Health Sciences & Human Performance

Speech-language pathologists and audiologists help people to communicate more effectively. Because communication disorders may occur at any age, hearing and communication specialists work with a wide range of clients, from infants and children with developmental delays to adults and the elderly who experience health problems that result in difficulties with communication.

In your freshman and sophomore years, you’ll take classes covering typical speech, language, and hearing development and learn about a range of communication disorders. This foundational coursework will prepare you to begin intensive, guided, clinical observation experiences.

During your junior year, you’ll spend a substantial amount of time in the Sir Alexander Ewing-Ithaca College Speech and Hearing Clinic, observing therapy and and learning how to plan and carry out therapy sessions. Our program is flexible enough that many students choose to study abroad during their junior year. If you choose to study abroad for a full semester, you will engage in your clinical observation experiences during the fall of your senior year.

As a senior, you’ll have the opportunity to gain hands-on experience through our close association with local Head Start programs, in our speech and hearing clinic, or through selected alternative settings.

Although some of our students enter the workforce upon completion of their undergraduate studies, most pursue graduate study at Ithaca College or at other fine institutions. Our students are well prepared for graduate study in speech-language pathology or audiology, or even in related fields such as early childhood education.

Graduate programs in audiology and in speech-language pathology are highly competitive and selective. We offer automatic acceptance into our speech-language pathology graduate program for students who meet the admission criteria in place at the time they submit their graduate program application. Graduate study at Ithaca provides students with an education that meets all of the requirements for state licensure and for national certification as speech-language pathologists.

Concerned about the prevalence of diabetes, lack of safe water supplies, emerging infectious diseases, cancer, or the widespread use of prescription drugs? Inspired by the debates over health care legislation? Want to take a role in confronting the monumental health challenges facing undeveloped nations? With a degree in public and community health, you’ll be ready to help people make sense of conflicting societal messages about how best to eat, live, work, and exercise, or to help governments, nonprofit organizations, and communities adopt more ethical, fair, and cost-effective public health policies.

Depending on your career and intellectual interests, you’ll customize your studies with a program, policy, or planned interdisciplinary combination (PIC) in health emphasis.

If you see yourself working with individuals in a teaching or directing role, the program emphasis will help you focus your learning on nutrition, sexuality, family health problems, consumer health, teaching strategies, and how to develop and evaluate community health programs.

If you’re interested in working at the state, national, or global level, choose the policy emphasis; classes like Food and Society, International Health Issues, Economics of Health, and War, Hunger, and Genocide, as well as writing and politics courses, will teach you to advocate legislation, develop program policy, and help shape rules around public and community health issues.

The PIC emphasis allows you to immerse yourself in a specific niche -- health in marginalized populations and women’s health are just two examples. You’ll work with an adviser to design your own 24-credit specialty with a mix of courses from within and outside the department.

If you aspire to advanced or additional study, such as a master’s degree in public health or an advanced nursing degree, you’ll be well prepared; courses taken in the major may even satisfy some of the requirements for these postgraduate programs. All majors do an internship in a community health organization, government agency, or nonprofit, which gives them firsthand experience in a health profession they may ultimately choose as a career: grant writer, teacher, researcher, manager, organizer, advocate, policy maker, analyst, administrator, activist, or international relief worker.

Occupational therapists make a critical difference in the lives of people, groups, and populations by enabling full participation in their desired daily life activities and occupations. During our six-year program, you'll learn the skills to help prevent injuries and illnesses, promote physical and mental wellness, support families and caregivers, and more. You may use playground and other sensorimotor equipment to encourage a toddler to develop balance and coordination, help someone return to work or school following a spinal cord injury, work with a group of middle schoolers with diabetes to support health management during their school day, or work on making homes accessible to support aging in place for older adults. You will develop the skills to be a leader and an advocate for occupational justice because you will fully understand the importance of engaging in meaningful occupations to supporting health and wellness. You will make an impact on the lives of others!

Ithaca’s OT program has been accredited by the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education since its inception, and continually receives the longest possible accreditation cycle. A highlight of our program includes dedicated learning spaces such as an assistive technology lab and an activities-of-daily-living area containing a real kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, and laundry space. There you experience firsthand how to support clients in negotiating the demands of daily tasks to support their full participation.

You'll have the chance to collaborate with students from other health majors such as physical therapy, speech-language pathology and audiology, and nutrition. That collaboration may occur in research projects, in our on-campus PT and OT clinics, at the nearby Center for Life Skills–a program designed to help clients with chronic neurological problems, or in other classroom and community opportunities. It's the same way you'll work once you have your license, pooling expertise and designing the best program for each client through an interdisciplinary approach.

You’ll find our enthusiastic and expert faculty members are eager to mentor you every step of the way. Our extensive fieldwork requirement offers you invaluable real-life experience, and we have relationships with hundreds of fieldwork sites across the United States. 

The OT program at Ithaca provides excellent preparation for the national certification exam. After passing, you'll be a registered occupational therapist. Better still, you’ll be a flexible, creative problem-solver who can work in a wide variety of places, including clinics, schools, homes, and communities. In the end, you'll have not only learned practical skills but also gained a holistic view of the human experience.