Graduate / my clinical experience - speech language pathologist personal statement [3]

Feel free to be as brutally honest as necessary!

I decided to pursue my master's degree in speech-language pathology when I realized the massive amounts of information I had crammed in my head over the past three and a half years was not going to be enough to become a successful speech-language pathologist. When I first became a communication sciences and disorders major I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I have come to learn it is a taxing major that takes dedication, patience, and determination. The best part about the difficulty of the major is how accomplished you feel after every test you take, after every paper you write, and even the five out of five points you earned on the most simplistic assignments. Over the years I have grown to love everything about the field of speech-language pathology from the classes to the teachers and most important finishing my first clinical experience. However, there is so much more to learn and experience that four years cannot possibly provide. Essentially, pursuing a graduate degree will provide an opportunity to expand my knowledge in a multitude of areas of speech-language pathology and make a greater impact in the lives of others.

I first became interested in speech-language pathology when I was in high school. During the summers I worked as a lifeguard and loved interacting with the kids on my breaks. One boy in particular always interested me, he was a very bright little boy about four years of age the first time I met him. His speech was highly unintelligible at the time, and for three summers I watched him struggle to communicate and interact with the other children. He spent a lot of time with me and I realized that was because I was one of the few people that had the patience and took the time to understand him. Four summers later Trevor came up to me and his speech was clear, and even though he was over articulating just about every word I was utterly amazed. I remember thinking how, in just nine months, did this boy go from only producing vowels to having one hundred percent intelligible speech. I spoke with his parents to discover he had seen a speech-language pathologist throughout the school year. I was absolutely fascinated by this remarkable change and with that I realized speech-language pathology was a career I wanted to pursue.

This past semester I had my first clinical experience. My client was a three-year old male with a diagnosis of childhood apraxia of speech and an expressive language delay. At the start of the semester I was not sure how I would work with this client being I had not had a class on the disorder. However, with some research and a crash course from my supervisor I was able to develop the clinical skills to become competent. I was able to conduct each session in an organized manner, make adjustments in order with his behavior and attention, and write session reports and a final semester report successfully. The first time I realized something had clicked with my client it sunk in that in conjunction with my supervisor, I was making a difference. To see him understand something and know he had produced a word correctly was amazing. I was excited for him and he was excited for himself making all the hard work, effort, and lack of sleep completely worth it. Over the course of the semester I was able to make significant gains in his spoken language production and increase his overall intelligibly. His mother reported he was using more words at home and was more easily understood by others. I realize significant amounts of progress will not be made with every client I encounter however even the slightest bit of progress can make a difference in someone's life.

Not only have I learned a lot from my clinical experience, but also by volunteering for a number of things such as big brothers big sisters, best buddies, NSSHLA, and peer tutoring. Learning to stay focused, juggle extracurricular activities, and still maintain appropriate grades are traits that make speech-language pathology students as well rounded as they are. The expectations of the major are set high and take students with dedications and determination to make it through. Although I have not made straight A's every semester and my GPA is not a 4.0, I have worked hard to formulate and achieve my academic goals. There is always room to grow and getting a B in a class is not failure but a learning experience. Most of all it was an indicator to me what I needed to study harder and work to understand more. Not everyone is perfect and people are going to make mistakes it is those that learn from those mistakes and work harder to accomplish what they can't be perfect at that succeed in what they do.

In terms of my future, I plan to pursue a career in an educational setting in order to work with children. However, I do not plan on limiting myself to specific expectations and am willing to take on any opportunities that I am presented with. The University of Wisconsin Milwaukee is of interest to me because it allows opportunities for externships in a variety of practicum settings including medical, rehabilitation, school, and birth-to-three sites. The Communication Sciences and Disorders program at University of Wisconsin Milwaukee will allow me the opportunity to acquire a master's degree in only two calendar years that will benefit me academically and prepare me for a successful career in speech-language pathology.