Lekei’s Personal History

I want to become a Speech Pathologist, because I believe that God has a purpose for me in this field; I am not exactly sure of what it is yet, but I am continuously trying to prepare for the occasion. Also, I think that this field will offer me many opportunities to become involved with individuals from many different backgrounds, while I apply skills that I possess in effort to enrich their lives. In addition to the previous things I mentioned, I also want to be able contribute to my family’s needs and wants financially. And last but not least I want my husband, children, parents and siblings to be proud of my career success, which will be a goal that we will have reached together. Becoming a Speech Pathologist was not at the top of my list of career choices, because quite honestly I don’t remember ever I hearing of SLPs until the eleventh grade. In my junior year in high school, I came in contact with a Mr. Carr (a male, African -American SLP) he briefed me about what it was that he did. So later on that year I job shadowed a SLP at the Children’s Therapy Clinic in Charleston, WV. As I sat in on a therapy session I thought… wow the therapist is helping this kid while playing Candy Land. Then I asked the therapist questions regarding work scheduling (you know whether or not SLPs are always on call), if there was a lot of paper work involved and some other questions I can’t think of right now. Some of the SLP’s answers I liked and some I didn’t, but the positives far out weighed the negatives. One of the things that liked was the scheduling issue, I desired to be a family woman and spending time with my loved ones was to be very important to me, I did not want to be on call during my personal time at home. According to the therapist SLPs worked regular business operating hours--I liked hearing that. I remember also wanting to know if there would be an opportunity for me to have a private practice, she said yes. When I left the clinic that day I was inspired and I thought…. boy I could do that forever! Just before I came to Marshall to begin the CD program, I wanted to make sure there was nothing else that held my interest. So I job shadowed an eye doctor to see if I would like to become one. Oh- my- gosh it was so boring, there wasn’t enough person-to-person interaction for me. Although money is important it isn't everything, I know that becoming an eye doctor would have earned me a larger salary, but that wasn’t where my passion was. And here I stand… a senior in the Communication Disorders Department.