Ethan Chen, B.A.

Ethan grew up in San Jose and completed his undergraduate degree in communication sciences and disorders at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. He is now an audiology student at Northwestern University and is currently doing his externship at Pacific Hearing Service.

Having witnessed how hearing loss impacted his grandfather’s life, Ethan decided that an audiology career was what he wanted to pursue. While growing up, he noticed that his grandpa had more and more difficulty hearing things around him, and Ethan wanted to enter a field where he would be able to help him.

While in college, Ethan volunteered with speech language pathologists and audiologists, and he learned that he loved the work of both specialties. What pulled him toward audiology, though, was knowing that one day he would be able to assist his grandpa. Ethan shares that the team of audiologists sat him down and went into great detail about why they loved what they did. This collective team effort and family inspiration pulled him toward hearing healthcare.

As our doctoral student extern at Pacific Hearing Service, Ethan’s goal is to do what our audiologists are doing. He regularly participates in appointments with the audiologists, fine-tunes hearing aids, performs diagnostic evaluations, charts what is happening in the appointment, and does whatever the audiologists have him do, receiving assistance when needed. Additionally, Ethan helps with Pacific Hearing Connection, our nonprofit, in order to give back to the community.

Ethan loves his team and patients. He notes that so many people bring a great attitude into the office, and many more leave happy and thankful for being able to hear a little bit better. He likes how every day is varied and different, often bringing many different perspectives to his days in the office.

In his free time, Ethan enjoys cooking, going on hikes with his dog, Milo, and playing the occasional video game.