From Clarion to an Indian reservation in New Mexico to a Ph.D. degree, Dr. Cindy (Hogan) Hargenrader '81 has found success.
Cindy, who graduated from Clarion with a bachelor of science degree in speech pathology and audiology, is currently an instructor and an audiologist at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, NY, an affiliate of the University of Rochester.
She is working with ear, nose, and throat residents and teaches audiology through a standard educational rotation schedule. "We only teach for eight short weeks," she says. "That is not a lot of time to teach audiology. I basically teach several speech problems throughout the course time and they [the students] accompany me on hospital duties."
The path to Rochester started in Clarion's job placement center, where Cindy found leads to immediate employment as a speech pathologist for a Navajo Indian Reservation in Shiprock, New Mexico. The pathologists were expected to work in a K-12 high school, where the students didn't use English as the primary language, and Cindy was among several State System of Higher Education graduates hired.
"It was a great learning experience," she says. "We helped with various speech problems, which was hard at times, but very rewarding."
Eventually, Cindy decided to continue her education and was accepted into the masters' program at Penn State graduating in 1984 with a masters degree in audiology. She worked for a colleague in a private audiology practice in Rochester, NY, for four years, gained valuable experience, but felt she never had enough liberty to do her own research.
Prompted by this need she decided to return to school and was accepted at Syracuse University. She worked in various audiology jobs, took classes, and did research, earning her doctoral degree after eight years. During this time period she also met her husband, Clarion native Edward Hargenrader, and celebrated the birth of their now two-year-old son, Johnathan.
Cindy started her present job even before she finished her doctoral dissertation, which she defended in April 1996, prior to receiving her Ph.D. in audiology this May. Her early work as an instructor at Strong Memorial Hospital involved working in the department of surgery of otolaryngology, and as an audiologist in the audiology/speech pathology department.
"I was lucky to be able to get my job at Strong," she says. "Even though it is a lot of work, I love my job so it is very rewarding."
Cindy credits Clarion University with a large amount of experience that she uses everyday. "I gained a lot of hands-on clinical experience at Clarion," she says. "The smaller university made the interaction between professors and students more one-on-one. When I was enrolled in Penn State, there were so many students in my classes that I had to obtain most of my education through my research."
Hogan believes that all of the Clarion department personnel served as great role models pointing to now retired Dr. Harold Hartley as an example. "I appreciated his attitude towards the field of audiology," she says. "I looked up to him and learned a lot under his tutelage."
At Syracuse, where she continues to supervise students in an audiology lab, she has noticed the decrease of experience in students in doctoral programs. "When I graduated from college, I felt I was more experienced than most of the students now," she says. "This is because a lot of things have changed in the audiology field. To practice audiology back then, all that you needed was a masters degree. I think with the additional experience it will help students to make better decisions of what to do in certain situations, it helps you sort between alternatives."