Blog 6 - Advisory Prep

1. What has worked well for you concerning senior project this year? What has made it a positive experience for you?

• When I started my senior project with my grandmother as my mentor, I was worried I was going to grow quite weary of her. It has actually turned out to be quite the opposite, I look forward to watching my grandmother work, and by extension, I look forward to watching her other SLPA's do their jobs as well. Working with someone so near and dear to my heart has been more of a positive experience than I was expecting going into this project.

2.What are you finding difficult concerning senior project? How can you adapt to make that portion work better for you? How might the senior team help?

• What I'm finding difficult concerning my senior project is finding an essential question. Im not sure how I can adapt to make that portion work better for me? I suppose just doing more and more research would do. I'm also not sure what the senior team might do to help. I'm not even sure what direction I want to take my essential question nor am I aware of what are of Speech-Language Pathology I should focus in on. 

Blog 5 - Interview 1 Reflection

1. I learned that every speech therapist, whether they work in a clinical setting, a school setting, or  a home setting, has a specific standard of work and even in that, no speech therapist performs them the same. There is no correct way to help a child learn especially because every lesson plan is crafted specifically for that child. In reality, everything depends on the client.
2. I don't regret interviewing David or the way that the interview went. If I were to change anything, it would jus the of course to interview someone different. As in, instead of interviewing a SLPA in a clinical setting, like David, I'd interview a SLPA in a hospital setting because they're two completely different work environments and they work with completely different clients. 
3. During this interview, David didn't specifically give me specific contacts but he did recall an introductory book on Speech Pathology that he would get me the name of sometimes after the interview.
4. Since I haven't received the book yet, I can't give an accurate description but I feel that since David used it at the beginning of his journey into Speech Pathology, that it could be very beneficial to me. I'll make sure to get back to you on that.
5. What makes my interviewee qualified to help me is the fact that he as an SLPA works under my mentor, Sara Miranda, who's an SLP. Sara Miranda has a Master's Degree in Sciences and Communicative Disorders which makes her an expert in her field and for David to be under her wing makes him also on his way to becoming an expert in his field. David has been working 2 years at My World Speech Therapy and plans to go back to school for his Masters degree in one year.

Blog 4 - House Advisory Prep 1

What I hope to accomplish through my senior project topic is to discover whether Speech-Language Pathology should be a career path that I seriously consider to pursue. My mother and grandmother are both speech therapist and my grandma is the owner of a Speech-Language Pathology business. This being said,  if I were to go into speech therapy, it would be very easy for me to get a job and make a living. At this point in my life though, I can't see myself every being in the communicative disorder field, and definitely not Speech-Language Pathology. So, like I stated above, I would like to see if, by me dedicating a year of my life to Speech-Language Pathology, it could be a serious career choice in the future.

Blog 3 - First Interview Preparation

1. Who do you plan to interview? Why? 

• I plan to interview Speech-Language Pathologist Veronica Guitron. I plan to interview Veronica because she is a licensed Speech Therapist which means she has to be an expert in her field . I deem her an expert in her field  because in order to get your Speech-Language Pathology license you much have a master's degree from one of 300+ accredited programs. 

2. Five additional questions.

1. What made you interested in becoming a Speech-Language Pathologist? 

1. Did you know from a young age that this was the career you were going to end up with?

1. Had you not gone to school for Speech-Language Pathology, what would you have gone to school for? 

1. Could you see yourself going to school longer to get a higher degree in your field? 

1. Do you eventually want to be an owner of your own private practice ?

Blog 2 - Summer Mentorship

(me and mentor/grandma/sara romo miranda)

1. List the contact name, phone number, and organization of the person with whom you volunteered.

      

Name: Sara Romo Miranda Phone Number: (626)419-8627 Organization: My World Speech Therapy 

2. What qualified this person as an expert in your topic choice?     

• What qualifies Mrs. Miranda as an expert in my topic choice is the fact that she went to college for 7 years and has a Masters Degree in science in the field of Speech and Language Pathology. She also owns a speech therapy business,  My World Speech Therapy, that she's run for 8 years. 

• The most important thing I learned from this experience is that every speech therapist has their own way of being with the client and making sure the client is progressing. There is no "correct" way to help a client hit their mile stones. I also realized that while all these children have speech problems, their is still a wide range of struggle they could be going through.  No two children are alike as well as the treatment they are receiving. I think it's the most important because it shows me that if I did ever decide to pursue speech therapy, when I get to working with clients it is still possible to put my own twist into it. I can still make relationships with the children in my own way and I get to decide what I think will help them the most. I think the freedom to make your own choice is important when choosing a career. 

