Katie Bodner

Research Topic: Written Language and the School-based speech language pathologist: a national survey

“Without Pillars I would not have been able to attend ASHA (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association). At ASHA, I was able to attend numerous educational presentations. I also had the opportunity to meet several of the researchers that I interviewed for my project. Attending ASHA was an incredible experience. I am very grateful for the Pillars Grant.”

Megan Smith

Research Topic: SPELL: An Innovative Approach to a Graduate Clinical Literacy Experience and Written Language and the Schooll-based Speech-Language Pathologist: A National Survey

“I greatly appreciate the financial assistance that the Pillars Program provided me on this academic endeavor. Presenting at a national conference as a master’s student is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and the Pillar’s program helped to fund my experience.

Equipment, materials for research

Emily Rusnak

Research Topic: The Role of Sleep in Language and Motor Learning in Children

“By funding the purchase of experimental research equipment, the Pillars program is helping support one of my pre-dissertation projects which I am completing with my advisor, Dr. Tim Brackenbury and Dr. Mary Hare of psychology. This project is affording me the opportunity to develop my skills as a research scientist, which is a necessary component for pursuit of a post-doctoral career in the field of communication disorders.”

Scott Palasik

Research Topic: Occupational Experiences of People Who Stutter

“Thank you again Pillars! You made my first research project enjoyable, smooth AND possible. This is an ongoing research project that I’m conducting with Dr. Rod Gabel in the Communications Disorder Department here at BGSU. A pilot study was conducted with 27 adult participants who stutter which indicated issues of role entrapment. Since attaining the Pillars grant to continue this project, I have a sample size of 85 participants. Some of the preliminary results from the data gathered indicate that people who stutter have some negative perceptions of occupational experiences. People who stutter felt that their stuttering impacted their job experiences negatively with respects to choosing a job and feeling that stuttering limits promotional opportunities, types of jobs chosen and job responsibilities.”

Farzan Irani 

Research Topic: Role Entrapment of People Who Stutter (reported by K-12 school teachers)

“The Pillars Grant helped fund my master’s program thesis. It was instrumental in the timely completion of this study and I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Pillars Foundation.  Due to a low initial response rate, extra survey packets had to be mailed out to increase reliability. Thanks to the funding provided by Pillars, I was able to mail out the requisite number of surveys and thereby complete my study/thesis in a timely fashion. “