Join Robert Serianni, MS, CCC-SLP, FNAP, the chair and program director of the department of Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) at Salus University, as he speaks with a group of second-year SLP students about their international excursion in the Turks and Caicos Islands to provide clinical care.
Serianni: Salus recently has partnered with a company called Therapy Abroad, which provides international cultural immersion experiences for a variety of professions, including speech-language pathology. I'd like to welcome the inaugural international crew and have them talk about their experiences and show how this international work will ultimately help them become more competent, confident speech pathologists:
Rhiannon Elias '23SLP
Lindsay Rock '23SLP
Alyssa Peter '23SLP
Claudia Cranmer '23SLP
Veronica Baez '23SLP
Cranmer: When I was looking at graduate programs, it was extremely important that I found one that had hands-on experience right away. Salus' program was shown to me by a friend who just recently graduated from the program. After looking further into it, I found a lot of aspects that really caught my interest: the clinical experience that began my first semester, the cadaver lab that the program offered, the community outreach, the leadership opportunities, and then the international opportunities that it also offered, all of that really got me hooked and I was super excited. It gave me a whole new drive for the program that I didn't think I was going to have.
Elias: The reasons I decided to come to Salus were the clinical opportunities as a first-year student, which you really don't see at any of the other schools in the area, and also the impressive statistics coming from the department. If you look at the student outcome data, there's like 100 percent program completion, Praxis passing, postgraduate employment, over the past five years, so that's really promising. After going through the admissions process, being able to speak with department staff and bonding with them, and then coming onto the campus tour and seeing the beautiful fountain and facilities, really steered me toward Salus.
Serianni: We have a built-in curriculum and clinical sequence that all students are responsible for completing, and these five students took on the additional expense and time to do a study abroad program while they were in graduate school. Why did you decide to do a study abroad program as part of your clinical experience here at Salus?
Baez: I personally always wanted to study abroad, but I never got the chance during my undergrad, so when I heard that Salus was doing Therapy Abroad, I thought it'd be a great opportunity to finally do something that I've regretted not being able to do in the past. On top of that, I got to do speech therapy as well.
I also thought it was a unique opportunity to learn and improve my clinical skills. As you heard before, Salus gets you in the clinic on campus within the first few weeks of your first year, so I felt comfortable in providing therapy and I was excited to expand on my clinical skills.
Rock: I also wanted to study abroad during my undergrad but didn't have the opportunity to do so. When coming to Salus, I heard Therapy Abroad mentioned but didn't really know what it was, and once Bob presented this trip to us, it kind of came down to, if not now, then really when. I think it's important when you're presented with these types of opportunities to take advantage of them if you can.
For me, as a future healthcare worker, I think it's also important to immerse yourself or learn about different cultures, and what better way to do that and fully immersing yourself in it? It was really awesome learning firsthand from the different Turks Islanders what healthcare is for them and just learning all the different types of things about their culture.
Serianni: What were some of the things that we did on our trip that really stood out to you?
Peter: If you've never been to Turks, it's absolutely beautiful. So getting to enjoy life the way the Turks Islanders live was amazing. I really appreciated being able to do the home visits for people with cerebral palsy. It was a really cool experience to see a little bit into the everyday lives of people there, but also to make a difference in an impactful way. I also really loved the tour of Salt Cay, the islands. Getting to see a little bit more about how the people live was really an awesome experience.
Rock: Overall, I just loved how this trip was a really good balance of work and play. I would say, three to five hours of the day, we were spending at the camp, either planning therapy activities or documenting notes for the day. Then we had the rest of our time to explore different parts of the island. We spent a lot of the time on the beach, which, if you've seen pictures of Turks and Caicos beaches, pictures don't do it justice. It was just absolutely beautiful.
We also got to meet and mingle with other educators and students from different programs across the country, which I thought was awesome, because you're making lifelong connections with them.
One event in particular that I loved was at the end of the camp. We had a celebration ceremony and had the opportunity to meet the families of the campers, which I thought was really neat, just getting to know them more as a person, and also put into perspective how much of an impact the work we were doing had on these people. It made you feel good seeing that the work that we were doing was being celebrated and that they really, really appreciate it.
Serianni: Was there any surprises once we got in-country?
Elias: Good one was how many ways you can prepare their national dish, called the conch. All the fresh seafood, the cuisine there is to die for, and the beaches, breathtakingly beautiful.
The people there, they don't have a lot of resources, so the way they welcomed us and were so truly thankful and the way they treated us really was kind of surprising. It's like we were family from day one. I felt so comfortable at the camp, having more of an independent role than we have at the campus clinic. All of my experiences at Salus I felt led up to that moment before we go out to externship. It was just really, really rewarding helping all those people and feeling confident in doing so. I'm ready to continue my career. It was like a, “This is why I'm doing it,” moment.
Cranmer: The biggest thing for me was definitely to see how little resources they had out there. I think a lot of that is taken for granted, and even just something seemingly as simple as a communication device, may be a little difficult for families to get out there. Big culture shock, walking into the grocery stores and seeing how different it all is.
It was really fun trying new foods, that definitely took me back. Big fan of trying the local flavors, that was a huge thing. Then also seeing how confident I was, as well as our team, in our clinical practice. I think we really all got to step out of our comfort zones and try new things and new therapy tactics that we had to work with very low tech things, whereas in the Speech-Language Institute (SLI) we're very lucky to have high-tech devices, but we made it work. The families were very appreciative, so we were very helpful to their families and those children. That was really an awesome experience to have.
Serianni: I'm going to go and edit some of your responses and say you were helpful, not seemingly, you were absolutely helpful. Because you're right, I think the real difference between maybe what your educational experience is, is that you've gotten lots of resources around you to help learn the craft of speech pathology, and then we fly you out of the States and we say, "Okay, now do it." And here's a dish of water and some Play-Doh and you've got to entertain these kids for a couple hours.
What kind of advice would you give to students who are considering adding this sort of international trip component to their program?
Baez: Overall, I would 110 percent recommend doing the international program. It was such an amazing experience. You get to meet amazing clinicians, get hands-on work with the kids, you learn how to provide therapy with the limited materials that you have, and then you grow as a student clinician.
I know that the biggest concern that a lot of people had was the money. Am I able to afford this? The advice I'd give is just save money, do fundraisers, reach out to friends, family, coworkers, whoever you can in order to participate in this experience, because it was truly amazing and it is something that I'm so happy I did. It impacted my life, it impacted their lives, and it's something I will truly never forget.
Peter: Two of my biggest fears with this trip were actually finances and stepping out of my comfort zone. I would 10 out of 10 recommend. You could save money, absolutely, if that's your biggest fear. My personal thinking was, grad school isn't cheap anyway, we're already in debt, this is a worthwhile experience to be in debt for. You can't make up those memories and moments and tell people like, "Well, yeah, I saved a couple coins." You get to live the experience and meet new people, and I think that's so much more worth that long-term fear.
Also, just be prepared to be uncomfortable. I think it's really easy to go in with your own expectations of this is what it should be, this is what I want it to be, but I think if you go in and you're just like, I'll take whatever comes, you'll have a wonderful experience and great memories to move forward.
