In order to prepare its graduate students to become effective speech-language pathologists in Northwest Arkansas, throughout the state of Arkansas, and beyond, the Communication Sciences and Disorders Program sends the students into the medical and educational community throughout the state for hands-on experiential learning. This model is critical to the students' knowledge and skill development and is a major aspect of the program's graduate training.

This training model is only made possible through partnerships with speech-language pathologists in Northwest Arkansas and other regions of the state. When entering into these partnerships, Arkansas's strongest speech-language pathologists agree to mentor University of Arkansas Communication Sciences and Disorders students.

Because the program's community mentors are so crucial, each year the program awards a partner as the "Mentor of the Year." This award honors outstanding mentorship from one community partner. Students from the graduate program nominate mentors and vote for who they believe to be most deserving of the honor.

This year, Springdale School District's Megan Fraser has been named the "Mentor of the Year" for the Communication Sciences and Disorders Program. Megan is a highly effective speech-language pathologist and mentor, and the University of Arkansas students have learned a great deal under her mentorship. One student stated that Megan "was the best supervisor I could have asked for." Another student noted that Megan "instantly made me feel like I was part of a great team." She also noted that Megan taught her that "this is a field of continuous learning that is full of wonderful opportunities to truly make a difference in a child's life."

Megan shared that "having a graduate student is one of the most rewarding aspects of my career." And, that "helping shape and inspire future speech-language pathologists is a great responsibility that pushes me to continuously improve."