Meet Rebecca Peñaranda and Ryan Shea!
Rebecca and Ryan are paired Fellows who are continuing the Hearing Education and Resources for Underserved Populations project (HEAR-UP), started by Rachel Fryatt, a 2016-2017 Fellow. HEAR-UP is a service that adequately reaches individuals who cannot typically access or afford hearing health care, including testing, hearing aids, and follow up treatment. Rebecca and Ryan were excited to continue the project after meeting and talking to Kara Magliocca and Courtney Wallace, 2017-2018 Fellows, who took over HEAR-UP and expanded services.
Rebecca and Ryan’s interest and eventually passion for audiology, however, stemmed from interactions with family members.
Ryan’s grandma, who has hearing aids, invited him to shadow her audiologist, so his first encounter with audiology came before he ever took his first course. After this experience and reflecting on a sixth-grade research project that he had done on audiology, Ryan felt that everything was coming full circle and was convinced that audiology was the right path.
Rebecca learned about audiology from her aunts that have hearing aids, and her studies grew her passion for helping others and restoring people’s ability to communicate with and hear their family members.
Ryan and Rebecca’s undergraduate studies were both focused in Communication Sciences and Disorders, at the University of Pittsburgh (Ryan) and West Chester University (Rebecca). Rebecca also received a minor in Deaf Studies, focusing on deaf culture and American Sign Language. Currently, they are third year graduate students in the Audiology program at the University of Pittsburgh School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences.
While classwork and HEAR-UP keep them busy, both Rebecca and Ryan enjoy exploring the city of Pittsburgh in their free time. “I love to ride the incline up to Mount Washington and see the city on either end,” Ryan said. “Even on a miserable day, it’s still a pretty cool view.”
Rebecca loves to find new restaurants in Shadyside and Lawrenceville, especially because these two neighborhoods remind her of West Chester Town, where she lived while attending West Chester University.
Despite not meeting until they joined the same cohort at Pitt, Rebecca and Ryan grew up 20 minutes from each other in Bucks County, PA. This commonality sparked a friendship between the two in which they found a shared passion for both service and leadership, making them a perfect fit for the Pittsburgh Schweitzer Fellows Program!
You can help Rebecca and Ryan with the HEAR-UP program by making a donation! To make a donation, click on the button below. Thank you for your support!
