We were delighted to present our prize for Clinical Excellence to Cynthia McGill, a Master of Audiology student at Canterbury University. The award recognises the best performance in the clinical paper at the end of Year 1 study.

Cynthia immigrated to New Zealand 12 years ago from the US, where she grew up in Cherry Valley, upstate New York. Cynthia’s undergraduate degree was in civil engineering, and she worked about 5 years as a traffic/transport engineer.

“I fell into audiology completely by accident, and love it, it's the perfect fit for me. I love the testing and problem-solving, but really enjoy the client interaction: meeting new people, building rapport, hearing their stories, helping them hear better and improving their quality of life.

“I am very grateful for the money ($2.5k) Audiology South has given to me, it is so generous. It's been a difficult year with Covid-19 and I am missing my family in New York more than ever, so will use the money to visit them as soon as it’s possible.”