October 22nd 2017

Matthew Bakke, Ph.D., CCC-A, FAAA

Professor, Dept. of Hearing, Speech and Language Sciences
Gallaudet University
800 Florida Avenue, NE
Room SLCC 3118
Washington, DC 20002

Dear Dr. Bakke,

I am honored to be writing to you to recommend that Dr. Larry Medwetsky

receive tenure as a professor and mentor at Gallaudet Universitys audiology program. As
a fourth year student in the audiology program at Gallaudet, I have spent a lot of time
with Dr. Medwetsky. He has been my instructor, advisor, and above all, an advocate for
my success and an incredible inspiration to me throughout my educational career in this
program. I have never seen an instructor with such a love for what he does and such
compassion for his students. Dr. Medwetsky has constantly shown that his students are an
ultimate priority, and that there are few things more important to him than our learning,
success, and well-being.

It is no doubt that the audiology program here at Gallaudet University is a very

rigorous and challenging program. While it is true that many other instructors spend a
good deal of time creating lectures and providing feedback, I have rarely received as
much benefit from such efforts as I have from Dr. Medwetsky. His courses have always
been the ones that Ive learned from the most. Dr. Medwetsky puts in extra effort to make
sure that his teaching style addresses every type of learner, and for me, this could not
have been more important for my success. As a student with a learning disability,
academics have always been a bit of an extra challenge for me. Many of the courses
seemed impossible at times, and there were many times that I felt as though my best
efforts were insufficient. This was never the case for courses taught by Dr. Medwetsky.
Although his courses were always the busiest and most challenging workload, they were
always the easiest for me. During my time struggling in other classes, I always said, I
wish Dr. Medwetsky was teaching this class because I knew that I could learn anything
from him. It did not matter which class; if Dr. Medwetsky taught it, I mastered the
material. My grades throughout this program are a direct reflection of that. I cannot begin
to describe how beneficial that type of instruction is for myself as well as many other
students who are or will be rising audiologists from this program.

Besides just being an instructor with an incredible ability to reach any student, Dr.
Medwetsky has been a commendable advisor to myself as well as all students. During the
time I had him as my advisor, he had scheduled meetings with each student to make sure
that things were going well and to ask if there was anything that he personally could do to
help each students success. Regardless of advisory obligations, Dr. Medwetsky has
always been someone students know they can go to for any kind of help or support. Even
for ridiculous things, such as reviewing papers or presentations, Dr. Medwetsky has
never neglected any request for assistance or advice from a student. Whether he has the
time or not, he always makes the time. There are few others who have more full-
heartedly accepted their responsibility as a mentor to the students in this program.

Dr. Medwetsky is one of the instructors in this program that makes me very happy
I had the chance to learn at this institution specifically. I dont believe I could have been
as successful at another program without an instructor like him. Please accept my
recommendation that he be given tenure at Gallaudet Universitys audiology program.

Sincerely,

Leslie Gilbert, M.S.

Doctoral Extern, Graduate Student
Dept. of Hearing, Speech, and Language Sciences
Gallaudet University
800 Florida Ave, NE
Washington DC, 20002