February 12, 2025 • 25 mins
Welcome to Digication Scholars Conversations! In this episode, host Kelly Driscoll continues her discussion with Sharron Huang, a recent graduate of Stony Brook University. Sharron reflects on her extensive clinical experiences, the significance of recommendation letters in professional portfolios, and her journey within the speech-language pathology program at Stony Brook.
She shares insights from her externships, teaching experiences, and involvement in academic and extracurricular activities, emphasizing the substantial impact of mentorship and community support on her educational and professional growth.
Tune in to hear Sharron's inspiring story about how she navigated her educational path, forged lasting connections, and contributed to her community.
About Sharron Huang: https://stonybrook.digication.com/sharron-huang/home
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FERPA stands for the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
Second-year students mentor first-year students in the SLPeer program mentioned in this conversation.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to DigicationScholars Conversations.
I'm your host, Kelly Driscoll.
In this episode, you'll hear parttwo of my conversation with Sharron
Huang, recent graduate of Stony BrookUniversity, where she received a BA in
Linguistics, an MA in teaching Englishto speakers of other languages, and
an MS in Speech Language Pathology.
(00:21):
More links and information about today'sconversation can be found on Digication's
Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Full episodes of Digication ScholarsConversations can be found on
YouTube or your favorite podcast app.
You did an extraordinary job sharingthe clinical experiences that I
(00:44):
think, you know, would be so relevantin them making decisions about who
is going to kind of go to the next.
level, you know, beyond just viewingthe resumes, who are they going
to make initial contact to, who isgoing to make it to the, you know,
various rounds of interviews thatI'm sure happen, who becomes in that
(01:07):
final list of candidates to consider.
So, um, and alongside all of theseclinical experiences you had, something
that we don't always see in, um, thesekinds of professional portfolios is
that you had a section where you wereincluding recommendation letters.
(01:29):
So people have a chance, you know,to get some kind of boots on the
ground information about what it waslike working with you too from other
people before they even, you know,maybe invite you in for an interview.
What was it like for you tokind of contact people that you
(01:50):
are interested in including arecommendation on your portfolio.
Yeah, absolutely.
So if you do go to my Digication forall the listeners, like I have quite
a number of recommendation letters.
Um, I, I, I don't have anything.
I'm happy to share them.
Um, so like I said before, like I've,Quite, quite amount of involvement
(02:13):
throughout, um, my time at Stony Brook.
So I was able to be real, very close withmy academic, um, professors and whatnot.
So like they were happy to write me aletter of recommendation, especially
in such a close knit, um, cohortand program as Stony Brook's, uh,
speech language pathology masters.
Like we are, we were quite a - a tight- quite small cohort of just 29 students.
(02:39):
I was also, um On the, the leadershipboard for, um, our cohort as well.
So that, that helped definitely get mevery close with a lot of our professors
as I would always like often go to likeoffice hours or I'd stay behind and
help out as a student assistant too.
So luckily I was able to get really closewith them and they were happy to write
(03:02):
me a letter of recommendation as well.
So they were, of course, happy to do it,and with it being a relatively new program
as well, um, they were, like, our successis their success, and that, I think, is
also why I chose to come back to StonyBrook, because I, I had other choices.
I was thinking about, like, whether or notI wanted to stay back in the city, because
(03:23):
I had already moved back to Brooklyn.
Um, and I considered staying in the cityand applying to, I did apply to other,
um, speech programs within the city, butI knew that, like, I personally had Dr.
Fabus, who's the head of the program, um,I had taken her classes as a pre-speech
(03:43):
track student, um, in the summers and inthe winters, um, so being able to, like,
have that personal experience with her,and I know how much she's invested into
the program and invested in our success.
I, I knew she would be happy towrite a letter of recommendation,
especially with how, how involvedI was with the program and how she
really would love us to see us succeed.
(04:06):
So, academic recommendations,they were all super fantastic.
The externship recommendations wereactually my clinical professor's idea.
Um, she highly encouraged all of usto ask for one immediately at, towards
the end of our externship, so that waywe weren't asking for a recommendation
from someone we haven't seen in a year.
(04:28):
Now, while you're fresh in their minds.
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
So.
So, um, luckily I've had amazing,wonderful externship experiences.
I had, um, my very first one at theUnited Cerebral Palsy and that was
really my first experience working witha medically complex community, especially
(04:50):
amongst, uh, student populations.
And that is actually very similar towhere I work in now when I work with,
um, students who have special needs andhaving that exposure genuinely is...
I believe that's why I got the positionthat I have now, um, and she was happy
to write me a letter of recommendation.
Uh, I worked in outpatient privatepractice and that was super great.
(05:14):
Like being able to collect theseexperiences and look back so fondly,
I'm very lucky to be able to do that.
