Breaking News:

Sammie Sexton Retires After 34 Years of Service to FHSU



A Brief History of Me at FHSU

By Sammie Sexton

I started literacy-based pre-school language enrichment/development groups at FHSU in the summer of 1971 (when I substituted for Marcia-who wanted a summer to spend with her kids). The summer groups included lots of field trips and hands-on experience. I am proud of these groups because it was before anyone talked about literacy in our field and especially at the pre-school level. By the way, Marla was a student SLP in one of the first groups. These groups ran for several summers and then I began the same type of program at St. Joe's (later Holy Family) with kindergarten and at Holy Family also with preschool.

I also worked with reading/literacy and written language, and curriculum based materials from the beginning of St. Joe's (1973). I could claim it was because I was very progressive, but it probably was because we were the only special service providers so we did whatever needed to be done. Once other services were available, we were already accepted as the people to come to for help and continued to provide these services.

In the Department:

I taught the intro to clinical procedures course from the beginning of time until the end and I taught the GRE prep course.

Marla and I team taught for several years and perfected the Staab/Sexton fool-proof system of grading reports in which-with no consultation-Marla could always score a report exactly one point higher than I did.

In 1984, I was a member of the first ASHA professional exchange program to China-one of 24 SLPs and audiologistis from all over the country. This was one place I had always wanted to go. And my Chinese was good enough to get by.

When considering the faculty and former faculty at FHSU, my students include: Marla, Marcy, Kassy, Phil, Lynette, and Tara. When I attend KSHA meetings, it seems that my former students include at least half of the working SLPs in the state and a few audiologists. So for better or worse I guess some of my ideas will stick around for awhile.

My post-retirement goal-to figure out what I want to be when I grow up.