Dr. Rose D. Haroian Endowed Scholarship
Criteria: (Amount Equal to Full In-State Tuition) The Dr. Rose D. Haroian Endowed Scholarship will be awarded to a junior with a minimum GPA of 3.0 and a record of service to the college and/or community. The student must demonstrate a desire to continue his or her education in the field of speech/language and hearing.
The late Dr. Rose D. Haroian, a professor at Worcester State University from 1967 to 1979, was the founder of the University’s highly successful Communication Disorders Clinic, now the Speech, Language, and Hearing Clinic. The clinic serves the entire Central Massachusetts area in providing diagnostic and therapeutic services in speech, language, and hearing for people of all ages. Upon her retirement, she received the University’s Professor Emeritus Award and a memorial plaque in her honor was installed in the clinic. Additionally, she was recognized for her achievements in the 1984 edition of Who’s Who of American Women.
A spirited, independent woman who served in the Navy during World War II, Dr. Haroian earned her undergraduate degree from Marietta College and a master’s degree from Boston University, where she validated the Mansur Speech Sound Discrimination Test (now the Boston University Speech Sound Discrimination Test), which has been used throughout the nation in early childhood education. She went on to earn a doctorate in Education Administration from Boston College, where she created the Haroian Early Language Picture Test for deaf children.
Her interests were varied. She worked as a speech and hearing therapist in the Worcester Public Schools. She was a writer for Digital Equipment Corporation, where she was on the team that wrote the original drafts of the “All-In-One” Computer Office Automation Software Program that was used in major government and business institutions throughout the U.S. She was also an adjunct instructor at Quinsigamond Community College, where she developed a genocide course and partnered programs and film presentations dealing with the Armenian genocide.
An accomplished writer, Dr. Haroian contributed articles to magazines including Business Weekly and Health and Nutrition, and was a contributing editorial writer for the Senior Advocate, a free newspaper published in Worcester with a distribution of over 100,000 readers. She also contributed articles to Ararat, a quarterly magazine published in New York. One of the articles, Pieces of Glass, was a loving tribute to her father.
The mother of two children, Dr. Haroian was highly esteemed by her students and colleagues at Worcester State University. A colleague wrote, “She was a long time faculty member who contributed in so many ways to the life of the College.” In 2002, just months prior to her death, she established the first scholarship for students majoring in Communication Disorders at the University.