My brother has a stuttering disorder that has affected him all his life. Through the years, I saw many kids bully him about his speech problem. In those instances, I would get frustrated because these kids did not understand my brother was so much more than a boy who stutters. To help him move past the bullying, I worked with my brother to practice the strategies he learned in speech therapy. I reminded him to slow down his speech and always utilized patience when waiting for him to finish his thoughts. My desire to help my brother and others like him gave me my initial spark for becoming a speech-language pathologist. This spark has continued to grow throughout my education and related experiences, making me an excited and ideal candidate for your program.
During my undergraduate years, I contributed to Dr. Sarah Robinson’s research at the University of North Dakota. Research in this lab focused primarily on children’s literacy and the impact it has on vocabulary acquisition. While taking on several roles as an assistant, I discovered a
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At this school, I observed an ASHA-certified speech-language pathologist for nearly fifty hours. During this time, I observed treatment and evaluation sessions with a diverse group of students in kindergarten through fifth grade, even leading therapy for several of these sessions. Students I met experienced Down syndrome, autism, childhood apraxia of speech, language disorders, articulation disorders, and fluency disorders. Many of these students reminded me of my brother, reinforcing my desire to make a difference in their world. This experience showed me how to successfully implement treatment and opened my eyes to a setting where I would love to work. Through completing your program and continuing work with Dr. Sarah Robinson, I feel confident my skills and knowledge would help me succeed in working with individuals via the school