Name
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA)About
Location
MarylandOrganization/Facility
Health CareWebsite
ASHAStudent to Empowered Professional (S.T.E.P.) Mentoring Program
Initiative Category
Focus Area
Mentoring
Summary
Inspired by the MSLP, the Student to Empowered Professional (S.T.E.P.) Mentoring Program is for any student preparing for a career in communication sciences and disorders. The program helps students who face barriers to academic support by giving them access to resources, guidance, and networking opportunities. The goal is to help build a more inclusive workforce that reflects a broad range of perspectives and experiences in the field of communication sciences and disorders. With a large number of volunteer mentors, S.T.E.P. was able to expand capacity to accept all interested students enrolled in CSD programs. This virtual program provides students with 1:1 matches based on a variety of variables, such as area(s) of interest and subject matter expertise, workplace settings, clinical populations and language(s) used. Mentor/mentee pairs are encouraged to establish and set goals for the program that help the student succeed. The program launched in 2004 with 69 participants, mentors and mentees. In 2024, there are 285 mentoring pairs with nearly 600 participants. On average, S.T.E.P. supports approximately 300 mentoring pairs each year. With sponsorship from AMN, S.T.E.P. has expanded its offerings to include a Connect! Learn! Empower! speaker series featuring former S.T.E.P. and MSLP participants discussing both clinical and professional topics. In addition, all participants were invited to join the S.T.E.P. community discussion thread in ASHA’s Online Community. The S.T.E.P. mentoring program has served as a catalyst for the development of additional mentoring programs at ASHA.
For More Information
See the S.T.E.P. website or contact step@asha.org.
This initiative was updated on January 16, 2026.