Department of Communication
Sciences and Disorders

West Chester University

Dr. Michael S. Weiss, Chair
201 Carter Drive
West Chester, PA 19383
Call: 610–436–3401
Fax: 610–436–3388
mweiss@wcupa.edu


Funding Opportunities

Numerous funding opportunities are available at both the graduate and undergraduate level.

  • Vincent Suppan Scholarship

    Mr. Suppan was a faculty member in our department from 1964 to 1982. He developed this scholarship to be used towards the payment of tuition for students who demonstrate academic excellence and a commitment to participation in professional activities, particularly NSSLHA. Each year, one student will be selected to receive $1000 (to be applied to tuition for the following Fall Semester). Application criteria: To qualify as an applicant for this award, a student must meet the following criteria:

    • be an undergraduate student with a declared major in Communicative Disorders
    • have achieved 79 or more credit hours at the time of the application
    • have earned the last 15 hours of credit at WCU
    • be enrolled for at least 6.5 credit hours in the Fall, 2007
    • be a member of NSSLHA at the local and national levels

  • Elizabeth Tyson Memorial Endowment

    This scholarship is awarded to an outstanding student in the Department of Communicative Disorder's Pre-graduate Certification Program (PCP). An award of $500.00 will be made once per year in the Spring semester to a student who meets the following criteria:

    • The recipient must be a PCP student.
    • The recipient must have a GPA of at least 3.80.
    • The recipient must submit one of the following as an example of his or her scholarly work:
      • an independent paper written as partial requirement for a course at WCU
      • a written summary of the student's performance within a student-faculty research project
      • a written summary of the student's work on an independent research project

  • CD Graduate Endowment Scholarship

    The Communicative Disorders Graduate Endowment Scholarship was developed in 2008 to reward an incoming full time or part time graduate student for his/her scholarly work. Specifically, the award is given to a student enrolled in SPP 501 (Foundations of Research) based on the quality of his or her research proposal. The instructor of SPP 501 will identify 10 finalists for this award after reviewing all of the research proposals written by all of the students in the class as part of the course requirements. Selection of the top 10 proposals will be based on consideration of the following:

    • Justification of the proposed study
    • Potential contribution of the proposed research to the field of communicative disorders
    • Appropriateness of the design
    • Feasibility of implementation prior to the student's graduation
    • Professional writing style

    The 10 finalists will present their research (written and oral) to the faculty as a whole. The faculty will rate each presentation, and the finalist with the highest number of points will receive the award.

    The award will be presented in the beginning of an applicant's first spring semester of classes. The recipient will receive a check for $1,000 to be used for purchasing equipment (if needed) for the proposed research and/or to support the recipient's graduate studies (e.g., textbooks, tuition, etc.)

  • The Professor Rusell Sturzebecker Scholarship

    The scholarship supports undergraduate (45 completed credits) and graduate (12 completed credits) students from the College of Health Sciences whose overall GPA is 3.25+. Application forms are available from the Department of Kinesiology, College of Health Sciences. The amount of the Scholarship is $1000.

  • Graduate Assistantships

    A limited number of Graduate Assistantships are available to highly qualified students. These are awarded to individual students through academic departments on a competitive basis. Full-time Graduate Assistantships provide full tuition remission and a stipend. They require Full-time graduate enrollment (at least 9 semester hours) and to work 20 hours per week for the department. Half-time Graduate assistantships are also available. They provide half tuition remission, and half the full-time stipend. Full-time Graduate enrollment is still required. Graduate Assistantships are not awarded to students during the semesters in which they are completing their off-campus Graduate affiliations.

    If you wish to apply for an Assistantship, an application is available through the Office of Graduate Studies. Completed applications must be returned to that Office.

American Speech-Language and Hearing Association: Please click here for a link to opportunities available through ASHA and the American Speech Language Hearing Foundation.

Please see click here for an online scholarship search through WCU.

Office of Financial Aid