Hannah Babin, a second-year graduate student in the Communication Sciences and Disorders Program at the U of A, was awarded the Benjamin Franklin Lever Tuition Fellowship. This award is highly competitive and only given to qualified students who reflect both the U of A's commitment to academics and diversity.

In 2023, Babin graduated from the U of A with her Bachelor of Science in communication disorders. She is scheduled to graduate with her Master of Science in communication disorders in May of 2025.

"Growing up, I always knew that I wanted to be in the health professions," Babin said. "It wasn't until I got to college that I discovered my love for speech pathology. I joined the major and became passionate about this field. I enjoy having the opportunity to hear my clients' stories and learn all about the speech mechanism as well."

"Hannah is an alumni member of our undergraduate program and has been a stand-out in our graduate program for the past year," said Rachel Glade, director of the Communication Sciences and Disorders Program. "She is consistently praised by her clinical supervisors and will no doubt be an excellent speech-language pathologist in the future."

Babin has a passion for helping others find their voices and is especially interested in medical speech-language pathology. She had the opportunity to take a medical SLP course over the summer and be a part of Aphasia Reading Club at UAMS-Northwest. She hopes to have a clinical fellowship opportunity following the completion of her master's degree that emphasizes the cognitive-communication aspect of speech-language pathology.