speaking of An's potential impact and her future in the Speech-Language-Pathology field, Calvin Speech Clinic Director Jill Bates was clear: "She will be a force that makes a difference in Vietnam."

An has published and presented her research in different platforms at local and national conferences. An article she recently co-authored titled "Consent, Refusal, and Waivers in Patient-Centered Dysphagia Care: Using Law, Ethics, and Evidence to Guide Clinical Practice" can be found in the American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. This year, An will teach an introductory course in Communication Sciences and Disorders.

Looking back at her time at Calvin, An remembers fondly the warm, supportive relationships with professors and students alike: "Even though I have been surrounded by Bobcats [mascot of Ohio University] more than three years, I am a Knight for Life."

Congratulations, An!