UC sets CAHS student on the road to success

Even with the COVID-19 pandemic, Josephine Fernandez, DA ’24, has been able to see patients as a member of Team Mexico. 

An aspiring audiologist in the College of Allied Health Sciences, Josephine has assisted patients in Cancún, Mexico, via telehealth. “Every other week I see patients with my mentor, Dr. Brian Earl,” she says. “We check in with them in follow-up appointments, and we see new patients all the time.” 

The clinic represents an affiliation between UC and the Palace Foundation. Josephine hopes to travel to Cancún with Team Mexico, which includes students in Physical Therapy, Audiology and Medical-Laboratory Science, in January or May of 2022. In addition to providing care and expertise, the group will transport hearing aids donated by the Cincinnati community. “We refurbish them, clean them up, and then program them for patients,” Josephine says. 

"My UC scholarship has made the experience of attending graduate school much less stressful,” she says. “It allows me to focus all my time and energy into doing well in school rather than worrying about how to pay for it. Just having that opportunity is incredible. The hours that I might have spent working an extra job are dedicated to studying and learning my profession. I am more motivated than ever to maintain the GPA needed for the scholarship and to become the best audiologist I can be."

Her experiential learning has been wide-ranging. It has included off-campus clinic placement at the UC Gardner Neuroscience Institute and work in the FETCHLAB testing puppies’ hearing. 

Josephine earned her undergraduate degree in Pennsylvania but says, “UC has always been in my path.” During the summer of her junior year in college, she began laboratory work with Earl, an associate professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders. “He gave me an a-la-carte summer, where he got me involved in as many things as possible,” she says. That included spending a day watching Ravi Samy, MD, Professor of Otolaryngology & Neurosurgery and Chief of the Division of Otology/Neurotology, in the operating room.

Josephine hopes eventually to travel and serve diverse populations. “Working with Team Mexico has already given me a little glimpse of that,” she says. “Serving populations abroad — maybe even staying in places for months at a time — would be my dream. I would like to work with a nonprofit or volunteer organization like the Palace Foundation.” 

She wishes to thank all the donors whose generosity made her scholarship possible. “It has presented me with the chance to start my career and professional life without the burden of financial debt,” she says. “Very few students have that opportunity. I thank donors from the bottom of my heart. It’s truly a gift that I can never pay back, other than being the best audiologist that I can be.”

If you would like to support Josephine and other students like her, please visit the College of Allied Health Science's giving website.