Margaret ‘Gretta’ Richter, a second-year Doctor of Audiology student in the Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences, has received an appointment for T35 summer research training program at Boys Town National Research Hospital in Omaha, Nebraska. Richter will work alongside Monita Chatterjee, PhD, on a research project in the hospital’s Auditory Prostheses and Perception Laboratory.
“It is a huge honor to have the opportunity to learn from Dr. Chatterjee, and I cannot wait to start,” Richter said of the appointment.
Richter first became interested in audiology because of her own experiences with congenital hearing loss. “I grew up routinely seeing an audiologist and ear, nose, and throat physician,” she said. Richter decided to study audiology after pursuing the undergraduate minor offered by the Department of Allied Health Sciences to undergraduate students.
“Now that I am in graduate school, what motivates me in the field of audiology is improving patients’ quality of life by providing them with options that better their hearing and communication abilities,” Richter said. “Hearing loss can cause many difficulties for patients and place strains on their relationships and enjoyment out of life, so the opportunity to reduce this for them made me want to pursue audiology as my profession.”
The American Academy of Audiology also recently selected Richter’s research for its annual student research forum; five students are selected and receive an award from the American Academy of Audiology Foundation to attend.