SLHS Summer Experiences

Hello NSSLHA students and welcome back to Purdue! Hope you had a great summer and a successful start to your school year! I’m Audrey the newest Corresponding Secretary for NSSLHA and have the pleasure of updating the blog over this next school year.

We are starting to get busy into the semester, but this first post will look into the different experiences students in the program enjoyed this summer. While not many students going into Speech Pathology or Audiology do summer internships, there are still plenty of opportunities to gain valuable experiences! Here are two students in the major to share what they did this summer.

Paayal Surani- Senior:

 In addition to taking the GRE this summer, I was a volunteer researcher at Northwestern University’s Aphasia Lab located in Evanston, Illinois. I was able to sit in on some of their lab meetings where I gave my thoughts and ideas to help enhance their research designs. These designs were administered to their Aphasia patients to help collect data, which would then be used to provide knowledge in the speech community. In addition, I used Praat and other computer programs to assist me in analyzing eye tracking and speech data. This data was gathered by looking at passive sentences produced by Aphasia patients. It was very interesting to see how much bigger their lab was compared to Purdue’s Aphasia lab. Everyone was very friendly and I absolutely loved doing research there!

Besides working at Northwestern University’s Aphasia lab, I got a unique opportunity to work at Horsefeathers Therapeutic Riding located in Lake Forest, Illinois. I assisted a speech therapist giving speech therapy to a child while riding horses. I know…how cool is that?! This was the first time a speech therapist allowed me to come up with new ideas for treatment goals and actually implement them in therapy. I learned quickly that I had to be creative and flexible, all while paying attention to the child’s form to make sure they had proper breath support. Working with horses and children with speech impediments was challenging yet invaluable. This experience opened my eyes to all of the opportunities outside of a clinical or lab setting. Now, I could really see myself working in an equine environment part time when I become a SLP. It really was so much fun!

Kate Christman- Senior:

This summer I was given the opportunity to have an unforgettable experience. I spent the summer working in Cornerstone Autism Center with a Speech-Language Pathologist. Being immersed within this environment gave me new eyes to the occupation I was pursuing. My feelings toward my chosen career were strengthened as the exposure in this setting was nothing but rewarding.

Having the chance to be within a center specific to the needs of children with autism gave me a new outlook since my exposure with children was very little. Not only did I have little exposure to children in general in the speech therapy setting, but autism was a new area that I gladly was able to explore.

I would note that this past summer was definitely reassuring for me. Having doubts about one's career path are common, but fortunately I have not had these doubts. I am grateful that even after being given a summer to spend in such a rewarding environment, I still have the strong desire and zero doubt about becoming a Speech-Language Pathologist!