From 1997 through 2002, the Louis and Harold Price Foundation provided substantial funding to the Child Learning Center (CLC) program in the Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences (SLHS) at the University of Colorado Boulder. In 1999, the Price Foundation charged the CLC faculty with developing strategies to extend their unique program models to a broader constituency. Because the graduates of our program are the best ambassadors of our work, we proposed the Alumni Initiatives as a mechanism to do this outreach.
In 2000, the Louis and Harold Price Foundation funded the five-year Price Initiatives to support extensive and innovative outreach to SLHS alumni. An important goal of the Initiatives is to help our alumni continue to expand their knowledge and offer excellence in the field of speech-language pathology. Because the Initiatives grew out of the CLC program, initial efforts have been focused on our graduates who are in early intervention settings. We are now hoping to expand this to include the goals and focus areas of more of our graduates.
| Janine Randol, Patti Sorkow, and Denise Bryant. |
Since the Price Initiatives were established, there have been three annual Alumni Institutes whose pre-conferences have been open to professionals focusing on early childhood, educators, speech-language pathologists, parents, and other interested members of the community. The Price Alumni Institute is an annual forum where SLHS graduates can come together with faculty and colleagues to share their knowledge, learn new and exciting practices from experts in the field, and provide feedback to the faculty of the department about the graduate program. The Institute provides alums with the opportunity to exchange ideas, reflect upon their practices, discuss new strategies, and set professional goals with colleagues from around the country. It is a time to meet up with old friends, gain the latest information in the field, and establish collaborations and supports at the University and beyond. While the initial Institutes focused on early childhood practices, we hope to expand the topics to include other specialty areas as well over the next few years.
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| Barry Prizant and Jeff Steffen confer at the "Autism Spectrum Disorders: The SCERTS Model" seminar. |
In its inaugural year, 2001, the Institute was piloted with twelve alumni who returned to the CU campus, met with faculty, and conceptualized the model for the Institute. Their ideas that guided subsequent programs. While they were here to work, they also learned about literacy development from Donna Boudreau, graduate of the SLHS Ph.D. program; Storybook Journey from Sue McCord; and Play-Based Assessment from CLC team members. In 2002 the Institute kicked off with a continuing education class on Family-Directed Practices with Susan Moore and Linda Roan-Yager. Other featured workshops included Theory of Mind with Dr. Brenda Schick, Cultural Contexts with Cynthia Gray-Mash, and an array of workshops by alumni.
The 2003 Price Alumni Institute highlighted Dr. Barry Prizant, who kicked off the four-day institute with a two-day seminar entitled “Autism Spectrum Disorders: The SCERTS Model.” Dr. Prizant spent an additional, intimate half-day with CU alums and faculty in a conversation about ASD, with video analysis of a young CLC student and interaction with the child's mother. Other highlights of the Institute were "Pediatric Feeding and Swallowing for the SLP," by Angela Haas, of the Children's Hospital of Denver; "Exploration in Culturally Competent Practices: Linking with Families," with Janet Beatty and Clara Pérez-Méndez, a self-reflective half-day workshop on working with families from diverse backgrounds; "Storybook Journey," an inspiring look at the literacy journey with young children by Sue McCord; and "Alumni Exchange," a time for alums to exchange ideas and share experiences related to what is working best for them in their current practices.
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