And then my last, my last externshipwas in the New York City DOE and
that was actually very last minuteopportunity where I was almost assigned
to A school district on Long Island.
But my clinical professor knew thatI wanted to come back home for us.
(05:36):
And she knew that the DOEwas always a goal for me.
So she very, very nicely and graciouslypulled some strings and had our contract
early so that I was able to do itbecause she was gonna have it done
for the following cohort just basedoff of like the timing and everything
and and naturally with the programbeing on Long Island there aren't too
(05:57):
many people from the city who cometo make the trek out there for their
graduate program since we do havemany graduate programs um for speech
pathology in the city but she she wasvery kind to have that work out for me.
So I had my externshiprecommendations there.
And then of course with my,my many extracurriculars, I
(06:20):
had a great support staff.
Many, many support staffswhere, um, I reached out to
my current staff at that time.
And the people who I hadn'ttalked to like two, three years.
Who I know had, they had written a letterof recommendation for me a while ago,
but I asked them because I see themevery now and then at RA events or campus
residence, um, like networking or careerday, like being able to still have that
(06:47):
connection with them, even though I hadn'tworked with them or directly under them
for like two, three, four, five years.
Like they, the fact that, We had sucha memorable time and that we were still
on great terms, like, the fact that theywere willing to, to write me a letter of
recommendation, I'm greatly appreciative.
Yeah, you clearly madevery strong connections.
(07:10):
Yeah, like, and they were so detailedtoo, like, they would write in, they would
write in different examples and storiesand like, like, wow, like, being able
to, to have such a, like being able tosee what they, they thought about me too.
And to have it written outin paper was so reassuring.
And like, I'm like, Oh, look, I know I hadan amazing time, like working with you.
(07:32):
It's to hear all these like wonderfulwords that you're saying about me.
Just, I feel elated, you know?
And then, um, my last, my last, um,category, I guess, of letters of
recommendations was summarizing myteaching experiences because I had not
only done my long term subbing out on, outin the city, I had also done a maternity
(07:58):
leave replacement as well on Long Island.
So I was able to get a mix of both and,um, I had also volunteered during the
pandemic to, to do a program, um, Andwhere we were reading to a lot of the
parents, kids who were involved in theStony Brook community, because imagine
(08:19):
like being back home in the middle of the,in the middle of the pandemic with your
kid and you're constantly with your kid,like naturally these parents need a break.
They're, they don't, I'm surelike they're petrified with what's
happening in the world right now.
And then, Hey, like all myclasses are remote anyway.
So I couldn't go back.
I couldn't go back in.
I couldn't go back in subbingwith, with all the schools closed.
(08:41):
So that was genuinely like sucha great way to use my time in
such a meaningful, impactful way.
Yeah, yeah.
It's extraordinary.
So I was curious, so you mentionedyou, um, were, you spent about a
year and a half, maybe almost twoyears working on the, uh, ePortfolio.
(09:05):
As part of, it sounds like therewere three different classes, so did
you start in one and then it kindof carried through the other three?
What was the professor's name?
I'm sorry if I missed that earlier.
Yeah, Elisabel Chang.
Okay.
So it sounds like shegave some great advice.
Oh, yeah.
And then she, she actually showedus some, some of the Digications
(09:27):
from previ, the previous cohort too.
So she showed examples of like whatyou could possibly do with this.
And it definitely got thewheels turning, of course.
Uh huh.
It was nice to like, see what my peerswere doing and like, take some of
like, their, like, their great workand how they were displaying it and
different features and gadgets to use.
(09:47):
Um, While also likefiguring out my own style.
How do I want to present it?
How, what kind of, like, Ihave extra teaching experience.
I went to the ASHA convention.
I really wanted to highlight that becauseI was specifically related to the field.
Um, but a lot of, uh, a lot of the, um, mypeers and I had a lot of similar tabs and
(10:09):
whatnot too, because like we have the sameclasses, we had, um, three externships,
we should have a contact information.
And, my professor wasreally great in that.
She had a rubric for us, too, sothat we started off with requiring
a certain amount of things,um, our first, um, assignment.
(10:30):
So that way it was like a slow buildto it instead of just having all these
expectations done immediately overnight.
So that was, it was nice to like alwaysbe like, Oh, like I have some spare time.
Let me just add a little somethingto my, my Digication now so that
it doesn't build up over time.
Yeah.
(10:50):
Yeah, often when we're workingwith, um, students that are part of
these kind of professional practiceprograms, there, there are kind of
big expectations for what it maylook like at the end of the program?
And I know very often instructorsand, you know, those that are kind of
(11:11):
thinking about what, you know, whatthe requirements might be or what, um,
kind of the grading expectations maybe in designing some of these rubrics,
how, how much structure do they want?
To give the students to start or how,how much do they just want the students
(11:34):
to be able to kind of take their,take the reins and have ownership over
how it's organized and what contentis going to go in it, how much.
