I am quite proud of the students and faculty at Utah State University in Logan, Utah for having just completed their 11th international humanitarian hearing healthcare mission to Costa Rica. This year the mission provided 450 hearing tests and fit 60 individuals with hearing aids, all at no cost.

Students and faculty fund these missions out of their own pockets with some assistance derived from fund raising or small grants. This is an invaluable experience for the future audiologists and of course is a much needed service to those who cannot afford hearing healthcare.

This humanitarian effort started in 2001 with a small contingency of students and faculty that spent a day in Tijuana, Mexico providing hearing tests at no cost to the local residents. The patients were very grateful for the attention they received. Many of them came early in the morning and waited all day to be seen.

These services have now been provided to men, women and children in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, and Ghana, West Africa. My hope is that this tradition will continue throughout the careers of these future doctors of audiology.  John