Letter of Application

To Scholarship Review Committee Members:

This fall, I will begin my two-year Masters of Science program in Medical SLP
from the University of Washington. Since graduating in 2012 from my undergrad as a
pre-medical student, I have made drastic changes in my career plans, moved to a
different state and began working towards a second bachelors degree in speech and
hearing sciences. Suffice it to say, I am thrilled to finally begin my masters education
and hope that you will support me in my endeavors during graduate school and beyond
by considering me for this scholarship.
The number of fascinating topics within speech-language pathology makes it
difficult to narrow down career goals, but pediatric populations and the medical setting
are my strongest interests. I have chosen to study medical speech-language pathology in
hopes that it will provide the best possible foundation for my future work.
One aspiration I have is to work with a team of healthcare professionals to
provide therapy for children with cleft lip/palate and other craniofacial anomalies. While
the physical deformities of a cleft may get fixed with surgery and eventually become
unnoticeable, the less visible challenges related to feeding, speech and hearing may
remain long after the surgeries are over. Often, these are the struggles that are most
difficult to overcome. I want to be able to help children with these physically invisible
obstacles, helping them to not only appear healthy but to also live healthy,
uncompromised lives.
I first heard of cleft lip/palate deformities through an organization called
Operation Smile, which provides children in need with cleft lip/palate repairing
surgeries. As a pre-med student imagining myself performing these surgeries one day, I
was somewhat disappointed to hear that my contribution would not completely fix a
childs situation. There was much more work to be done in therapy, but I would not be
able to walk a child through it. Now, as a student of speech-language pathology rather
than medicine, I know Ill be able to provide a child with the therapy she needs and the
emotional encouragement to see her to the end of her treatment as well. The idea of
journeying through a childs treatment process is exciting to me, and I hope I can
experience this with children wherever there is a need.
Working and living where healthcare services are limited has been a goal of mine
for many years. One of the greatest challenges in doing so, however, is providing
sustainable care rather than quick-fixes that do more harm than good. Thankfully, the
nature of speech language pathology involves careful monitoring and reevaluations that
usually lead to long-term results, but they are still limited to the individual who receives
therapy. The ultimate goal of working in a community with limited access to speech
therapy services would be to help transform it into a place where services are readily
available. Therefore, I hope I can become involved in increasing the knowledge of the
latest clinical protocols amongst healthcare professionals in these areas, whether they
are physicians or speech pathologists. Additionally, in places where there is a need for
more therapists but not enough SLP programs, I would love to take part in establishing
or building up training programs as an educator some day.
These are some of my larger goals as a future SLP, but I realize that they will not
happen as soon as I begin my career. Following graduation, I hope to work my clinical
fellowship year in a setting that will expose me to as many facets of medical speech
language pathology as possible. I want to learn much about the technical skills required
in my job, but I also hope to learn about the necessary components of an effective
patient-physician-therapist relationship, as I have observed that the quality of care so
often gets lost in communication.
My first step in pursuing my immediate and long-term goals is succeeding in my
Medical SLP graduate program, and a scholarship to fund my education would no doubt
help me succeed. I have already taken financial and personal risks to attend the post-
baccalaureate program I am currently in, but my hopes for my future as an SLP made
the risks worthwhile. I continue to have this attitude toward my future, and I am
confident in my potential. I hope that you are able to see the same potential in me and
kindly ask that you would consider investing in me by means of this scholarship.