Mentorship is going to be involved.
How often are they going to beable to see peers portfolios
as they're being developed?
And it sounds like there wassome natural sharing that was
(11:54):
happening between your cohort.
Was that something that was kind ofbuilt into time that you had in class
or did you find that you guys were justkind of doing that on your free time?
Did the professor encourage you to?
Share with each other.
What was that process like?
Yeah, a mix of all of that.
We, I remember in the classes wewould... she would have dedicated
(12:17):
time for us to work on our Digicationportfolio, for us to talk to our
neighbors, for us to ask her anyquestions in the moment if we had any.
So she definitely built into that, thattime to create a Digication portfolio
within the class time so that we were,um, around different inspiration or
like have that... have her able, like,be able to quickly look at our, our
(12:40):
website to see if there are anythingthat she wanted to add or like, oh,
should I make my head shot over here?
Should I put it over here?
Should I not have it at all?
Those are like quick questionsfor her to answer too.
Mm hmm.
And it sounds like you got someguidance too, and correct me if I'm
wrong, but it looks like you might'vegotten some guidance because you were
a part of these kind of Clinicalsand you also had these teaching
(13:04):
experiences that you wanted to share.
But, there's always, you know,privacy kinds of guidelines
and how much is shared.
Does she give you some kind ofcoaching on best practices there too?
Yeah, definitely.
So we, we had our rubric andit was straightforward, but it
(13:25):
definitely left a lot of room forcreative decisions and, and whatnot.
So, um, she, she listed that shewanted work from every single class.
And your resume, of course,and your cover letter.
You weren't required to put down anyextracurriculars because some students
(13:45):
might just simply not have any.
But for the information that weput, I know in a lot of our academic
work, we have our peers names, or ourstudents names, or our clients names.
So she, she made sure to tellus to make, um, to make them
(14:06):
unidentifiable, unidentifiable.
So either like client xxx or clientinitials or just the client first name.
That way they weren't, therewas no violation of FERPA.
There's no FERPA violation as well.
Mm hmm.
Um, I know like in, like some of myfavorite tabs to make, especially
(14:26):
in Digication, were the ones aboutmy externship experiences and my
teaching experiences, and they dolook very similar in terms of format.
So I would put the picture ofthe school, but make sure there
aren't any students in there.
But, um, she encouraged us toput pictures of our students or
any thank you notes that we had.
So I included that, but I made sureto put little like emoji smiley faces.
(14:49):
Yeah, you've got your, yes, emoji.
Over every single little kid's faceso that they're unidentifiable.
And then you can see like just me, um,without, which I think is kind of funny
for some of my pictures because I'm, I'mthe size of my middle school students.
But it's great because we get awindow into the environment, right?
(15:11):
Yeah, yeah, and that was the thing.
And that was the whole purpose.
Like I wanted for whichever,whoever the employer was or the
hiring committee to almost be ableto picture me at their school.
Like you can see that I'm comfortablein this school environment, all
these different school environments.
You see that I'm having a greattime with these kids, like be
able to work with these kids.
(15:33):
Um, like I want them to envision me intheir school and be comfortable choosing
me and enthusiastic to choose me.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I just think about those words incomparison to the kind of bullet point
about the experience that would be on yourresume and how, how different that is.
(15:54):
Yeah.
This like paints the wholepicture of, of my experience.
Like I always find that I havea harder time cutting down
on words than filling it out.
So I'm just like, cool.
This and this and this.
I'm like, Oh, what about this project?
It's hard to cut down all these like,amazing things that we've accomplished.
Um, so like, to be able to talk aboutthem more through the Digication
(16:18):
website was more exciting than ever.
Like, I was able to put down exp...explicitly, what we did, what curriculum
we use, how many kids I have, and howoften I saw them, like the fact that
it was during COVID, like being able totalk about what struggles we worked on,
like how, how difficult was it teachingthrough a mask and a plastic shield?
(16:38):
So, really, allowed me to speak onmy experience and that... kind of
naturally brought me to my next question.
I love it when there's these beautifullittle segues because my next question
was... If, you know, has it alwaysbeen easy for you to be able to talk
about yourself and your experiencesor do you feel like that's something
(17:04):
that's kind of grown over time?
Or maybe it was, you know, in workingwith this professor or maybe in some of
your leadership roles that this startedto come out for you because some people
have a really difficult time talking aboutthemselves and you definitely seem very
comfortable with it now and you definitelyseem like you're very comfortable with
(17:27):
it through, you know, all the informationthat you've shared in your portfolio,
but that, has that always been the case?
Yeah, so definitely did notcome out of nowhere overnight.
Um, so I would say it started, um, alittle bit in high school where I, I went
to a high school where I didn't have manyfriends coming in from middle school.
