Alumni Update from Alina Barnes who is a graduate from 2018:
“Hello there!
I am Alina Barnes and I am a South Florida gal that attended both undergrad (2016) and graduate (2018) CSD programs at Harding University. The Harding CSD faculty is unlike any other and they helped shape me to be the person/therapist I am today. In the classes I took, I made some friends that I know will be life-long. Love ya, Indigo ladies!
While in both programs, cognition therapy was my favorite and I felt such a calling to work with the elderly in SNFs and short term care facilities. But oh how God knows our path way more than we do. The summer I graduated I did a complete 180 and decided to apply for a school position through contract companies and in the fall I began working as a contact speech therapist in the Little Rock school district. My husband and I have since moved to Salt Lake City, but I am still working with school-age and loving it. I am no longer contract, but a full time speech therapist at two elementary schools. The imagination, goofiness, and challenges that come along with being a school SLP bring me so much joy and now I can’t imagine doing anything else. Who knows, though, another 180 might be coming my way any moment. That’s something you just have to come to terms with; you don’t know what’s going to happen. You might go through years of school interested in only one aspect of speech language pathology and then end up working in a completely different part of our field. Please keep your mind and heart open to it all while in school. Don’t tune out when the lecture is about something you aren’t interested in because one day it might be something you’re devoted to.
If any of you undergraduates or graduate students have questions about CSD and career choices, I would love to help! My email is alina.barnes25@gmail.com
Enjoy this time of learning about one of THE coolest professions and have fun helping those who need you in their life to communicate their thoughts, ideas, and questions. Everyone deserves that ability.”
Thank you for sharing, Alina!