SALT LAKE CITY, June 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Two Chicago teens will receive free hearing aids
from Sonic Innovations, Inc. (Sonic), a global provider of hearing
care services and solutions, on Wednesday,
June 30 at 10 a.m. The
donation will take place during a fitting session with Dr.
Linda Burba at Audiologic Services,
located at 386 Pennsylvania Avenue in Glen Ellyn, IL.
Sonic has partnered with the Network for Teaching
Entrepreneurship (NFTE) program to reward Marcella Liggins and Christopher Turnbo, two 17-year-old students
from the Chicago Vocational and Career Academy, for their
innovative work in NFTE's annual city-wide business plan
competition. Each student will receive a pair of Endura
hearing aids and sonicBLU devices, a wireless communication device
that allows users of Sonic hearing aids to wirelessly connect to
Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones and devices.
"I feel great and am so happy to receive the hearing aids from
Sonic Innovations," said Liggins. "Once I get the hearing
aids and connect them to my cell phone, I will feel special and my
life will change. I can't believe I will be wearing a product
that is like my business plan idea. It is like a dream
becoming a reality." Turnbo said, "Life will be so much
better because I won't hear a lot of noises in the background with
these hearing aids when I am on my cell phone. I am proud to
know I am the first among my friends to wear hearing aids that have
a Bluetooth connection. Now I'm thinking of how to connect an
MP3 player or iPod to the hearing aid."
Liggins was born hearing impaired and Turnbo slowly began to
lose his hearing at the age of 5. The students' severe
hearing loss requires them to wear hearing aid devices, and they
decided that it would be nice to have Bluetooth capability embedded
inside their hearing aid so they could hear clearer when talking on
their cell phones. Liggins and Turnbo partnered together and
developed a business plan for a hearing aid company that would
develop state-of- the-art communications for people who are hearing
impaired. The team entered its plan in the NFTE business
competition where they won first place in the semi-finals and a
consolation prize in the finals.
"Sonic received a call from one of our investors who is also on
the NFTE board and was judging the student competition. He
was touched by the students' excitement and passion to help people,
especially teens, who are hearing impaired," said Sonic Innovations
President and COO, Paul Wennerholm.
"The investor knew that Sonic had already developed the
technology the teens had imagined through our sonicBLU device, and
he hoped we could help these students. We at Sonic knew these
innovative teens could benefit from our product, and we decided it
would be a great opportunity for us to help them with a donation of
our Endura hearing aids and sonicBLU devices. We thank Dr.
Burba for helping us make this donation possible for these two
deserving teens."
Wennerholm added, "Research shows that about two to three out of
every 1,000 children in the U.S. are born deaf or hard-of-hearing.
At Sonic we know how important it is for children to hear
when learning vocabulary, grammar, and other aspects of verbal
communication. We hope our devices will help our younger population
enjoy a better quality of life."
NFTE is a national teen entrepreneurship program now taught at
33 Chicago Public High Schools, reaching 2,000 students. NFTE
trains Chicago Public School teachers to teach students real life
business skills, such as how to build and run their own business.
Young people in the program create a concept for a business, after
which their teachers take them through the process of creating a
business plan and then how to sell their products and services.
"The secret to NFTE is using entrepreneurship education to
engage young people in school by following a reality-based
curriculum. We teach them about the market economy and give
them an entrepreneurial mindset to be successful in life," said
Christine Poorman, Executive
Director, NFTE Chicago.
ABOUT SONIC INNOVATIONS:
Sonic Innovations, headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, has international
offices and manufacturing centers across the globe. In conjunction
with their distributor partners, Sonic Innovations has provided
hearing care services and solutions in more than 25 countries and
the company's partners have prescribed more than 1 million Sonic
hearing instruments. Sonic Innovations is part of the Otix Global,
Inc. family (Nasdaq: OTIX), which can be found online at
www.otixglobal.com.
SOURCE Sonic Innovations, Inc.