(17:50):
And I know I had, I had to pushmyself to make new friends and make
new connections, um, from the start.
However, I think it really began andlike continued to push where I am now.
Um, my sophomore year of college actually,and I think it lines up very nicely Um,
(18:10):
because my freshman year, I was, uh,a bio major on the pre med track, not
enjoying my classes, having a reallytough time studying and not going out.
Um, but at the very end of freshmanyear, getting the RA position, the
Resident Assistant position, whereI was all of a sudden like sprung
(18:34):
into this leadership position thatI really hoped and prayed for.
Um, because then at that I was a,I was a leadership role model here.
I'm like being able to have a reason,have a why to push myself to not
only enjoy, um, college life and likeliving away from home and dorming.
(18:57):
But now I also have to kind ofmarket this and sell this and,
invite other first year studentsto feel welcome on campus as well.
So having them come out to eventsand showing them different resources
and different, um, spaces that wehad, um, and hosting these spaces and
being able to explain like, 'Oh, like,this is what we're doing and this
(19:18):
is what we have planned for today.'
And like, like 'I have free pizza,'like 'you want to come here?' And
like 'come out at eight o'clock on aTuesday?' So like being able to have
a reason, have a why that pushes me tobe comfortable in my skin, be confident
and like, sharing not only about myself,but about Stony Brook and I feel like
(19:40):
that's also what allowed me to learnso much about the school and now have
so much pride about the school too.
Yes.
Well, you, you definitely exude thatand, I can imagine that, you know, the,
the comfort that you have in sharingwho you are and your experiences
(20:03):
probably really resonates with thestudents that you work with now also.
So it's wonderful that you had that RAexperience on campus and you know, I
think this kind of, um, storytelling andhighlighting your achievements, so your
portfolio is reinforced that and hasthis, uh, kind of additional audience
(20:29):
around who you are and what you do.
And I think, you know, this kind ofcelebration of who you are and your
experiences and your passion for speechand working with students probably really
inspires all of the people that you workwith, the students and the, the colleagues
that you have at your school today.
(20:52):
Thank you.
Yeah, I was curious.
So, as a recent graduate.
But, you know, what, what are someof the connections that you've
already fostered as an alumni?
Or what are some of the relationships orconnections that you hope to keep, um, now
(21:13):
that you've graduated from the university?
Absolutely.
So, um, I know, luckily Stony Brook isonly, uh, a two hour train ride away.
Uh, happy to hear about that.
I know like I, I'm definitelyon their alumni list.
I like to know whenhomecomings are and whatnot.
Um, but also I, I stay veryclose in contact with a lot of
(21:35):
my friends who are still there.
Um, also fellow alumsfrom the college as well.
Um, I would say my biggest contributionstill to this day is, um, being
part of a program called SLPeers.
So our speech language pathology isusually an SLP, and we have a program
(21:56):
that we made with, um, peers that comeswith it and it's a mentor-mentee program.
So I luckily still have a,a mentee in the program.
And so it's really great stillseeing where they are now in their
academic journey, having, um, to givethem advice and talking about their
experiences and their externships androoting them on because just a year
(22:19):
ago, I was in their exact same shoes.
You were right there.
Yeah.
Like I, I know, like I talked to them atleast once every two weeks, like being
able to share like, Oh, like you gotthis, like, Oh, like, where did you get
placed for your externship this year?
Like, Oh, like how,how, how'd your test go?
Or what are some places that you'relooking to apply to for Your CF, like
(22:41):
post grad and any advice that I cangive or we have our licensing exam,
which is the practice and I know alot of them are studying for that
then and being able to share thatmaterial with them, like, it's nice to
pass down like all this information.
And you know, the, Cause I, I didn'tcome in with this empty-handed either.
Like I, I had a wonderful mentortoo, who, who shared her fountain
(23:04):
of, of wisdom with me too.
So being able to pass thatalong feels like you're, you're
part of something so much more.
And then, uh, of course, still being veryinvolved, like I, I love being part of,
um, the admissions committees too, aswell as, uh, I guess now as like an alumni
interviewer, but I was, um, a studentinterviewer, um, during the time, and now,
(23:28):
um, um, they send invitations out to thealumni to see if they'd like to be part
of the, um, admissions committee board.
So that's something that I lookforward to taking part in and, you
know, continuing my, my involvementin the program and at Stony Brook.
Oh, that is wonderful.
And I'm sure that you'll be an inspirationto our listeners as well and anyone that
(23:53):
comes to see your extraordinary portfolio.
Thank you so much.
We appreciate you.
Yes, I so appreciate you taking thetime to to join me and talk about your
extraordinary achievements and all thatyou've done and really looking forward to
to sharing your story with our listeners.
(24:15):
Thank you so much.
I'm so flattered.
Thank you so much for having me.
Absolutely.
Take good care.
