With the ever-growing ability of modern medicine to find and combat cancer in the early stages, people are now having the wonderful opportunity to live longer and fuller lives. However, with survival of disease often comes a period of readjustment to establish a 'new normal' for what an individual may have to deal with due to surgery and medicinal side-effects. In what can be a trying and frightening time in a survivor's life, it is invaluable to have trained professionals to provide understanding, comfort and the tools to help bridge the divide between being one who is recovering and becoming one who is once more in control of leading their life in the way they choose. With survivors of head and neck cancers and stroke survivors, that responsibility lies with the speech-language pathologists.
I feel I have so much to contribute to this area of the field. As a cancer survivor, I have an intimate understanding of how much of one's life goes in to recovery and the kind of care that is most useful to a patient. I know the impatience and frustration of not being able to complete tasks that were once thought basic. I have experienced the vocal trauma from surgical intubation and the struggle that major surgery places on the vocal mechanism. I have learned that patience, knowledge and strength from those around you is key in this trying time. It is absolutely necessary to feel personal support from healthcare professionals and to have complete trust in therapists if the recovery period is to be successful.
As a professional singer, I have over a decade of experience in the field of vocal production. I have seen and personally experienced a wide variety of voice disorders along the way. Using various methodologies learned from therapists, teachers and personal trial, I have taught vocal students along with myself how to heal the wounded voice with great success. I am still very much a student of voice and am continually increasing my skill set as a vocal technician with the advances in singing technique. Studies from the past few decades on contemporary singing such as rock, pop and "belt" in the chest resonance show that there is still much to learn and study with the ever-changing field of singing. My constant desire to learn and keep current with evolving methodology in these fields will be paramount in my career as a Speech-Language Pathologist.
I have found that creative thinking comes in very useful in helping students from different backgrounds. The ability to make mundane vocal exercises fresh and personalized for a variety of ages and backgrounds as I have done in music lessons would translate easily to the clinical field. In experiences as music directors of productions and vocal supervisors of casts, I have worked with a broad spectrum of personality types and ability and have evolved as a leader and instructor because of the challenges.
Beyond a knowledge of Spanish from my bi-lingual household, I have an undergraduate knowledge of several languages through song study and singing professionally abroad. The advantage a singer has in language training is the very specific study of phonetics and how they differentiate from language to language. With my knowledge of the International Phonetic Alphabet and years of close and careful study in the voice classroom, I already have the tools to demonstrate and dissect vocal placement in a variety of languages. It seems natural that this would help with understanding the specific vocal challenges of many different patients, such as those with apraxia of speech and those recovering from laryngeal and oral cancers.
I am eager to embark on graduate studies in Communication Disorders to create a scientific vocabulary and clinical-based background for myself in a field I already feel involved in. I want the training and knowledge to be able to broaden my scope of vocal production into the medical field and help people who have lost the ability to communicate effectively. Knowing the skills to help people return to a social, communicative lifestyle is something I find so important and rewarding. I sincerely hope acceptance into this program is the first step towards a fulfilling career in Communication Disorders.
I feel I have so much to contribute to this area of the field. As a cancer survivor, I have an intimate understanding of how much of one's life goes in to recovery and the kind of care that is most useful to a patient. I know the impatience and frustration of not being able to complete tasks that were once thought basic. I have experienced the vocal trauma from surgical intubation and the struggle that major surgery places on the vocal mechanism. I have learned that patience, knowledge and strength from those around you is key in this trying time. It is absolutely necessary to feel personal support from healthcare professionals and to have complete trust in therapists if the recovery period is to be successful.
As a professional singer, I have over a decade of experience in the field of vocal production. I have seen and personally experienced a wide variety of voice disorders along the way. Using various methodologies learned from therapists, teachers and personal trial, I have taught vocal students along with myself how to heal the wounded voice with great success. I am still very much a student of voice and am continually increasing my skill set as a vocal technician with the advances in singing technique. Studies from the past few decades on contemporary singing such as rock, pop and "belt" in the chest resonance show that there is still much to learn and study with the ever-changing field of singing. My constant desire to learn and keep current with evolving methodology in these fields will be paramount in my career as a Speech-Language Pathologist.
I have found that creative thinking comes in very useful in helping students from different backgrounds. The ability to make mundane vocal exercises fresh and personalized for a variety of ages and backgrounds as I have done in music lessons would translate easily to the clinical field. In experiences as music directors of productions and vocal supervisors of casts, I have worked with a broad spectrum of personality types and ability and have evolved as a leader and instructor because of the challenges.
Beyond a knowledge of Spanish from my bi-lingual household, I have an undergraduate knowledge of several languages through song study and singing professionally abroad. The advantage a singer has in language training is the very specific study of phonetics and how they differentiate from language to language. With my knowledge of the International Phonetic Alphabet and years of close and careful study in the voice classroom, I already have the tools to demonstrate and dissect vocal placement in a variety of languages. It seems natural that this would help with understanding the specific vocal challenges of many different patients, such as those with apraxia of speech and those recovering from laryngeal and oral cancers.
I am eager to embark on graduate studies in Communication Disorders to create a scientific vocabulary and clinical-based background for myself in a field I already feel involved in. I want the training and knowledge to be able to broaden my scope of vocal production into the medical field and help people who have lost the ability to communicate effectively. Knowing the skills to help people return to a social, communicative lifestyle is something I find so important and rewarding. I sincerely hope acceptance into this program is the first step towards a fulfilling career in Communication Disorders.
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