Hey there! My name is Christie Collamer and this is my last semester at ASU!! YAY!!!! My concentration areas are education and psychology. When I first started college, I really liked psychology, and a friend introduced me to education classes soon after, which I fell in love with. I think psychology reflects my personality better than education because I really enjoy thinking about things in depth. Some of the hardest classes in my life have been psychology classes and as much as I have cursed these classes day after day, I ended up learning so many things that have been valuable in some creatively random ways that make me appear to be smart and that I've listened pretty well throughout the years.
My intern site is at a speech pathology center in Tempe where I am assisting a speech pathologist with her clients. I visited this site a couple years ago while I was taking a special education class at SCC and had to visit special education environments. I worked with a teenage boy named Ben who has down syndrome. He has an hour-long session every Wednesday and my goal is to be in his session every Wednesday. The owner also has another family who has two children with down syndrome who have gone to the speech pathology center for many years and just adopted a child from China who also has down syndrome. It's amazing to see that a family has given hope to another child who may not have had the same opportunities from another family.
My time so far has been somewhat introductory; I’ve mostly just participated in activities with clients on my first day. I know I will learn more about how to communicate with children with special needs in this experience. Although I don’t expect to become a special education teacher, and probably a teacher at all, I think the values I will learn will be important. As far as work goes, I’m not sure what I’ll do after graduation, but patience will be important no matter what, which is also what I’m learning at my site. I have a few job opportunities right now, but nothing that relates to my internship.
Obviously my internship is pretty related to the education theme of this class because I am working with children with speech impediments in a structured, educational environment. Other than this, my life is fairly undetermined after graduation, and I really don’t know where I’ll end up.
4 comments:
Hi Christie! I loved reading your introduction. It sounds like we have a lot of the same interests. I have taken a few psychology classes, and I must agree that they are so interesting. I didn’t want to be a psychologist, nor did I want to deal with how hard the classes are, but I definitely agree that psychology is a fascinating discipline. Although I did not choose Education as one of my concentration areas, I wish that I had. I will be graduating in December and I plan on going back to school to get my Master’s Degree in Elementary Education.
That is really cool that you are passionate about speech pathology, and working with children with disabilities. I have a great deal of respect for the patience that it takes to work in that field. One of my friends from high school got into speech pathology, and the last I heard, she loves it.
I was so happy to read that you have come into contact with a family that adopted a child with down syndrome from China and have made a positive impact on his/her life. My husband and I have been contemplating adoption, and although there are many scares about it, I think that it is an amazing thing. It is great to hear of someone who has had a successful adoption, and is able to help a child, especially a child with a disability.
It is great to meet you Chrisitie, and I hope that you end up loving your internship. It sounds like it is going to be a great experience.
Hi Christie,
Working with a speech pathologist with chidren with Down Syndrome sounds really interesting. I have a friend whos son goes to speech pathology in Tempe -I wonder if that's the same place? I agree that even if that's not what you end up doing after graduation it will teach you valuable skills that you can use in any future job.
How's it going Christie? I really enjoyed reading your blog entry from last week. I think the internship site you have is truly unique. I also think your concentrations are interesting as well. What made you decide to become a BIS major with those 2 concetrations? Like you, I started out as a psychology major and cursed every class I took. However, the information I learned from them didn't satisfy me as far as knowledge is concerned so I switched to Family and Human Development. I hope you develop a great deal of patience because it is definitely needed when working with children, disabled or not. I admire you for working with people who have down syndrome; it takes a selfless person to do something like that. I wish you the best of luck this semester!
Hello Christie, it’s good to meet you! My name is Dustin Schodt and my areas of concentration are Business and Communication. It sounds like we will both be walking in December if everything goes well for us. I think that your combination of education and psychology is great for what you are looking to do. Being able to understand how other people are thinking is very important if you want to teach them anything effectively. Even though you may not be a teacher, I believe that we are constantly learning from and teaching each other. Your applied study sounds challenging and interesting. Patience is certainly something you will attain throughout the coming months. It is a position that will prove to be valuable and rewarding if you apply yourself the entire time, but I’m sure it will take a lot of hard work! Good luck in the future Christie.
Dustin Schodt
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