Thank you as well.
This concludes our conversation.
To hear our next episode, be sureto subscribe to Digication Scholars
Conversations on YouTube, iTunes,Spotify, or your favorite podcast app.
(24:36):
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If you enjoyed today'sconversation, please like,
subscribe, and share with a friend.
(24:58):
Thanks for tuning in.
Welcome to DigicationScholars Conversations.
I'm your host, Kelly Driscoll.
In this episode, you'll hear parttwo of my conversation with Sharron
Huang, recent graduate of Stony BrookUniversity, where she received a BA in
Linguistics, an MA in teaching Englishto speakers of other languages, and
an MS in Speech Language Pathology.
(00:21):
More links and information about today'sconversation can be found on Digication's
Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Full episodes of Digication ScholarsConversations can be found on
YouTube or your favorite podcast app.
You did an extraordinary job sharingthe clinical experiences that I
(00:44):
think, you know, would be so relevantin them making decisions about who
is going to kind of go to the next.
level, you know, beyond just viewingthe resumes, who are they going
to make initial contact to, who isgoing to make it to the, you know,
various rounds of interviews thatI'm sure happen, who becomes in that
(01:07):
final list of candidates to consider.
So, um, and alongside all of theseclinical experiences you had, something
that we don't always see in, um, thesekinds of professional portfolios is
that you had a section where you wereincluding recommendation letters.
(01:29):
So people have a chance, you know,to get some kind of boots on the
ground information about what it waslike working with you too from other
people before they even, you know,maybe invite you in for an interview.
What was it like for you tokind of contact people that you
(01:50):
are interested in including arecommendation on your portfolio.
Yeah, absolutely.
So if you do go to my Digication forall the listeners, like I have quite
a number of recommendation letters.
Um, I, I, I don't have anything.
I'm happy to share them.
Um, so like I said before, like I've,Quite, quite amount of involvement
(02:13):
throughout, um, my time at Stony Brook.
So I was able to be real, very close withmy academic, um, professors and whatnot.
So like they were happy to write me aletter of recommendation, especially
in such a close knit, um, cohortand program as Stony Brook's, uh,
speech language pathology masters.
Like we are, we were quite a - a tight- quite small cohort of just 29 students.
(02:39):
I was also, um On the, the leadershipboard for, um, our cohort as well.
So that, that helped definitely get mevery close with a lot of our professors
as I would always like often go to likeoffice hours or I'd stay behind and
help out as a student assistant too.
So luckily I was able to get really closewith them and they were happy to write
(03:02):
me a letter of recommendation as well.
So they were, of course, happy to do it,and with it being a relatively new program
as well, um, they were, like, our successis their success, and that, I think, is
also why I chose to come back to StonyBrook, because I, I had other choices.
I was thinking about, like, whether or notI wanted to stay back in the city, because
(03:23):
I had already moved back to Brooklyn.
Um, and I considered staying in the cityand applying to, I did apply to other,
um, speech programs within the city, butI knew that, like, I personally had Dr.
Fabus, who's the head of the program, um,I had taken her classes as a pre-speech
(03:43):
track student, um, in the summers and inthe winters, um, so being able to, like,
have that personal experience with her,and I know how much she's invested into
the program and invested in our success.
I, I knew she would be happy towrite a letter of recommendation,
especially with how, how involvedI was with the program and how she
really would love us to see us succeed.
(04:06):
So, academic recommendations,they were all super fantastic.
The externship recommendations wereactually my clinical professor's idea.
Um, she highly encouraged all of usto ask for one immediately at, towards
the end of our externship, so that waywe weren't asking for a recommendation
from someone we haven't seen in a year.
(04:28):
Now, while you're fresh in their minds.
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
So.
So, um, luckily I've had amazing,wonderful externship experiences.
I had, um, my very first one at theUnited Cerebral Palsy and that was
really my first experience working witha medically complex community, especially
(04:50):
amongst, uh, student populations.
And that is actually very similar towhere I work in now when I work with,
um, students who have special needs andhaving that exposure genuinely is...
I believe that's why I got the positionthat I have now, um, and she was happy
to write me a letter of recommendation.
Uh, I worked in outpatient privatepractice and that was super great.
(05:14):
Like being able to collect theseexperiences and look back so fondly,
I'm very lucky to be able to do that.
And then my last, my last externshipwas in the New York City DOE and
that was actually very last minuteopportunity where I was almost assigned
to A school district on Long Island.
But my clinical professor knew thatI wanted to come back home for us.
(05:36):
And she knew that the DOEwas always a goal for me.
So she very, very nicely and graciouslypulled some strings and had our contract
early so that I was able to do itbecause she was gonna have it done
for the following cohort just basedoff of like the timing and everything
and and naturally with the programbeing on Long Island there aren't too
(05:57):
many people from the city who cometo make the trek out there for their
graduate program since we do havemany graduate programs um for speech
pathology in the city but she she wasvery kind to have that work out for me.
