One of Matthew Ardis’ cochlear implants failed and had to be replaced as he was working on his undergraduate degree in astrophysics. Medical complications forced him to go about eight months without the left implant on his dominant hearing side, making it difficult for Ardis to communicate with others within the hearing community.
To compound matters, the malfunction occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, and two main deterrents to spreading the virus—masks and plexiglass—muffled voices even more for Ardis.
That was when Ardis’ career trajectory took a turn as he decided to be of service to others who had hearing impairments like himself.
On Wednesday, May 20, the 26-year-old Yorba Linda resident will attend the 9 a.m. Commencement ceremony for the Rongxiang Xu College of Health and Human Services at the Shrine Auditorium, where he will receive his Doctor of Audiology (Aud). Cal State LA’s four-year graduate program prepares students to be highly skilled, independent practitioners and leaders in the diagnosis and rehabilitation of patients with hearing loss and balance disorders.
“I made the decision to go into something more people-focused,” said Ardis about his switch to audiology. “I wanted something more rewarding. My experience with the implant failure opened my eyes. I can help people with similar experiences as myself and I can act a little bit like a guide.”
Ardis was diagnosed with profound hearing loss at 11 months and was prescribed hearing aids. He received his first cochlear implant on his left side shortly before turning 2, and the one for his right side at 5.
Cochlear implants are designed to last for a person’s lifetime, but Ardis has already had two failures. The implant on his right side had to be replaced when he was in middle school, which made it hard for him to focus on his schoolwork.
By the second failure, Ardis had a better idea on how to cope, and, despite the extra challenges brought on by COVID-19, technological advances employed during the pandemic made things smoother for him as an undergraduate student at UCLA.
During online classes, for example, he could turn on captioning and turn up his computer’s volume. Ardis said it would have been more difficult to hear in a crowded classroom setting.
Halfway through his junior year, Ardis switched his major from astrophysics to psychology in anticipation of advancing to graduate school to study audiology. He also began to participate in cochlear implant research at USC.
Ardis said he chose Cal State LA’s graduate program because of the proven and inspirational faculty in the Department of Communication Disorders. He singled out Margaret Winter, lecturer and AuD director of clinical education, who was also Ardis’ audiologist when he was younger; Peter Ivory, AuD graduate advisor and director of clinical operations, Hearing and Balance Center at Alhambra; and Alaina Bassett, assistant professor.
“I knew that the people I would be learning from were top-notch,” he said.
As a Cal State LA graduate student, Ardis presented his doctoral investigative project, “Training Cochlear Implant Users’ Pitch Discrimination: Effects on Behavioral/Neural Outcomes,” at the 2025 American Academy of Audiology Annual Convention in New Orleans; displayed a poster at the 2023 Association for Research in Otolaryngology meeting; and served as vice president of the Student Academy of Audiology at Cal State LA.
He was also one of only four students nationwide selected for the American Academy of Audiology for Student Research Forum Award 2025.
Ardis is finishing his audiology residency at Kaiser Permanente in Anaheim and Irvine. His other clinical experience includes time with the Coast Hearing and Balance Center, Advanced Bionics, Hearing Science, and Pacific Neuroscience Institute.
Ardis said working with infants and their parents are some of his most rewarding experiences so far. He can advise them as a trained audiologist, as well as offer his unique perspective as a cochlear-implant recipient.
“I can more accurately describe what the process, the surgery, and the sensations are like,” he said. “Parents ask me personal questions about my devices, and they become more comfortable making decisions for their child. Cochlear implants are still pretty niche; there are a lot of unknowns for a lot of people. The parents see a walking, talking recipient. I share a little bit of my story, and it eases their anxieties. I think it also gives them hope.”
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