December 2002: Vol. 82, No. 1December 2002: Vol. 82, No. 1 |
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Fifteen years ago, Mark Babcock's first words were plagued with a stutter. Since then, he's tried every type of therapy with no results other than a loss of money and time.
"I'd get made fun of, laughed at; it's horrible," says Babcock, a freshman from Marietta. "In lots of cases, people who talked to me would think I'm (retarded)."
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 Babcock, who scored a 1560 on the SAT, ended a 15-year bout with stuttering with the choral speech device. |
Now, thanks to new technology invented at East Carolina University, Babcock will be able to speak without the speech impediment for the first time in his life.
It all started in early September when Babcock saw an ABC show about a speech-correcting device. He contacted ECU the next day, and they invited him to come try it out.
Babcock says the only time he is able to talk without stuttering is when he reads something out loud with someone else. "This device operates on a phenomenon called choral speech," he says, "and it creates the same effect of me talking with someone by reproducing my voice in real-time in my ear."
The device is similar to a hearing aid and costs $4,000.
The initial test was a success, and about three weeks later, Babcock received a call from ABC in search of a follow-up story—they wanted to do a show on him. "They followed me around campus," says Babcock. "A camera man and mic man trailed me in Snelling dining hall and in my French class. The next time they shadow me, at my girlfriend's formal, I will have the machine in my ear and should be talking fine."
Babcock says his family is thrilled because they have hoped for this moment since he stumbled over his first words as a three-year-old.
"Over the years, sometimes my stuttering has been horrible, and sometimes it's not so bad," he says. "It's not something that comes and goes; its severity just fluctuates month by month."
"You'd always have to ask him twice about stuff," says freshman Evan Pellegrino, Babcock's roommate, "and he'd always have a hard time on the phone. I'm real happy for him that he's found this new device."
"If all goes well," says Babcock, "this (device) will change my life."
Food, glorious food!
Food Services continues to win national acclaim, this time finishing third behind Princeton and Cal Tech in "Best Food Court" competition sponsored by the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.
College of Ed doctoral student named Bamford-Lahey Scholar
$10K a year to study language disorders
Lisa Hammett, a doctoral student in communication sciences and disorders in UGA's College of Education, was one of only four students recently chosen from around the world as Bamford-Lahey Scholars for 2002.
The honor includes scholarship funding of up to $10,000 a year to doctoral students who intend to specialize in children's language disorders. Funding for the scholarship comes from the Los Angeles-based Bamford-Lahey Children's Foundation, which supports programs enhancing the linguistic, cognitive, social, and emotional development of children.
Hammett is currently pursuing research with professor and department head Anne van Kleeck on abstract language development and intervention for children with language disorders and the role of parent-preschooler book-sharing in early literacy development.
She is exploring multivariate and sequential statistical analyses that are infrequently applied to this research in order to investigate unanswered questions. Hammett's research interests have also been influenced by the study of language disorders within the context of dynamical systems theory and neurobiological evidence for the role of early experience in shaping the structure and function of the brain.
She earned her undergraduate and master's degrees in speech-language pathology from James Madison University in Virginia. She spent nine years in clinical practice in public and international schools. Her experiences collaborating with teachers in classrooms to meet the varied needs of young children provided the opportunity to develop specialty knowledge in the areas of phonological awareness, early literacy development, and intervention for children with language and literacy disorders.
Career services, academic facilities among best, says "Insider's Guide"
UGA makes the grade with Kaplan's
The 2003 edition of Kaplan's "The Unofficial, (Un)biased Insider's Guide to the 320 Most Interesting Colleges" rated UGA's career services and academic facilities among the best in the nation.
"The Kaplan list reaffirms that UGA not only provides a world-class education in top-notch facilities, but is successful in helping students reach their goals," says Scott Williams, executive director of the UGA Career Center.
Rankings for both programs were based on a survey of high school guidance counselors from both public and private schools.
The University also fared well in Kiplinger's "100 Best Public Colleges Values," moving from No. 15 to No. 6; and in U.S. News & World Report's "Great Schools at Great Prices," which ranked UGA No. 4 in the nation. The rest of the U.S. News top five included Virginia (1), UT-Austin (2), UNC-Chapel Hill (3), and UC-Berkeley (5).
Student radio station turns 30
WUOG birthday
WUOG, 90.5FM, UGA's all-student, all volunteer radio station celebrated its 30th anniversary from Sept. 30-Oct. 6. Throughout the week, the radio station aired old cuts from the early days, including rare recordings by local artists R.E.M and the B-52s. Alumni also had the opportunity to host their old on-air slots. Ending the week of activities was the release of the station's second "Live in The Lobby" compilation, which features live station recordings from the weekly series.
WUOG's first broadcast was at 2 p.m. on Oct. 16, 1972, with 3,000 watts and a top-40 format. Currently, the station broadcasts at 26,000 watts as an "alternative" media outlet, renowned for featuring artists and programming that do not currently receive commercial support. In addition to the open rotations slots, the station has nearly 40 specialty shows, which feature music and news of every genre and spectrum.
WUOG is one of the largest college radio stations in the country, presently nearing the top 10 range. WUOG is staffed, operated, and funded by UGA students. Every staff member is a student at the University and donates their time "for the music." WUOG currently staffs over 200 student volunteers.
WUOG boosted its power to 10,000 watts in 1977. With the exception of a period of time in 1981 (Feb. 18-April 6) when the station was shut down for non-compliance of FCC rules (at which time all 100 of the station employees were fired), WUOG has operated for 21 to 24 hours each day.
After another upgrade of power, the station signed on to its current 26,000 watts at 11 a.m. on Jan. 11, 1994.
Listeners are able to listen to WUOG anywhere in the world, by logging on the station's newly launched Web site, www.wuog.org, which features a 24-hour webcast.