Merav Ravae | Communication Disorders (B.A), 2006

Mirav is the Director of Youth Rehabilitation for Communication Disorders at Alyn Hospital, Israel's only dedicated pediatric and adolescent rehabilitation hospital. Mirav is also a speech therapy clinician at Hadassah Academic College's Adler Aphasia Center.

Mirav specializes in treating children with serious head injuries. In the coming year, she plans to undertake a new role as the director of a private center for children's neurologic rehabilitation. At present, Mirav is enrolled in Hadassah Academic College's Department of Communication Disorders, where she is completing her MA studies with a focus on bilingual and multi-cultural communication.

"Hadassah makes you feel that the College really cares about its students, and that's what I was looking for in a school. Individual attention, small class sizes at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and academic quality. Overall it's a very pleasant atmosphere and a comfortable place to study.

Before coming to Hadassah Academic College, I studied medicine for a year at the Hebrew University's Ein Kerem campus. I left that program in order to come to Hadassah to study communication disorders, and I don't regret my decision for a second. If I'd become a pediatrician, I wouldn't be able to get down on the floor and play with children in my everyday work. As an undergraduate you often can't understand the practical implications of what you are learning in real time until you're able to get out into the field. Then all the elements you learned in your coursework, going back all the way to your first year, fall into place. Insight comes through time and patience.

I love what I do and I feel there's always more to learn. Working with both children and adults brings me complete satisfaction. There's always room to advance and improve. My job is to help my patients communicate better; I help them reach their most important goal for themselves and their families.

There are so many moving stories of children recovering from injury. This is what gives me the strength to continue. To succeed in my work by helping a child who had been non-conscious and suffering from a severe head injury, and over a few months to see that child regain the ability to speak and even become fully functional again. One story in particular stands out to me- an Orthodox boy was severely injured in a car accident, and for seven months was unable to speak at all. Today, he's on his way to a successful recovery and plans to begin studying in a Yeshiva soon.