Christine Estes
Speech-Language Pathology

Hofstra student Christine Estes, 32, of Woodside, Queens, is a recipient of a prestigious American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) scholarship. Ms. Estes is a second-year graduate student in Hofstra’s masters program in speech-language pathology. The ASHA scholarship honors full-time masters or doctoral students in communication sciences and disorders programs who demonstrate outstanding academic achievement. Estes was one of only 11 students from around the country to receive the prestigious award, which was announced at the annual ASHA Conference held in New Orleans, LA.

Estes, originally from Wappingers Falls, NY, expects to graduate from Hofstra in the summer 2010. She completed a B.A. of Music in Vocal Performance at the Crane School of Music in Potsdam, NY, and a Master of Music in Opera Performance at McGill University in Montreal. Between auditions and performance jobs, she was introduced to the field of communication disorders while working at Saint Francis Hospital in Poughkeepsie, NY. After taking some courses in the subject at State University of NY at New Paltz, she felt confident that speech pathology was a good fit for her interests and skills.

Upon graduating from Hofstra, Estes will pursue a clinical fellowship. She has had some experience working with aphasia patients at Hofstra’s Joan and Arnold Saltzman Community Services Center and with children at an externship at the Children's Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center, affiliated with Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx.

Estes, who attended the ASHA conference where her award was announced, said she likes the balance of academic instruction and research experience Hofstra’s Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences offers. “There is more intensive clinical experience than a lot of the other schools I looked at offered, and we receive a lot of support from the professors and clinic supervisors,” she said. “If you show extra effort or desire to go beyond just what is expected in the classroom, extra opportunities might be made available to you. The professors are all experts in their respective fields who have a lot of clinical experience. So between the professors and the clinic supervisors, we have access to a great amount of information, guidance, and resources.”

For more information on Hofstra’s graduate studies in Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, click here or call (516) 463-5508.