Scholarship Supports Future Speech Therapist

At a time when small towns are struggling to find trained therapists and health care providers, an EWU graduate student is poised to make a difference.

Hailey Arland ‘23, is earning a master’s degree in communication sciences and disorders (CMSD) with the goal of providing vital speech therapy services to students in underserved rural communities.

“Being from Davenport, which is a very small town, I graduated with a class of 43 students. I really got to see the impact of what a [speech language pathologist] can do for students and just education in general,” Arland says. “So, I would really love to go back into small schools and work with kids.”

Arland received a $5,450 Kathy (Iverson) Privratsky Honorary Endowed Scholarship to help make her goal of becoming a speech language pathologist [SLP] a reality.

The endowed scholarship fund was established by retired Maj. Gen. Kenneth Privratsky as a gift to his wife, Kathy, for Christmas in 2006. The fund honors her impactful work as a trailblazing speech-language pathologist serving students in rural and remote corners of Alaska, while supporting the Privratsky’s goal of providing gifts that “keep on giving.”  (Read more about this inspiring alumni couple and their commitment to Eastern.)

Arland, a high-achieving 22-year-old student who works part time for a catering company, says the Privratsky scholarship gives her the ability to work fewer hours and focus more on studies.

“There’s not enough ways to say thank you for the money they have provided for students to attend school,” Arland says. “It’s helped me so, so much.”

Arland knew she wanted to attend Eastern from an early age, having grown up with alumni parents who met while attending Eastern. Over the years, the parents treated their two daughters to numerous Eagle football games.

“They loved their time at Eastern. Just seeing how much love they have for the [university] itself really made me want to attend Eastern.”

Arland’s dad, Glenn, is principal for the elementary/middle schools in Creston, Washington, a small town near Davenport, and her mother, Denise, teaches first and second grades in Creston.

Originally, Arland planned to go into education like her parents and older sister, but as a senior in high school, she switched gears. With the help of honors and presidential scholarships from Eastern, and smaller scholarships from organizations in Davenport, she graduated with a bachelor’s in CMSD in May of 2023.

“I’ve wanted to be an SLP for quite a while now,” Arland says. “So, it’s really exciting for me to know it was made just this much more possible with the scholarship money that was provided.”