Author: Christie Williams

On Thursday, Jan. 16th, the H. Wayne Huizenga College of Business hosted the Broward County DECA High School District Competition. More than 350 DECA Club members from 18 different schools attended the one-day competition, which included events related to entrepreneurship, marketing and sales. As part of the competition, students presented their business plans, and gave marketing and sales presentations. The event’s judges included students and faculty members from NSU, as well as local business owners and professionals.

The following week on Wednesday, Jan. 22^nd, an award ceremony was held during which the winners of the district competition were announced. The Broward DECA Annual Awards Ceremony was held in the Rick Case Arena on NSU’s main campus and was sponsored jointly by the Huizenga Business Innovation Academy and the College of Business. Over 700 students and their families were in attendance. Dean of the Huizenga College,  Andrew Rosman, Ph.D., was recognized at the event where the DECA organization presented him with a plaque and formally offered their appreciation for the school’s continued support and partnership.

This was the 11^th consecutive year that the Huizenga Business College hosted the annual awards ceremony in partnership with Broward County Schools. DECA is a national, student-run organization for high school students enrolled in marketing education classes.

Lyndsay Rogers

Lyndsay Rogers, doctoral student in the Doctor of Audiology Program (Dr. Pallavi Patel College of Health Care Sciences) and graduate consultant at the NSU Writing & Communication Center (WCC), presented at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association convention (ASHA) in Orlando, FL., Nov. 21-23, 2019.

Rogers’ poster, “EAR- radiating: A Mini Systemic Review of Vestibular Schwannoma & Radiation Exposure,” (with NSU Doctor of Audiology faculty, Julia Andrews and Katherine Fitzharris) examined if there is a heightened risk of vestibular schwannoma (VS) development with mobile phone use. A VS is a benign tumor that grows on the 8th (vestibulo-cochlear) cranial nerve. Symptoms of a VS include tinnitus in 1 ear, asymmetrical hearing loss, and a feeling of being off-balance. The trio’s review of the literature found that there may be an increased risk of VS development with long-term mobile phone use; while others mention there was no increased risk.

According to Rogers, “working at the WCC helped me tremendously with my poster, such as improving my overall writing style and knowing APA formatting like the back of my hand. I am more confident in my writing abilities and I do not know if I would have had the confidence to present this poster if I did not work here!”

To see the full ASHSA convention click here. To learn more about the Doctor of Audiology Program, visit https://healthsciences.nova.edu/audiology/fort_lauderdale/index.html

Visited Peru in December 2019

College of Psychology Counseling Professor Mercedes ter Maat, Ph.D., goes wherever the work takes her.

In December 2019, that meant traveling to Peru for the third time on a volunteer trip for the arts-based nonprofit The Red Pencil. Ter Maat visited three after school centers outside Lima to help implement an arts-based therapeutic program. The neighborhoods in question have struggled with poverty and gang violence, and some of the children involved have parents in jail.

“They realized the kids were having tremendous baggage as they came in,” ter Maat said.

As part of the activities, children created group mandalas and symbols of what the program meant to them. Part of the program focused on prevention, and ter Maat trained teachers at the beginning of the school year on how to recognize symptoms for trauma, anxiety, and depression.

In addition to her three trips to Peru, ter Maat has also traveled to Lebanon and Jordan to work with Syrian refugees. In September 2019, she also represented NSU at the annual conference of the European Branch of the American Counseling Association, which took place in Vienna. The EB-ACA, which ter Maat is past president of, supports American counselors working in Europe, most often with families of American military personnel. Ter Maat presented twice at the conference on the subjects of ethics renewal and art therapy for trauma survivors.

“We do a lot of work with military families, serving the needs of the veterans,” she said. “Another need is that those counselors miss being in the United States. So we provide a picture of what counseling is like in the U.S.”