Courtney (Segool) Wambach graduated from Geneva College in 2021 with a bachelor’s degree in communication disorders. From there, she continued her education at Towson University recently graduating with a master’s degree in speech language pathology in May of 2023.
Transitioning from a small Christian school to a large secular university for graduate school is no easy feat. However, Courtney says she felt well-prepared to enter graduate school from the education she received at Geneva College. Within her major, her communication disorder classes gave her the foundation she needed to continue her education.
“The communication disorders program prepared me well but so did all my other classes. The core classes were hard, but they prepared me for the work that I would encounter in graduate school.”
Geneva College also gave Courtney the Christ-centered education she needed to confidently enter a secular education system. In every course that Geneva offers, whether it is a Bible course or not, there is an element of faith integration. There was always an explanation of why the course material was important and how it can be used to further the Kingdom of God.
“My Christian education from Geneva helped equip me to keep my Christian worldview within a state school.”
Before Courtney could graduate with her master’s degree, she had to present on her thesis project and defend her research. Her project, entitled “SLPs Perspectives on the Diagnosis of Aphasia in Children,” started long before her graduate school journey during her Academic Partners project at Geneva College.
The Academic Partners Program connects students with faculty mentors to enable them to complete a significant academic or fine arts project. Students in the program receive one-on-one mentoring and a one-semester stipend to complete a project that they present to the campus during “Work of Our Hands Week.”
Courtney discovered her interest in working with kids and neurological disorders. Using these two interests, she worked alongside Susan Layton, Professor of Communication, to begin researching aphasia in children.
“Academic Partners was a really good introduction into research. I had never done any research prior to Academic Partners. It was a really good beginning step.”
Courtney was able to look at aphasia, the loss of ability to understand or express speech, caused by brain damage, in children. This disorder is commonly found in adults after suffering a stroke which is why Courtney quickly found out that there was not much research at all about aphasia in children. There was literature written in the past, but no present research was currently being done.
“There is no research, but kids are still suffering brain injuries leading to aphasia so how are speech language pathologists diagnosing it?”
As Courtney entered graduate school, she continued to ask this question and conduct her own research. She created and administered a survey about aphasia’s diagnostic process in children to various speech language pathology professionals.
When the results came back, she found, unsurprisingly, that were was no standardization within the diagnostic process. Every professional had their own procedure for testing for aphasia in children, diagnosing it, and treating it. There is much research and work that needs to be done to give children who are suffering from aphasia the care they need.
Since recently graduating with a master’s degree in Speech Language Pathology, Courtney will be completing her clinical fellowship year at Kennedy Krieger Institute. She later wants to pursue her PhD to ultimately become a professor in a speech pathology program.
Learn more about Geneva College’s communication disorders program.
-Lexi Meese '21, MBA '22
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