Galloway, N.J. – “The most beautiful things in life are not things. They are people, places, memories and pictures. They are feelings and moments, smiles and laughter.”

Melody Mercado, a junior in the Pre-Communication Disorders minor program, and her classmates in “Speech & Hearing Science” shared messages like the one above to their family and friends for their final project on Thursday, Dec. 12. The students utilized the speech science tools and technology they learned from Amee Shah, professor of Health Science and director of the Cross-Cultural Speech, Language and Acoustics Lab.

Shah, whose research in linguistics and speech spans decades, said her goal for the course and the final project is for students to develop technical/digital and emotional literacy.

“I wanted them to really understand different technology aspects, such as being comfortable creating high-fidelity recordings and creating waveforms through moving between different apps,” Shah said, mentioning that modern speech technology has allowed students to have clinical labs on their phones and computers.

“I also want them to recognize that emotions are a big part of our profession, even though it can feel disconnected from the science of it, so, with this project, I wanted them to connect the two,” Shah continued. “This demonstrates the power of communication and the difference it can make in a client’s life, and once they see that at an undergraduate level, they will be a lot more serious about their work and committed to this field.” 

In groups, the students followed the same process in creating their final projects. They recorded their messages that were transformed into waveforms or soundwaves, created QR codes for their messages and found creative ways to display them.

Some students, like Mercado, sent their favorite quotes, songs and sayings to their families, friends and loved ones. Mercado’s message recipient, her mother, can access Mercado’s voice at any time through the QR code she framed.

“I felt that the quote really reflected my family values and how my family and I, through rough times, always find ways to make each other laugh and prioritize those special moments that we have together as a family,” the Vineland resident said.

Others involved their families in the project, with one student using an old voicemail of a loved one who had since passed away as their message to their grandmother and another translating a poem her cousin wrote for his father currently fighting in the Russia-Ukraine war.

Rabecca Meregildo, of South Plainfield, surprised her sister with a framed baby photo of her and a written (and audio) message stating: “There is a past version of you that is so proud of how far you’ve come.”

Meregildo said her sister went through some personal challenges and that their relationship “isn’t very emotional,” so she wasn’t expecting the kind of reaction she would receive once the pair got on FaceTime together.

“I just wanted to remind her that if her past self could see all of the things and challenges she overcame and how much she has changed, she would be so proud of her, like I am,” Meregildo said. “I didn’t catch it on FaceTime, but she cried. She couldn’t believe I did something so special for her since we don’t do this very often.”

Other messages took the motivational route, like one student advocating for her peers to learn more about speech therapy through posters she created and another printing out QR codes for a friend to hand out to her elementary and middle school classes when she’s teaching.

A group of students decided to send holiday cheer to local patients battling lymphoma and other illnesses through greeting cards and care packages.

Students Dani Dacosta, Kiera Myatovich and Nicole Garcia were inspired by Garcia’s classmate in another class, whose sister was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma. After learning about the many challenges that a cancer diagnosis comes with, the group tried to craft messages that went beyond the standard “get well soon.”

“We wanted to remind them that they’re not just cancer patients, and it’s the same thing in our (future) profession – our patients won’t be just someone with a speech disorder or a stuttering issue, they are a person who needs support,” Garcia said.

“It made me really realize how much our voices can impact a person. It showed me how much small things, like hearing a voice rather than just reading it, matter,” Dacosta said. 

“I know a lot of people with family members dealing with cancer, and I know how hard it is on them, especially during the holiday season,” Myatovich said. “They’re almost isolated from society and can’t really enjoy the holiday season, so we wanted to try to give them a little joy.”

Shah looks forward to seeing more final projects like Lingering Voices in the upcoming spring and fall academic terms. She also anticipates submitting this project to the upcoming American Speech-Language and Hearing Association Convention.  

“The project demonstrates the power of emotions, clinical sensitivity and technology,” Shah said.

– Story and photos by Loukaia Taylor

---