As a 24-year-old Latina, I was born and raised in Miami, Florida which is one the most diverse cities that have a positive impact on the Latin community. I was first exposed to the speech pathology field when I was a small child. I had to attend speech therapy because I struggled with minor speech difficulties such as pronunciation and expressing myself specifically, in Spanish. My whole family speaks Spanish that’s the only I can communicate with them as a result, when I began to learn how to speak English my Spanish isn’t good as it used to be. I was better expressing myself better in English than in Spanish. When I completed my therapy sessions, my pronunciation and communication skills in both languages improved substantially. I will be graduating from the certification program in Sciences and Disorders this coming spring of 2020 from Florida International University with an undergraduate of psychology. When I began my Intro to communication disorders, I was fascinated by the process of language acquisition and saddened but inspired by the individuals with commutation disorders. I was fortunate enough; I was able to observe cases under the supervision of a speech-language pathologist which was required in the intro class. I observed the methods they utilized such as story-telling to help the child form sentences and how pronounce the words, as they worked together as a team.
I am interested in specializing in bilingual and Spanish-speaking students, who have communication disabilities (Dysphasia, Feeding. and Swallowing Disorders, Aphasia, and Apraxia). I want to work with a variety of clients such as children, adolescents, and adults because I want to gain experience with each population whether it’s at a school, hospital, or private practice setting. As a speech pathologist, my goal is to have my clients communicate in the most effective way possible so they can feel better about themselves and have equal professional opportunities in their lives. As a Graduate student at FIU, I am currently volunteering at Speech Pathology & Educational Center Alfano Center, and I have volunteered at Language and Spatial lab. Through this experience, I learned about selective mutism and how to administer several tests as well as observed the variety of methods that Speech-Language Pathologists to conduct therapy tailored to the patient’s needs. This experience has taught me the importance of implementing patience and kindness while working with children and adults.
My desire to pursue this goes beyond just learning more. I hope, obtaining admittance into the Speech pathology Masters program at Florida Intentional University it will expand my knowledge about speech and language disorders, learn about how to assist and counsel the client and their family, and obtain experience in the field. I believe this program is the right for me because it emphasizes bilingual speech pathologists which develop the abilities I need to help bilingual individuals in specialized care. Most importantly, the master's program in Speech-Language Pathology at Florida International University is accredited by the Council on Academic Accreditation in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology.