After five years of planning and preparation, and adding on to one of its buildings, Augustana College is ready to offer its only graduate program. The new masters program in speech-language pathology has just earned accreditation by a national association, and is now accepting applications.
Doctor Kathy Jakielski, Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders, says there's a national shortage of people with this training.
"It's been deemed a chronic shortage and it's been estimated that it will extend through at least 2028. And with the aging of the population, we expect it to remain a field where we need a lot more speech language pathologists than we've been graduating nationwide."
Augustana has offered an undergraduate program in speech-language pathology for many years, usually with a total of about 30 students. And once it's up and running, the two-year graduate program will enroll about 20 students.
The first will begin their studies this summer and graduate in 2022. They'll be based in the college's Brodahl Building, now more than doubled in size thanks to a 3.8 million dollar addition.
