Operation Smile at ISU is a registered student organization for undergraduate and graduate students in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) and other disciplines who want to learn about cleft lip/palate while participating in fundraising opportunities to provide surgical care for children.
Are you interested in connecting with students in CSD? Would you like to also meet students from other disciplines outside CSD, like nursing, education, and business? Interested in learning more about cleft lip/palate? If you answered yes to any of these questions, Operation Smile at ISU may be for you!
The Operation Smile at ISU executive board: Grace Watson (back, left), Ashleigh Tira, Carly Cheatham, Kathryn Judy (front, left), Hannah McGivney, and Natalia Haberny.
Operation Smile is a registered student organization (RSO) at ISU. It is a sub-group of the international Operation Smile organization, which focuses on providing children with safe surgical care for cleft lip/palate. The primary goals of Operation Smile at ISU are to (1) raise funding for children with cleft lip/palate so they can receive surgical care, and (2) spread awareness of cleft lip/palate on Illinois State’s campus and in the Bloomington-Normal community. This past fall semester, students in Operation Smile raised over $100 for a surgery through a Halloween bake sale. They also heard from a guest speaker who shared his experiences growing up with cleft lip/palate, allowing students to learn from someone who has had cleft lip/palate surgeries and therapy, and what life might look like for someone before and after treatment for cleft lip/palate.
Operation Smile at ISU has great things in the works for the spring semester! The group plans to have a Valentine’s Day fundraising bake sale, guest speakers who have experience serving those with cleft lip/palate, and a tie-dye T-shirt social event.
If you are interested in joining Operation Smile this spring, please contact Hannah McGivney, president of Operation Smile at ISU. You can also follow Operation Smile at ISU on Instagram for more information and for announcements about upcoming events.
