AUCD has made available 25 scholarships of up to $225 each to support LEND audiology trainees in attending the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) Virtual Conference on March 2-5, 2021. All current LEND audiology trainees, including those in their externship year, are eligible to apply. However, priority will be given to trainees from programs that do not currently receive supplemental funding and trainees that have not attended the EHDI Conference in previous years. Application deadline: February 22, 2021.

As a newcomer to America, I always wondered how America could have homeless people? I imagined America as a heaven on earth, where everyone is well off and poverty is seen only in museums. Unfortunately, what I learned, and saw was beyond my expectation and left a scar in my heart. When I first moved to the state of Maine, my eyes caught a white woman who was, and still is, homeless. Throughout each season I encountered this woman pushing her belongings in a buggy. During the winter, I helped her to pull the buggy until I reached my destination, always wondering and asking myself many questions. How could this happen in America?

The Alaska LEND Without Walls is a program that has embraced video teleconferencing as a method to reach faculty and fellows across the geographically vast state. During the current pandemic, the Alaska LEND program utilized a virtual environment for all activities. As part of the annual fall semester "face to face" seminar, interdisciplinary faculty and fellows participate in a mock developmental assessment.

Reading is something my family enjoys. Having a family member with a disability means that we enjoy seeing representation in our book choices. There are a lot of great disability reads out there. Here are just a few that we added over the holiday season.

Better pay for direct support professionals, more post-secondary educational opportunities for young adults with disabilities, and continuing funding for interdisciplinary programs that promote the inclusion of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) were among issues on the table as a group of fellows from the Institute on Community Integration met this month with members of Minnesota's congressional delegation.

Before 2020, Iowa's LEND program did not have a Self-Advocacy Coordinator serving as Core Faculty for trainees in the program. Before 2019, Iowa's UCEDD, the Center for Disabilities and Development (CDD), did not have a Self-Advocacy Coordinator as a member of its staff. Before 2017, Iowa LEND had never had a Self-Advocacy Trainee. But since 2016, when he became a member of the UCEDD's Community Advisory Committee, CDD has had Ed Esbeck. For the past year, since he was hired as CDD's Self-Advocacy Coordinator in the fall of 2019, Esbeck has championed inclusion for Iowa LEND, and has led the way for more self-advocates to become leaders, as he has.

We are excited to announce the AUCD Emerging Leaders Interns for the 2020-2021 training year. These trainees will serve as visible ambassadors to the broader AUCD network, interacting with AUCD staff at all levels and the AUCD Board of Directors' Emerging Leaders Representative.

"No one rises to low expectations." New Mexican Congresswoman Deborah Haaland's words motivated leaders and trainees alike during the Hill Visit day at the AUCD conference in Washington DC, "Leading Change Together," this past November. These words were shared with the NH-ME LEND cohort and guided us through a rigorous training year working to improve the health and education of children and youth with neurodevelopmental disabilities by engaging in training related to interdisciplinary, family-centered, culturally competent systems of care.

The 12th cohort of ICI's Minnesota Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (MNLEND) program graduated May 14 in an online ceremony that featured a congratulatory message from U.S. Sen. Tina Smith, among others, and video testimonials from graduates themselves about what the interdisciplinary fellowship program has meant for them.