Purdue NSSLHA Building Momentum After Receiving National Honors

For many college juniors, Tuesday nights are spent finishing papers, hunting down a spot to study or using what's left of their free time to DoorDash dinner. But for the executive team of Purdue’s National Student Speech Language Hearing Association (NSSLHA), those Tuesdays look a little different.  

Composed mostly of students studying speech, language and hearing sciences (SLHS), NSSLHA serves as a community for aspiring speech language pathologists and audiologists to learn more about their career paths, make connections in the industry and prepare themselves for future experiences.  

The organization’s Tuesday night meetings take a variety of forms, but they all work to build on professional connections and development in the field.  

“You get exposure to a lot of the different aspects of the field that sometimes you forget about when you’re in school, where a lot of people will start considering going into different parts of the field,” says Maya Newton, a junior studying SLHS who serves as the vice president of NSSLHA. “Being a part of NSSLHA provides you with a way to become really interconnected with some faculty members and other people within the major.” 

Named the national chapter of the year in 2025, Purdue NSSLHA is heading into the 2025-26 school year with hopes of increased membership and a new variety of social events and career readiness opportunities to maintain the title. But according to the executive team, continuing this success won’t come easily. 

"We’re constantly looking for new community service hours and working hard to encourage our new members to become national NSSLHA members,” Newton says. "Our national NSSLHA membership ratio, community service hours and emphasis on advocacy were some of our major keys to success last year.” 

As part of NSSLHA’s advocacy efforts, members of the organization participate in Legislative Day with Purdue SLHS Advocacy Council at the Indiana State Capitol every year. Students interact with legislators and advocate on behalf of those with speech, language and hearing challenges. NSSLHA also hosts an advocacy day in the fall semester to write letters to legislators and learn more about SLHS advocacy efforts.   

“It’s really big within our field,” says Emma Hall, president of Purdue NSSLHA. “We’re just trying to push students in SLHS or any student to get involved with advocacy, either at a local level, a state level or a national level.” 

Each week, the NSSLHA members meet for general meetings, panels, guest speakers or social events. According to Hall, a junior studying SLHS, the organization is trying to add new variety into their Tuesday nights this year.  

“Last year we tried to be really intentional about what events we were doing,” Hall says. “We wanted to have things that would benefit you in the long run. This year, I’m wanting to find different guest speakers; I’m trying to find new things that make people still want to be a part of the organization.” 

According to Hall, NSSLHA is known for both its undergraduate and graduate panel events, which encourage younger students to hear advice and testimonials from more experienced students or professionals in the field. 

“I would like to do more with post-undergrad resources for people, focusing more on what grad school looks like,” Hall says. “I want to do things that benefit people academically and not just surface-level.” 

The undergraduate panel is an important part of the fall semester for many students looking to expand their involvement, refine their resumes and meet more experienced students in their department.  

“It’s made a really competitive major feel more supportive,” Newton says. “It feels more like a community than a competition.”  

According to NSSLHA, the organization saw a 55% increase in membership in 2024. The executive team attributed this change mainly to NSSLHA’s social media correspondent, Amelia Kuiper. 

“She puts so much effort into making our social media interactive and posts so many reminders, so people know when the meetings are,” Newton says. “She started doing member highlights, Instagram reels with the general public and stuff that our professors would talk to us about. It’s fun to have something to connect over. She made it more about the general body of the club rather than just an information dump.”  

The significant membership increase was part of what led Purdue NSSLHA to another national recognition, Gold Honors, last spring. And though Chapter of the Year is a much more celebrated title, Hall says their Gold Honors status last year still made her proud. 

“For me, personally, it really just made me feel like what we were all doing meant something and had a purpose,” Hall says. “I'm hoping to look back on the year and really feel like I accomplished everything the exec team wanted to do, but I just really hope to see that people have grown closer and what we’ve done has benefitted people.”  

In connection with Hall’s goals, Newton says her own experiences in NSSHLA have led her to a stronger community in the department and a sense of belonging in such a competitive field. 

“Getting to know so many people who are in my classes and in my department just through this one extracurricular has made the department feel like home,” Newton says. “It's made me so grateful that I get to give back to a community that has given me so much in three years.” 

Connect with Purdue NSSLHA today on BoilerLink, via their website or by following the organization on Instagram.