So I had my externshiprecommendations there.
And then of course with my,my many extracurriculars, I
(06:20):
had a great support staff.
Many, many support staffswhere, um, I reached out to
my current staff at that time.
And the people who I hadn'ttalked to like two, three years.
Who I know had, they had written a letterof recommendation for me a while ago,
but I asked them because I see themevery now and then at RA events or campus
residence, um, like networking or careerday, like being able to still have that
(06:47):
connection with them, even though I hadn'tworked with them or directly under them
for like two, three, four, five years.
Like they, the fact that, We had sucha memorable time and that we were still
on great terms, like, the fact that theywere willing to, to write me a letter of
recommendation, I'm greatly appreciative.
Yeah, you clearly madevery strong connections.
(07:10):
Yeah, like, and they were so detailedtoo, like, they would write in, they would
write in different examples and storiesand like, like, wow, like, being able
to, to have such a, like being able tosee what they, they thought about me too.
And to have it written outin paper was so reassuring.
And like, I'm like, Oh, look, I know I hadan amazing time, like working with you.
(07:32):
It's to hear all these like wonderfulwords that you're saying about me.
Just, I feel elated, you know?
And then, um, my last, my last, um,category, I guess, of letters of
recommendations was summarizing myteaching experiences because I had not
only done my long term subbing out on, outin the city, I had also done a maternity
(07:58):
leave replacement as well on Long Island.
So I was able to get a mix of both and,um, I had also volunteered during the
pandemic to, to do a program, um, Andwhere we were reading to a lot of the
parents, kids who were involved in theStony Brook community, because imagine
(08:19):
like being back home in the middle of the,in the middle of the pandemic with your
kid and you're constantly with your kid,like naturally these parents need a break.
They're, they don't, I'm surelike they're petrified with what's
happening in the world right now.
And then, Hey, like all myclasses are remote anyway.
So I couldn't go back.
I couldn't go back in.
I couldn't go back in subbingwith, with all the schools closed.
(08:41):
So that was genuinely like sucha great way to use my time in
such a meaningful, impactful way.
Yeah, yeah.
It's extraordinary.
So I was curious, so you mentionedyou, um, were, you spent about a
year and a half, maybe almost twoyears working on the, uh, ePortfolio.
(09:05):
As part of, it sounds like therewere three different classes, so did
you start in one and then it kindof carried through the other three?
What was the professor's name?
I'm sorry if I missed that earlier.
Yeah, Elisabel Chang.
Okay.
So it sounds like shegave some great advice.
Oh, yeah.
And then she, she actually showedus some, some of the Digications
(09:27):
from previ, the previous cohort too.
So she showed examples of like whatyou could possibly do with this.
And it definitely got thewheels turning, of course.
Uh huh.
It was nice to like, see what my peerswere doing and like, take some of
like, their, like, their great workand how they were displaying it and
different features and gadgets to use.
(09:47):
Um, While also likefiguring out my own style.
How do I want to present it?
How, what kind of, like, Ihave extra teaching experience.
I went to the ASHA convention.
I really wanted to highlight that becauseI was specifically related to the field.
Um, but a lot of, uh, a lot of the, um, mypeers and I had a lot of similar tabs and
(10:09):
whatnot too, because like we have the sameclasses, we had, um, three externships,
we should have a contact information.
And, my professor wasreally great in that.
She had a rubric for us, too, sothat we started off with requiring
a certain amount of things,um, our first, um, assignment.
(10:30):
So that way it was like a slow buildto it instead of just having all these
expectations done immediately overnight.
So that was, it was nice to like alwaysbe like, Oh, like I have some spare time.
Let me just add a little somethingto my, my Digication now so that
it doesn't build up over time.
Yeah.
(10:50):
Yeah, often when we're workingwith, um, students that are part of
these kind of professional practiceprograms, there, there are kind of
big expectations for what it maylook like at the end of the program?
And I know very often instructorsand, you know, those that are kind of
(11:11):
thinking about what, you know, whatthe requirements might be or what, um,
kind of the grading expectations maybe in designing some of these rubrics,
how, how much structure do they want?
To give the students to start or how,how much do they just want the students
(11:34):
to be able to kind of take their,take the reins and have ownership over
how it's organized and what contentis going to go in it, how much.
Mentorship is going to be involved.
How often are they going to beable to see peers portfolios
as they're being developed?
And it sounds like there wassome natural sharing that was
(11:54):
happening between your cohort.
Was that something that was kind ofbuilt into time that you had in class
or did you find that you guys were justkind of doing that on your free time?
Did the professor encourage you to?
Share with each other.
What was that process like?
Yeah, a mix of all of that.