• My senior project is going to be speech and language pathology. Mentorship didn't really help decide my senior project though. I chose this topic because my grandma and my mom are both speech therapist and my grandma owns her own speed therapy business so it's a very important part of my life that iv'e never really given to much attention. I decided that devoting a school year of my life to it would help show my appreciation for the craft as well as help me decide if I wanted to join the business eventually. What summer mentorship did help with was show me that speech therapy is not completely boring and that there are a lot of things to learn , so I would be okay dedicating my senior year to it. 

3. List three questions for further exploration now that you've completed your summer hours.   

Question 1: Is it much different, more complicated maybe,  working with a 3-4 year old compared to working with a 12-14 year old?

Question 2: Do you think being a speech therapist makes it more stressful being a parent because there is a constant need to make sure your child is meeting the standard that you've been taught your child, at whatever age they are,  must be meeting?

Question 3: Is it more comfortable working at a child's home, the main office, or at a school/hospital? 

4. What is the most important thing you gained from this experience? Why?

5. What is your senior project topic going to be?  How did mentorship help you make your decision?  Please explain.

Blog 1 - Senior Final Lesson / Interview Reflection

1.  What three lessons were most helpful for you to see and why?

1.  Veterinary Medicine by Jessica Castillo. This presentation was helpful to me because I might want to pursue veterinary medicine as my senior project so it gave me a small insight of what I would be signing myself up for if I did decide to embark on the journey of veterinary medicine. It also helped me realize that my activity didn't have to be academic and boring, it could be a cute little 'pretend to be a vet' play sort of thing.  

1. Criminal Law by Givanti Chatapal. Givanti seemed very passionate about her subject. She was very well informed and rarely ever looked at her power point, except to make reference to it for her audience's sake. It help me to see that it would be my best bet to pick something that I'm excited and ready to learn about. Also, her debate activity was really engaging and was extremely relevant to her topic so it felt like that might have gotten us to pay more attention after. So I should try and find an enthralling and blood-pumping activity as well. 

1. Wildlife Rehabilitation by Alyssa Jurkevics. This presentation, or lack there of, was really helpful in showing me what not to do. She didn't show up to her presentation and it is literally the most important aspect of our senior year. Its essentially what our entire senior year leads up to and she flubbed it. I should not do that and I should be prepared and confident in myself to pull through with what I need to do. 

1.  One thing that I learned about senior project in interviews that will help me get off to a good start is choosing a topic that I'm prepared to pursue. A lot of people talked about having to get a new mentor because their previous one was flaky as heck. There was also the complaint of the topic losing its flair and being forced to do and learn about something that you honestly couldn't care less about. There's also the fear of not having adequate information to fulfill research checks as well as not enough information to talk about for half an hour. I should just pick a topic that I'm bursting to learn about, that there is constantly something being learned about regarding the topic, and that I feel secure in committing an entire year of my life living IN this topic. 

1. Veterinary medicine: Ive always loved animals and learning about the care and keeping of them. Ive always personally felt that animals are much better than people, morally and emotionally , and it would be great to so if this is something I would want to do for the rest of my life. 

1. Zoology: The same reasoning as veterinary medicine expect now I get to do it with more exotic animals. Monkeys are pretty amazing. 

1. Architecture: I enjoy learning more hands on and what could be more hands on than building something with your own actual hands. Also, I think that there is more than meets the eye to architecture and I would like to see if thats true. Another thing is that, buildings are pretty cool. Yes, you have your standard four walls and one ceiling but then you have the really beautiful stuff like the Sydney Opera House and St.Basil's Cathedral in Moscow. 

1. Speech and langage pathology: My grandma is a speech and language pathologist, as is my mom, my aunt works at the same business and is contemplating getting the same degree and then, my uncle's past girlfriend was getting a degree in something else but decided to transfer over and become a speech therapist when she met my grandma and mom and went to visit their business for a couple weeks. I would just want to see what all the fuss is about. I also think that people deserve to be able to speak and its pretty cool that people come to you when they think that their child is never going to say a word and BAM!, you get their kid talking. 

1. Im just going to decide to answer this question based off of doing my project on speech and language pathology. Maybe, "What is the most effective plan of action to get a child to their expected level of speech?"

1. Not to sound super unprepared or anything but, honestly , at this exact point in my life. At 1:55 AM on Wednesday the 3rd of June, I have had so much going on lately that I haven't really come up with any plans to find summer mentorship. I have the LA ZOO 30  minutes away, my grandma and mom are speech therapist and my grandma owns her own business, my uncle is an engineer and is working side-by-side architects, daily, at his job, and there is an animal clinic not more than 5 minutes away from my home. Im not entirely in the dark about mentorship, I know where I cold go to find them, but I haven't really come up with a way to pursue these mentors. Im going to though, don't you worry. I have everything under control. 

2. List one thing that you learned about senior project in interviews that will help you get off to a good start. 

3. What topic(s) are you considering, and why?  

4. What E.Q do you think might be interesting to consider in guiding a project like this? 

5. What are some ideas you have about finding summer mentorship?