What inspired you to pursue speech-language pathology? 

The field of Speech-Language Pathology resonated with my desire to teach, guide, and help people through therapy. I have had tinnitus since a very early age, which still affects my hearing and communicative abilities today. I appreciate people who willingly repeat themselves slowly and clearly multiple times, and I want to emulate that same patience and understanding in my own practice. 

Tell us about the factors that had the most impact on your success.

When I started to build my application, I first became a volunteer Communication Facilitator for a stroke recovery group run by the City of Coquitlam. I luckily met a friend there who referred me to a job as a Behaviour Interventionist (BI). I used my experience there and my completion of the Learning and Developmental Disabilities Minor to obtain and transition to a role as a Speech-Language Pathology Assistant (SLPa). As an SLPa, I met so many people with skills and mindsets to aspire to, and they continue to shape the kind of clinician I want to be.

I have also obtained the honour of being part of the Language and Brain (LAB) Lab, after many applications and taking a course with the lab’s director, Dr. Yue Wang. I was able to gain a more comprehensive and functional understanding of experimental processes that I could not have gotten from taking a research methods course. 

While balancing 2-3 extracurriculars throughout my 3rd and 4th year, I took around 3-4 courses per semester and maintained a high GPA. On top of my Major in Linguistics and Minor in Learning and Developmental Disabilities, I also completed a Minor in Psychology and Linguistics of Speech Science Certificate. I focused on taking courses that could be applied to the field of SLP. Together, I think these factors displayed my high work ethic and promise as a graduate student because I was able to excel under a heavy workload. 

Please explain your approach to the letter of intent.

I started my letter of intent in September, with the deadline being February 1st. In retrospect, I wish I gave myself more time, as I was also juggling several important courses with my lab work and SLPa position. The best advice I received when writing my letter was to focus on what I gained from each experience, rather than recounting what I did.

I got my letter checked by several people on multiple occasions, including Student Advisor Rita Parmar, a clinician from my work, a professor from SFU, and a student who got accepted in the program last year. It is extremely important to get feedback from multiple people, but not too many where your letter’s direction becomes uncertain. I made eight drafts before being satisfied with my final copy. 

If you could give one piece of advice to yourself as a first-year student, what would it be?

A piece of advice that I would give to my first-year self would be to explore your options and stay curious. Keep yourself flexible and open to change. I would give myself this advice because I was initially a Psychology major before a Linguistics major. If I did some exploring earlier, I could have discovered Linguistics and Speech-Language Pathology sooner and changed directions earlier. However, I have no regrets about how my path went.

Is there anything else that you would like to share?

Everyone’s path to becoming an MSLP student is different. I did not start working towards this goal until I entered my 3rd year as a university student. It took a lot of cold emails, unanswered applications on Indeed, and luck to get where I am now. One of the first experiences I received was an SLP observation at the Children’s Hearing and Speech Centre of BC, which I got from a cold email inquiring about volunteer positions.

I could not have done this without relying on so many others. Above all else, I have found so many mentors that challenged and improved my own thinking. Some of these mentors include Dr. Henny Yeung and Dr. Robert Williamson, but a lot of them came from unlikely places, like the Occupational Therapy Assistants from my workplace or my manager from my Co-op term at Transport Canada.