We, I remember in the classes wewould... she would have dedicated
(12:17):
time for us to work on our Digicationportfolio, for us to talk to our
neighbors, for us to ask her anyquestions in the moment if we had any.
So she definitely built into that, thattime to create a Digication portfolio
within the class time so that we were,um, around different inspiration or
like have that... have her able, like,be able to quickly look at our, our
(12:40):
website to see if there are anythingthat she wanted to add or like, oh,
should I make my head shot over here?
Should I put it over here?
Should I not have it at all?
Those are like quick questionsfor her to answer too.
Mm hmm.
And it sounds like you got someguidance too, and correct me if I'm
wrong, but it looks like you might'vegotten some guidance because you were
a part of these kind of Clinicalsand you also had these teaching
(13:04):
experiences that you wanted to share.
But, there's always, you know,privacy kinds of guidelines
and how much is shared.
Does she give you some kind ofcoaching on best practices there too?
Yeah, definitely.
So we, we had our rubric andit was straightforward, but it
(13:25):
definitely left a lot of room forcreative decisions and, and whatnot.
So, um, she, she listed that shewanted work from every single class.
And your resume, of course,and your cover letter.
You weren't required to put down anyextracurriculars because some students
(13:45):
might just simply not have any.
But for the information that weput, I know in a lot of our academic
work, we have our peers names, or ourstudents names, or our clients names.
So she, she made sure to tellus to make, um, to make them
(14:06):
unidentifiable, unidentifiable.
So either like client xxx or clientinitials or just the client first name.
That way they weren't, therewas no violation of FERPA.
There's no FERPA violation as well.
Mm hmm.
Um, I know like in, like some of myfavorite tabs to make, especially
(14:26):
in Digication, were the ones aboutmy externship experiences and my
teaching experiences, and they dolook very similar in terms of format.
So I would put the picture ofthe school, but make sure there
aren't any students in there.
But, um, she encouraged us toput pictures of our students or
any thank you notes that we had.
So I included that, but I made sureto put little like emoji smiley faces.
(14:49):
Yeah, you've got your, yes, emoji.
Over every single little kid's faceso that they're unidentifiable.
And then you can see like just me, um,without, which I think is kind of funny
for some of my pictures because I'm, I'mthe size of my middle school students.
But it's great because we get awindow into the environment, right?
(15:11):
Yeah, yeah, and that was the thing.
And that was the whole purpose.
Like I wanted for whichever,whoever the employer was or the
hiring committee to almost be ableto picture me at their school.
Like you can see that I'm comfortablein this school environment, all
these different school environments.
You see that I'm having a greattime with these kids, like be
able to work with these kids.
(15:33):
Um, like I want them to envision me intheir school and be comfortable choosing
me and enthusiastic to choose me.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I just think about those words incomparison to the kind of bullet point
about the experience that would be on yourresume and how, how different that is.
(15:54):
Yeah.
This like paints the wholepicture of, of my experience.
Like I always find that I havea harder time cutting down
on words than filling it out.
So I'm just like, cool.
This and this and this.
I'm like, Oh, what about this project?
It's hard to cut down all these like,amazing things that we've accomplished.
Um, so like, to be able to talk aboutthem more through the Digication
(16:18):
website was more exciting than ever.
Like, I was able to put down exp...explicitly, what we did, what curriculum
we use, how many kids I have, and howoften I saw them, like the fact that
it was during COVID, like being able totalk about what struggles we worked on,
like how, how difficult was it teachingthrough a mask and a plastic shield?
(16:38):
So, really, allowed me to speak onmy experience and that... kind of
naturally brought me to my next question.
I love it when there's these beautifullittle segues because my next question
was... If, you know, has it alwaysbeen easy for you to be able to talk
about yourself and your experiencesor do you feel like that's something
(17:04):
that's kind of grown over time?
Or maybe it was, you know, in workingwith this professor or maybe in some of
your leadership roles that this startedto come out for you because some people
have a really difficult time talking aboutthemselves and you definitely seem very
comfortable with it now and you definitelyseem like you're very comfortable with
(17:27):
it through, you know, all the informationthat you've shared in your portfolio,
but that, has that always been the case?
Yeah, so definitely did notcome out of nowhere overnight.
Um, so I would say it started, um, alittle bit in high school where I, I went
to a high school where I didn't have manyfriends coming in from middle school.
(17:50):
And I know I had, I had to pushmyself to make new friends and make
new connections, um, from the start.
However, I think it really began andlike continued to push where I am now.
Um, my sophomore year of college actually,and I think it lines up very nicely Um,
(18:10):
because my freshman year, I was, uh,a bio major on the pre med track, not
enjoying my classes, having a reallytough time studying and not going out.
Um, but at the very end of freshmanyear, getting the RA position, the
Resident Assistant position, whereI was all of a sudden like sprung
(18:34):
into this leadership position thatI really hoped and prayed for.
