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- Year Of Graduation: 2022
- College/University: St. Joseph’s University (bachelor’s), University of Connecticut (master’s)
- Major: Linguistics (minor in Spanish)
What do you do for a living? Can you share what a typical day at work looks like? Do you enjoy what you do?
I am a speech pathologist, or SLP. I work with anywhere from preschool to 8th grade, all at one school. I also have some students at an off-campus classroom who are more around college age.
I have a set schedule of who I need to see on what day, and I can see anywhere from one to three or four kids in a group per day, in a 30-minute session. Those require a lot of games and entertainment, as I do work with kids, which is fun. Sometimes I bring them into my classroom, and then other times I go to their classroom, like with my very little kids.
I do enjoy working with my students. They’re so sweet, and they’re so cute! My co-workers are also super nice. My school is just a very healthy environment in general.
For those that may not know, can you explain what speech pathology is? How would someone pursue this path, if interested?
Speech pathology, or speech therapy, can be for any age range, really. We can work from birth to end-of-life care. At my school, I work with kids who have articulation issues, for example, not being able to say “R” sounds properly. That’s what resonates with people the most when I mention speech therapy. We also work on language, like answering “WH” questions, making inferences based on short stories, and all that kind of stuff. If you want to skew more to the adult side, we can work on cognitive things, like memory and even swallowing or feeding. That’s more medical, and I’ve done both.
To become an SLP, you first need to get your bachelor’s, and then you have either two or three years for your master’s. My program was two years long, so I got out quickly. In those two years of grad school, as part of the program, you do a bunch of different placements, like I did a clinic, I’ve done a nursing home, and I’ve done schools. So just a big mix.
Can you tell me about your experience finding a job after graduation? Are you happy with where your journey has led you thus far?
It was hard to put my mindset towards finding a job after being in school for so long. We had like a sort of like, conversation while I was in grad school about the different types of interviews you could be in, how to negotiate, and all that kind of stuff. But then, actually sitting down in an interview was so scary. I hadn’t done that in a very, very long time. It’s having all that knowledge that’s in your brain and putting it into practice, and you’re staring at someone, and they’re asking you all these questions about how you would fit into this career.
I had a bunch of interviews. I had a bunch in Connecticut, and then I also had some in New York City. Going back and forth with those was a bit of a challenge, but I just settled. It definitely didn’t take super long. I started interviewing at the beginning of summer, and then I had a job by July. This is just because speech is an area of need. There’s a shortage of SLPs around the country in general.
Why did you choose your undergrad major? Do you feel your time spent in college was valuable? Why or why not?
My mom was the first person to tell me about this path, and when she told me about it, I was just not listening because, you know, when you’re younger, you’re not really listening to anything that people have to say to you. But then I met this person on a vacation one year, and she had been in college for speech pathology, and I was like, “Okay, well this is the second time I’m hearing about this field. Maybe I should look into it.” At my undergrad, speech pathology was a track under the linguistics program. So, I took my first linguistics class, and I fell in love with the world of language, and here we are.
I definitely feel like my college time was valuable. I learned a lot about myself and about the world of linguistics and speech. With linguistics, it was an overarching theme of my undergrad, and then we had some speech-specific classes that I needed to get into grad school. I also did my minor in Spanish, which was really cool. I started learning Spanish when I was about 12 years old, in the seventh grade, I think.
When I first went into college, though, I went in undeclared. I was “undecided humanities.” I feel like that’s a common experience. I had no idea what I wanted to do, so I decided that I would just take all general classes and then see what fit me. I had just turned 18, so I was still in the mindset of like, “Oh, I’m still a kid.” Like, I had just come out of high school. I guess I wasn’t really taking it entirely seriously at first.
If I asked you three years ago, what goals would you hope you’ve achieved in life or career?
I’m about to turn 25. So three years ago, I was 21, about to turn 22. I would have hoped to still be living in Philadelphia, but that is not the case. I would have really liked to see myself working in a school. I did want to work in a school before grad school. I knew what I wanted. I would have liked to see myself just enjoying the career that I had chosen.
How important is it to have a purpose-driven life? Why or why not? Do you think you’re on a path to do that? If not, what needs to change?
I think it’s very important, but it’s hard to think that way when you’re so young. I think I locked in and realized that when I was in grad school, I was like, “Okay, I need to focus and really make sure that I’m on the correct path to success.” Once you realize it, I think it’s extremely important to realize that you have a purpose to further yourself. I would say my current definition of success is being happy with my career and the path that I have chosen.
What’s your biggest struggle right now? What led to it? How are you moving forward?
My biggest struggle right now is figuring out if I want to stay in school-based work, because there is a lot that goes into being a school-based SLP. But like, there is a lot that goes into being a medical SLP, too. With school, there’s a lot of paperwork. I’m always filling out paperwork. With medical, there’s less of that, but you’re dealing with insurance. So, that’s a completely different switch.
Also, in the speech field as a whole, there are, I think, 3% of speech pathologists who are Black. It’s also a field dominated by women. I am Black and I am a male, so going into that field and going into that experience for grad school, it was very difficult for me, especially in the more rural area that UConn is in. It’s in upper Connecticut. Being the only Black person in my cohort definitely took a toll on my mental well-being.
I sat down with my adviser, and I was like, “Hey, I need some help.” I talked to her a little bit about how I was feeling, and was like, “I have not spoken to anyone of color in a few months besides my parents, and I’m really struggling with that.” She set me up with another girl who was in the year above me in grad school, and we started talking and formed a friendship, and that was very, very important for me.
What interests/hobbies bring you the most happiness?
I really love photography. Gosh, I got my camera when I was 14, so almost 11 years ago now. I really like taking self-portraits and then nature photography, and fashion photography as well. If I’m not being artistic, my favorite hobby is shopping; I’m a shopaholic.
What do you want to spend more time working on? What is stopping you?
Making sure that I’m up to date on all of my skills. When it comes to my job, the world of speech is ever changing. There are new methods and programs like every 5 seconds. So, I just want to make sure I stay up to date with all of that and make sure that I’m giving my students or my clients, or my patients the best care that I can.
If we traveled three years into the future of your life, what do you want to achieve? What would you hope has changed?
Three years in the future, I hope to be working and living in New York City. I would hope that I have firmly picked a career lane, even though I can always switch whenever because there is a need.
What’s the biggest lesson or piece of advice you wish you’d known earlier?
Go after what you want. I sometimes tend to just go with whatever someone’s telling me, rather than what I want. If I had followed this advice sooner, I would have been able to firmly be like, “This is what I want to do, and no one’s changing my mind on that.” But I was, I guess, naive in the sense that I was still a teenager, and I was like, “Oh, I’ll listen to anything anyone says.”
Connect With Greg:
- Instagram: @gregandrsn
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