College of Nursing
BYU’s College of Nursing global health study abroad ended with an unexpected opportunity to aid Ukrainian refugees in Warsaw, Poland. They received an invitation to one of the country’s largest refugee centers, which housed over 3,000 women and children. Students provided assistance in all ways they could, whether that was offering translation services, playing with the children, finding clothes, assembling hygiene kits or administering medicine.
“I spent a few hours in the kindergarten,” said nursing senior Symbria Lewis. “As soon as I walked in the door, a 3-year-old little girl with round cherub cheeks and cute pigtail buns grabbed my index finger, sat me down on a couch, crawled on my lap and hugged me. These kids have been put in unbelievable circumstances, and they just needed love and to know that someone was there to listen to them.”
David O. McKay School of Education
BYU David O. McKay School of Education students Emily McDonald and Chloe Houghton won first place in the undergraduate research division of BYU’s Mentored Research Conference for their research around aphasia. According to Houghton, aphasia is an acquired language disorder typically caused by a stroke or traumatic brain injury.
People with mild aphasia may be overlooked by the field’s standardized assessments. McDonald explained their research was to “create a supplemental assessment that can capture the challenges that people with aphasia face that are not captured in these other assessments.” Ultimately, McDonald hopes that through the development of this supplemental assessment, “people with aphasia will be better equipped to participate in communication regardless of the setting they are in.”
