Communication Sciences and Disorders Senior Jennifer Hinojosa

Jennifer HinojosaThe IE pre-graduate internship was an opportunity introduced to me through my undergraduate adviser, Lorena Dominguez. Lorena said that it was a great opportunity that I should take advantage of, so I took her advice. I found this internship to be a very helpful experience in the midst of applying for graduate school and finishing up my last semester as an undergraduate student. It was very helpful to have a mentor, Emily Mohr, a graduate student in Communication Sciences and Disorders-Speech Language Pathology, to help guide me through the process and tell me what to expect from graduate school.

In addition to this, Emily let me help her with her research assignment focused on the organization of the mental lexicon in bilinguals/ development of test stimuli for language development in bilingual speakers. I completed an IRB proposal, the first step to any research project, as well as helped the graduate student recruit participants. After this, I helped her organize some of her data in order for her to interpret it.

Another part of this internship was observing speech therapy session in the UT Speech and Hearing Clinic. I observed a variety of clients (adolescents, children, and adults) who showed a variety of different communication disorders. Overall, I am glad that I had this opportunity to meet with a graduate student on a regular basis and get a glimpse at what graduate school, and research, is like. I commend the organizers of this program for giving undergraduate students this wonderful opportunity and hope that many more students will be able to benefit from it.