Sunday, March 21, 2010

And now for something completely different...

On a completely unrelated note to the usual posts you find here, I thought I would share some big news in my academic pursuits. (I didn't want to clutter up the Eily update with this rambling.)

So here it is:

I recently told Jesse about my plans to change majors. Okay, before I get blasted here, let me explain. I am currently an Anthropology major. (For those who aren't quite sure what this means, it is, in simple terms "the study of humans.") My real passion, however, was to pursue the specialized field of Linguistic Anthropology. Unfortunately, West Chester has a fantastic department for all of the branches of Anthropology except Linguistic. In truth, the program there is pretty non-existent. Not to mention, a degree in the humanities, no matter how advanced (think PhD here) does little to guarantee me steady employment after graduation. With the current job market, the odds of landing a gig in academia are on par with me running into David Bowie on the street in NYC. Not completely impossible, but very improbable.

I started thinking about what a background in linguistics could be used for in the real world, and that's when lightening struck. Speech Pathology. Think of the speech therapists in schools who assist children with impediments like a lisp. Speech pathology covers not only this arena, but a much wider and varied set of individuals and impediments, as well. I could assist people who have had strokes, or children born with cleft palates. I could work in a school system or a hospital, or even a private practice. No matter what path I choose, I could be making a significant impact on the quality of life for many people. How do you ignore the reward potential in something like that?

After a bit of research, I found out two very important things. 1) Speech Pathology is highly specialized and very few universities in the U.S. have SP programs. 2) West Chester DOES have both undergraduate and graduate SP programs.

Taking both of these into account, I feel like it's just meant to be. I wouldn't have to transfer schools and could still make good use of the scholarship I have to attend WCU. I may have to extend my schooling by a semester or two to accommodate the classes I hadn't anticipated needing, but I think it is a worthwhile sacrifice to pursue something my heart is telling me to do.

So that's my BIG news. I'm really excited about the prospect of doing something to help others and just had to share.

4 comments:

  1. You listened!!! (I recently wrote a blog post calling all audiologists, ENTs, and undeclared college freshman--while you are none of the above, changing your major to speech pathology is essentially "listening" to my call!) As a speech pathologist you would also (could also) be helping kids who are deaf or hard of hearing. I would say definitely follow your heart since as a speech pathologist you could potentially positively influence the lives of children or people in monumental ways. Rock on!!

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  2. Hey! We have a speech therapist at work (she's amazing and works for herself) and she does all sorts of therapy for people with developmental disabilities - she makes INSANE money!!! I think it's a great thing to get into!

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  3. So... While I am fantastically excited for you and what I'm sure will also be a renewed excitement for school (at least for the short term), I also realized that the fate of Kevin's Humanities PhD (from RPI- a total engineering school to begin with) will in fact be very difficult to find employment with. This of course is not new news, but something about someone else putting it in writing makes it harder to swallow! Congrats again!

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  4. Way to copy off of me and change your major;) Just kidding I am happy for you no matter what major you choose. Might as well do it now instead of getting a degree and deciding to go back and start all over

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