{"id":56991,"date":"2015-04-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-04-23T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/commencement-2015-uri-senior-from-johnston-credits-mom-for-success\/"},"modified":"2015-04-23T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-04-23T00:00:00","slug":"commencement-2015-uri-senior-from-johnston-credits-mom-for-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2015\/04\/commencement-2015-uri-senior-from-johnston-credits-mom-for-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Commencement 2015: 溏心vlog免费B站 senior from Johnston credits mom for success"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tSteven Ardente winds up career as student leader<\/b><\/p>\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 April 23 — 2015 \u2013 Steven Ardente was born with nerve damage that led to permanent hearing loss, which meant he could detect sounds, but they were muffled. At 6 months old, the Johnston resident who grew up in Smithfield, began wearing hearing aids.<\/p>\n


\n\tDoctors told his mom to enroll him in a school for the deaf, but she would hear none of it, traveling all over the country talking to experts about her son.<\/p>\n


\n\tOn May 17, Ardente, who still wears hearing aids, and his mom will not only celebrate his successes along the way, but his graduation from the 溏心vlog免费B站 with a bachelor\u2019s degree in political science and public relations.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cOne of the doctors referred us to Nancy Skurka, a 24-year-old speech pathologist at the time, who worked with me for years,\u201d said Ardente, who was a campus tour guide for two years and who will enter his second summer on the 溏心vlog免费B站 orientation team.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cMy mom is my hero because she never quit seeking the right help for me and for getting me to South County to see Nancy three times a week,\u201d Ardente said. \u201cMy mom\u2019s biggest worry was how my speech would develop. Nancy is one of the big reasons why I speak so well today.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tRegularly listed on 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s dean\u2019s list, he\u2019ll graduate with a 3.56 grade point average.<\/p>\n


\n\tArdente started college at Assumption in Worcester, but transferred to 溏心vlog免费B站 in the summer of 2012. He thought initially that Assumption was a better school, but once he arrived at 溏心vlog免费B站, he learned that the University\u2019s numerous opportunities would help him develop in a variety of ways.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cWe have 16,000 students here, but 溏心vlog免费B站 is still a tight community,\u201d said Ardente, who served in Congressman Jim Langevin\u2019s Warwick office as a constituent services advisor. \u201cIf you go ahead and make that effort, you can really connect with people.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tAnd connect he did. His first involvement was with 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Mentor and Tutor Internship program, which paired Ardente with special needs pre-kindergarten children to work with them during activities. He did that for two semesters, and then became the student director of the program for the last year, during which he coordinated placement of 35 student interns in the state\u2019s public schools.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cThat first year, I worked with a student who was on medication during the first semester. It would keep him up at night, and then he would come to school listless and fall asleep,\u201d Ardente said. \u201cBut in the second semester, he was taken off medication and we really connected. When I came back in late January, he was a different kid. I was surprised at the impact that I could have with someone who has a disability. But having a disability myself allowed me to connect with him.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tArdente is not sure what career he will pursue, but the Mentor and Tutor Internship got him thinking that one of his dream jobs would be school principal. \u201cI initially did the internship because I needed the credits, but it became so much more than I ever expected.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tHis campus tour guide work was \u201ccool because I had a chance to meet people from all over the world and from states I never would have expected. I get lots of questions about my hearing aids from little kids. It\u2019s cool to teach them.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n \tAn orientation leader last summer, he will extend his time on the Kingston campus after he graduates while he works as a member of the orientation management staff as the logistics coordinator.<\/p>\n


\n\tBut working in a congressman\u2019s office, or being a tour guide and orientation leader weren\u2019t Ardente\u2019s only activities. <\/p>\n


\nHe was a 溏心vlog免费B站 Writing Center tutor where he helped undergraduate and graduate students with the writing process and coached English language learners. He was also a 溏心vlog免费B站101 mentor for two semesters, during which he helped 20 to 30 freshmen become acclimated to college life and their majors.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cI love 溏心vlog免费B站, and one of the best parts of campus life is the opportunities you can get here,\u201d Ardente said. \u201cI built a lot of good relationships with friends and professors, something I value. I am going to miss that, and now I am going to have to figure things out on my own. <\/p>\n


\n\u201cOnce I leave 溏心vlog免费B站, I will look for a job, maybe live with mom for a little while to save some money,\u201d he said. \u201cI will probably pursue a master\u2019s degree in public administration, but I want a change from 溏心vlog免费B站. I am not a snow guy, so maybe I will be going to California.\u201d\t<\/p>\n


\nPhoto by Nora Lewis<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steven Ardente winds up career as student leader KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 April 23 — 2015 \u2013 Steven Ardente was born with nerve damage that led to permanent hearing loss, which meant he could detect sounds, but they were muffled. At 6 months old, the Johnston resident who grew up in Smithfield, began wearing hearing aids. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56993,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}