>> Because I'm a -- I'm
the coordinating committee
of sig [phonetic] 14, I
happen to get sort of --
was on an e-mail list
essentially that went
out to some individuals.
They were looking for
someone specifically
in the New Jersey/New York area
who dealt with issues that had
to do with the
bilingual/bicultural
populations.
And so I responded
basically to that e-mail.
I think one of them
came directly to me,
because the sig 14
-- our ex-aficionado,
Claudia Saud [phonetic] knew
that I was in New Jersey,
and the other one sort of was
a general e-mail that went out.
And so I decided to get
involved, because again,
because it is so important
to me to spread the word
about the issues and challenges
that have to do with working
with the multicultural
culture linguistic
with adverse populations,
it was an opportunity to do
that on a bigger scale.
More people would hear what
some of the issues are.
And the other was, you know,
honestly I'm very proud
to be a speech language
pathologist, I'm very proud
to be a member of ASHA, and
again, for me it was a way
to give back, and
it was a way also
to promote the association
-- organization as a whole.
As far as the experience
of being a media source,
I mean it was --
the first one I have
to say I was a little
bit anxious,
'cause it was something
I had never done before.
So the idea of having, you know,
a camera crew and a, you know,
someone to interview that's
come to the university,
and the for the first one they
were coming into our department
at the university, so I
also felt a real sense
of responsibility, not
only as an ASHA member --
a sig 14 coordinating community
member, but now, you know,
a faculty member
in our department,
and how I'm going to, you
know, the people that see this,
you know, how we're going
to present our department.
And I felt that that
was all on my shoulders.
And I was lucky, and this
particular topic was accent
modification, and just the
Latino accent essentially,
and it was a piece that was
done for a Fox Latino News.
So I actually got one of our
graduate students involved.
I saw that as an opportunity
to also showcase one
of our really wonderful
graduate students who does work
with accent modification,
and we also got one
of the clients involved,
who is going
through accent modification
in our clinic.
So we kind of, you
know, split it up.
I kind of did the more
theoretical explanation
of accent modification, and
then our student did a demo
with the client.
So it was actually fun.
It came out a lot
better than I thought.
And I also learned that
while you can film something
for over an hour,
and in the end end
up with 4 minutes essentially.
So that was actually a really
good learning experience for me.
So I would say absolutely to
just go for it, particularly
if it's on a topic that
you're particular --
you particularly
care about a lot,
and you're particularly
passionate about.
And one of the reasons I
got a future speech language
pathologist -- one of
our graduate students
to get involved is to sort
of help spread the word
that this is something
important that we need to do.
It's a way to, you know,
advocate for and spread the word
about whatever population it
is, whatever issue it is beyond,
you know, just the four walls
of where we are working.
So I would absolutely say
it's a great opportunity
to spread the word, it's a great
opportunity to learn something,
and that they should go for it.
