Comets Give Sound Advice on Service Trip to Mexico

04.11.2023

Seven audiology students and two faculty members from UT Dallas were part of the 2023 Project Yucatan team, which provided health services to people in Mexico during spring break.

Seven audiology students and two faculty members from The University of Texas at Dallas Callier Center for Communication Disorders traveled recently to the Mexican state of Yucatan, where they provided hearing testing, ear canal cleaning and hearing-health education to about 1,000 people.

The effort was part of Project Yucatan, an annual weeklong service trip that was started 20 years ago at the University of Florida. Dr. Scott Griffiths, a clinical professor of speech, language and hearing in the Callier Center and the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences (BBS), was teaching there at the time.

“One of the audiology students asked a colleague of mine if some of her clinical practice could be done in an area of great need,” said Griffiths, who joined UT Dallas in 2018 and has made the trip 17 times. “Through a series of personal and professional connections, they chose to travel to Yucatan. They went to different Mayan villages each day to screen for hearing loss.”

Project Yucatan has since grown to include other universities across the United States, as well as different disciplines, such as medical and pharmacy students who help provide other health services. This spring was the first time UT Dallas students participated.

The project partners with the Yucatecan Association for the Hearing Impaired (AYPRODA), a nonprofit organization that supports families of children with hearing loss. Over the years, Project Yucatan has provided AYPRODA with data collected during the trips that has led to tangible impacts, including a donation of children’s hearing aids from a Mexican charity.

“Alongside geneticists and diabetes specialists, we met and worked with infants as young as 3 weeks old to adults over the age of 80,” said Dr. Cornetta Mosley, a clinical assistant professor of speech, language and hearing in the Callier Center and BBS who also made the trip for the first time.

“Our students learned to maximize their expertise and equipment to accommodate a vast range of people with an even wider range of needs,” she said. “While we provided clinical services, the Yucatan citizens, including our friends at AYPRODA, gave us an unforgettable cultural experience through food, art, language and dance.”

–Paul Bottoni