{"id":4441,"date":"2020-04-09T11:57:59","date_gmt":"2020-04-09T15:57:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/sphs\/?p=4441"},"modified":"2020-04-09T11:58:43","modified_gmt":"2020-04-09T15:58:43","slug":"first-year-doctor-of-audiology-student-alexis-nye-advocates-for-herself-and-future-clients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/sphs\/2020\/04\/first-year-doctor-of-audiology-student-alexis-nye-advocates-for-herself-and-future-clients\/","title":{"rendered":"First-Year Doctor of Audiology Student Alexis Nye Advocates for Herself and Future Clients"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\">\n<!-- iframe plugin v.5.2 wordpress.org\/plugins\/iframe\/ -->\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZcIDck4Mo1Y?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" 0=\"allowfullscreen&gt;&lt;\/iframe\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\"><\/iframe>\n\n<p>Alexis Nye \u201819 is a first-year doctor of audiology student who was born profoundly deaf in both ears; now, she\u2019s part of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/sphs\/\">Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences<\/a> pursuing a career in audiology. At age two, she received her first cochlear implant and began her journey in the field of audiology. A cochlear implant is designed to bypass damaged parts of the ear in order to directly stimulate the auditory nerve.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4442\" class=\"thumbnail wp-caption alignright\" style=\"width: 310px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4442\" src=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/sphs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/600\/2020\/04\/Nye_headshot-300x170.png\" alt=\"Alexis Nye, a first-year Doctor of Audiology student.\" width=\"300\" height=\"170\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/sphs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/600\/2020\/04\/Nye_headshot-300x170.png 300w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/sphs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/600\/2020\/04\/Nye_headshot-1024x579.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/sphs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/600\/2020\/04\/Nye_headshot-768x434.png 768w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/sphs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/600\/2020\/04\/Nye_headshot-1536x868.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/sphs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/600\/2020\/04\/Nye_headshot-600x339.png 600w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/sphs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/600\/2020\/04\/Nye_headshot.png 1988w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption class=\"caption wp-caption-text\">Alexis Nye, a first-year Doctor of Audiology student.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cAudiology has been fundamental to giving me access to communication and spoken language,\u201d Nye said.<\/p>\n<p>Nye said that working as a teenager at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bearlakecamp.org\/\">Lions Bear Lake Camp<\/a>, for children who are deaf or hard of hearing, solidified her interest in pursuing audiology as a career. Around the same time, Nye received a second cochlear implant. At first, she struggled to differentiate sounds and words from bells and whistles. It took several months before\u00a0she began to comprehend the noises and adjusted well to hearing on both sides for the first time.<\/p>\n<p>While growing up, Nye said her parents made her feel like she was no different from other children who were born able to hear. \u201cMy parents made me feel like there\u2019s nothing I couldn\u2019t do. I think that\u2019s where a lot of my confidence comes from,\u201d Nye said.<\/p>\n<p>Nye said her parents were her biggest advocates and never dismissed her goals. She credits her parents for her confidence and ability to stand up for herself. \u201cGrowing up I never had to do anything different,\u201d she said. She completed her bachelor\u2019s degree in psychology at UNC-Chapel Hill in 2019 before joining the four-year audiology program offered by the Department of Allied Health Sciences.<\/p>\n<p>Nye said faculty have worked with her to ensure that she has access to the same educational experience as her peers. In a field that focuses on hearing and improving quality of life for clients, she has already worked with practicing clinicians in the field who have mentored her to allow for her success in the program.<\/p>\n<p>Those same mentors and clinicians have continued to support Nye as online learning efforts began in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. For instruction, Nye relies on captioning systems. A lack of other cues\u2014such as body language, facial expressions, and gestures\u2014has made the transition more difficult. However, Nye has continued to adapt to new learning environments and technologies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFaculty have been very helpful in making sure that I have access to what I need,\u201d Nye said.<\/p>\n<p>She hopes to be an encouraging voice in her work with future clients, and their parents, who might feel disheartened about their child\u2019s hearing diagnosis.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI look forward to being an audiologist who can also be a role model for children with cochlear implants,\u201d Nye said.<\/p>\n<p>Nye said she hopes to continue advocacy work during her remaining years in the doctoral program.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDeafness can, at times, be challenging. Education and advocacy are the keys.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>The division is one of seven housed in the <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/\"><em>Department of Allied Health Sciences<\/em><\/a><em> in the <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/\"><em>UNC School of Medicine<\/em><\/a><em>. Ranked #5 by <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.usnews.com\/best-graduate-schools\/top-health-schools\/university-of-north-carolina-at-chapel-hill-199120\"><em>U.S. News and World Report<\/em><\/a><em>, the audiology program is among the best in the country.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>-Lizzy Laufters, public relations and communications intern<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alexis Nye \u201819 is a first-year doctor of audiology student who was born profoundly deaf in both ears; now, she\u2019s part of the Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences pursuing a career in audiology. At age two, she received her first cochlear implant and began her journey in the field of audiology. A cochlear implant &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/sphs\/2020\/04\/first-year-doctor-of-audiology-student-alexis-nye-advocates-for-herself-and-future-clients\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about First-Year Doctor of Audiology Student Alexis Nye Advocates for Herself and Future Clients\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55977,"featured_media":4442,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"layout":"","cellInformation":"","apiCallInformation":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","odd"],"acf":[],"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/sphs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/600\/2020\/04\/Nye_headshot.png","featured_image_medium":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/sphs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/600\/2020\/04\/Nye_headshot-300x170.png","featured_image_medium_large":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/sphs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/600\/2020\/04\/Nye_headshot-768x434.png","featured_image_large":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/sphs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/600\/2020\/04\/Nye_headshot-1024x579.png","featured_image_thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/sphs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/600\/2020\/04\/Nye_headshot-150x150.png","featured_image_alt":"Alexis Nye, a first-year Doctor of Audiology student.","category_details":[{"name":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/sphs\/category\/news\/"}],"tag_details":[],"_links_to":[],"_links_to_target":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/sphs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/sphs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/sphs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/sphs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55977"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/sphs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/sphs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/sphs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/sphs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/sphs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/sphs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}