Um, because then at that I was a,I was a leadership role model here.
I'm like being able to have a reason,have a why to push myself to not
only enjoy, um, college life and likeliving away from home and dorming.
(18:57):
But now I also have to kind ofmarket this and sell this and,
invite other first year studentsto feel welcome on campus as well.
So having them come out to eventsand showing them different resources
and different, um, spaces that wehad, um, and hosting these spaces and
being able to explain like, 'Oh, like,this is what we're doing and this
(19:18):
is what we have planned for today.'
And like, like 'I have free pizza,'like 'you want to come here?' And
like 'come out at eight o'clock on aTuesday?' So like being able to have
a reason, have a why that pushes me tobe comfortable in my skin, be confident
and like, sharing not only about myself,but about Stony Brook and I feel like
(19:40):
that's also what allowed me to learnso much about the school and now have
so much pride about the school too.
Yes.
Well, you, you definitely exude thatand, I can imagine that, you know, the,
the comfort that you have in sharingwho you are and your experiences
(20:03):
probably really resonates with thestudents that you work with now also.
So it's wonderful that you had that RAexperience on campus and you know, I
think this kind of, um, storytelling andhighlighting your achievements, so your
portfolio is reinforced that and hasthis, uh, kind of additional audience
(20:29):
around who you are and what you do.
And I think, you know, this kind ofcelebration of who you are and your
experiences and your passion for speechand working with students probably really
inspires all of the people that you workwith, the students and the, the colleagues
that you have at your school today.
(20:52):
Thank you.
Yeah, I was curious.
So, as a recent graduate.
But, you know, what, what are someof the connections that you've
already fostered as an alumni?
Or what are some of the relationships orconnections that you hope to keep, um, now
(21:13):
that you've graduated from the university?
Absolutely.
So, um, I know, luckily Stony Brook isonly, uh, a two hour train ride away.
Uh, happy to hear about that.
I know like I, I'm definitelyon their alumni list.
I like to know whenhomecomings are and whatnot.
Um, but also I, I stay veryclose in contact with a lot of
(21:35):
my friends who are still there.
Um, also fellow alumsfrom the college as well.
Um, I would say my biggest contributionstill to this day is, um, being
part of a program called SLPeers.
So our speech language pathology isusually an SLP, and we have a program
(21:56):
that we made with, um, peers that comeswith it and it's a mentor-mentee program.
So I luckily still have a,a mentee in the program.
And so it's really great stillseeing where they are now in their
academic journey, having, um, to givethem advice and talking about their
experiences and their externships androoting them on because just a year
(22:19):
ago, I was in their exact same shoes.
You were right there.
Yeah.
Like I, I know, like I talked to them atleast once every two weeks, like being
able to share like, Oh, like you gotthis, like, Oh, like, where did you get
placed for your externship this year?
Like, Oh, like how,how, how'd your test go?
Or what are some places that you'relooking to apply to for Your CF, like
(22:41):
post grad and any advice that I cangive or we have our licensing exam,
which is the practice and I know alot of them are studying for that
then and being able to share thatmaterial with them, like, it's nice to
pass down like all this information.
And you know, the, Cause I, I didn'tcome in with this empty-handed either.
Like I, I had a wonderful mentortoo, who, who shared her fountain
(23:04):
of, of wisdom with me too.
So being able to pass thatalong feels like you're, you're
part of something so much more.
And then, uh, of course, still being veryinvolved, like I, I love being part of,
um, the admissions committees too, aswell as, uh, I guess now as like an alumni
interviewer, but I was, um, a studentinterviewer, um, during the time, and now,
(23:28):
um, um, they send invitations out to thealumni to see if they'd like to be part
of the, um, admissions committee board.
So that's something that I lookforward to taking part in and, you
know, continuing my, my involvementin the program and at Stony Brook.
Oh, that is wonderful.
And I'm sure that you'll be an inspirationto our listeners as well and anyone that
(23:53):
comes to see your extraordinary portfolio.
Thank you so much.
We appreciate you.
Yes, I so appreciate you taking thetime to to join me and talk about your
extraordinary achievements and all thatyou've done and really looking forward to
to sharing your story with our listeners.
(24:15):
Thank you so much.
I'm so flattered.
Thank you so much for having me.
Absolutely.
Take good care.
Thank you as well.
This concludes our conversation.
To hear our next episode, be sureto subscribe to Digication Scholars
Conversations on YouTube, iTunes,Spotify, or your favorite podcast app.
(24:36):
The Digication Scholars ConversationSeries is brought to you by Digication,
a technology platform poweringthe most innovative e-portfolio
programs in K12 and higher education.
Our website can befound at Digication.com.
If you enjoyed today'sconversation, please like,
subscribe, and share with a friend.
(24:58):
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