Translational Adapted Groups (TAG): Community Builds Capacity for SLPs in AZ Schools

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Summary

The Translational Adapted Group (TAG) Scholars Program provides partial, 1-year scholarships to prospective graduate speech language pathology (SLP) students to participate in a specialized training program on neurodiversity-affirming care in Arizona schools. Students will learn how to partner with neurodiverse students to support their language, literacy, and self-regulation in school-based contexts. The goal of this federally funded grant program is to build the capacity of SLPs in Arizona schools, and students who apply to the TAG Scholars Program should plan to work in Arizona's Title 1 Schools after graduation for at least two full-time, academic years (includes CFY + 1 additional year). Students must enroll and deposit to the Speech-Language Pathology Program at Midwestern University, Glendale, Arizona, to receive a scholarship. Midwestern University is a private, graduate-only, healthcare oriented University with two locations: Downer's Grove, Illinois, and Glendale, Arizona. Note that this scholarship applies only to students who apply to and are accepted to the SLP Program at MWU, Glendale. Applicants who value social responsivity and compassion, and who identify as neurodivergent and/or bilingual and/or persons of color are especially encouraged to apply.

To apply to the TAG Scholars Program, you must first apply to and interview with the SLP Program at MWU, Glendale. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis via CSDCAS, which will require that you submit academic application materials. Selected applicants will be offered an interview, during which time applicants should enquire about the TAG Scholars Program which will direct you to contact Dr. Schea Fissel at sfisse@midwestern.edu. Dr. Fissel will ask that you complete the TAG Scholars Application, which is character-based, which centers how applicants show up and contribute to their communities, holding paramount the values of social-responsivity and compassion. Interested applicants may further explore TAG Lab and TAG Scholars Program at our website: www.translationaladaptedgroup.com or via socials: @sfb_research.

About TAG Lab at MWU, Glendale: TAG Lab is run by Dr. Schea Fissel Brannick, PhD, CCC-SLP, whose translational program of research explores community-based mechanisms that advance neurodiversity-affirming intervention services in partnership with neurodiverse individuals themselves. The Vision of the TAG Lab is to create and sustain inclusive, equitable, and neurodiverse affirming communities that improve the spaces that neurodivergent persons occupy by advancing systems of knowledge generation, capacity-building, practice-refinement, and policy-development. The Mission of the TAG Lab is to create and sustain communities, as its central mechanism of systems-level change, and through community building and engagement, we will: (1) Establish, model, and sustain cultures of inclusivity within and outside of all community interactions (2) Meet members where they are, in the spaces they occupy or wish to occupy, to align supports for their expressed preferences in ways that affirm individual differences while promoting belonging to a community (3) Offer regular, explicit (didactic) and implicit (clinical) educational opportunities for all members on neurodiverse affirming principles and care (4) Maintain regular contact with community members through events, activities, and electronic means (4) Hold paramount the values of social-responsivity, compassion, neuro-ethics, and balanced sources of evidence when making community decisions.

For More Information

See the TAG Scholars program promo [PDF], visit www.translationaladaptedgroup.com, or contact Schea Fissel Brannick at sfisse@midwestern.edu.

This initiative was submitted on Oct 29, 2025.