My name is Michael, and I am the primary creator here at ThinkSLP.
I am certainly no expert in all things SLP, but I enjoy learning as I go and sharing what I find. This blog is a way for me express my creativity, share my thoughts, and hopefully start some conversations about things going on in our field.
Before SLP:
Before making the jump into the world of speech-language pathology, I worked as an educator. I taught in the United State and Mexico. As early as high school, I knew I wanted to work with students. My high school Spanish teacher took notice and asked me to help her tutor English to five migrant children who have moved to our small, Midwestern town from Mexico.
Years later I worked with Upward Bound, providing academic coaching and college admissions counseling to high school students. When I earned a Fulbright Fellowship to teach in Mexico, I jumped at the chance. Beyond my year as a Fulbright Scholar, I stayed for several more teaching in both public and private schools. I also worked with the Institute of International Education, and I served as a member of the selection committee for scholarships like Fulbright-Garcia Robles.
Grad School:
My Journey
When I started thinking about earning my master’s degree, my research led me to the perfect intersection of language, education, and health care: speech-language pathology.
Unfortunately, all I read about graduate school for SLP online was, “admissions are really competitive. Good luck.” I couldn’t find many up-to-date resources focused on SLP grad school specifically, so I decided to put my previous experience tutoring high school students on college admissions to work and create my own resource.
TheSpeechBlog:
TheSpeechBlog helps people interested in becoming speech-language pathologists go from “I think I want to be an SLP,” to “Admitted.” It also documents my own journey applying to graduate school, shares encouragement, tips, and tricks.
SLP To Be
The feedback from my blog readers was so positive, that I reimagined the content into a book. I was working with a publisher to release the book right when COVID-19 changed the world. The publisher had to shelf the project, but encouraged me to pursue self-publication. With the help of a great editor (www.radiusb.com), the book was born.
Grad School
I continued to work on both TheSpeechBlog and the SLP To Be book during graduate school at The University of New Mexico.
My Practice Now:
Now, I work as a bilingual, speech-language pathologist in public schools and private practice. During grad school, I explored other sides of our field like voice feminization, dysphagia, and voice disorders, but knew I’d eventually going back to working with children.
My Goals for This Blog:
With the publication of my book, SLP to Be and really digging into my clinical work, I wanted to find a way to contribute to the ongoing dialog about the myriad and forever evolving issues in our field.
The Four Voiceless Velar Stops (/k/’s)
Questions
Asking questions helps us grow and move forward as a profession in order to better and more justly serve our clients. I plan to contribute to asking (and maybe answering) the right questions.
Comments
I’ll use ThinkSLP has a way to share my thoughts and opinions on issues in our field.
Kudos
I hope to give credit where credit is due to amazing professionals, useful materials and products, and outstanding resources that I come across.
Concerns
Our profession isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. When I’m concerned about something, I hope to share that concern here with you all.