Camas High School Junior Is Finalist in National Awards Program Honoring Outstanding People with Hearing Loss. Tsering Shola of Camas is among 12 outstanding people with hearing loss honored by the 2017 Oticon Focus on People Awards, a national competition that recognizes individuals who are helping to change perceptions of what it means to live with hearing loss. Tsering has been selected as one of three finalists in the Student category.
The public is invited to cast their votes for Tsering and other finalists in the Student, Adult, Advocacy and Practitioner categories at www.Oticon.com/FOP through August 31. The total number of votes received by each finalist will help to determine who will be the first, second and third place winners in each category.
Sixteen-year-old Tsering Shola finished first place in the biomedical & health category at the Washington State Science & Engineering Fair and won a coveted spot at the 2017 Intel International Science Fair. Tsering’s interest in hearing health as a career path was inspired by her own hearing loss, first diagnosed in elementary school. She sees her hearing loss as a “blessing in disguise” that has lead her on an exciting journey.
The high school junior turned a collaboration with researchers at Oregon Health & Science University into a winning project, “Ototoxic drug levels in cochlear tissues: Validating machine segmentation of drug uptake in individual cells types of cochlea in confocal images.”
The success of her research will contribute to scientific research in hearing loss – allowing researchers to validate segmentation by machine in about 2 minutes, a process that manually can take up to 2 hours. Voting for Tsering and all the 2017 finalists is open now through August 31 at www.Oticon.com/FOP. Winners will be announced in October.
The Oticon Focus on People Awards Leading hearing solutions manufacturer Oticon, Inc. created the national awards program in 1997 to honor hearing impaired students, adults and advocacy volunteers who drive awareness and understanding that can change attitudes and open doors of opportunity for all people with hearing loss.
Hearing loss is the third most common physical condition, after arthritis and heart disease. It has been shown to affect physical health, cognition, social skills, family relationships, self-esteem and more. Outdated stereotypes of what it means to live with hearing loss often discourage people from seeking life-changing help.
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