Communication
Sciences and Disorders Graduate Student
Rajani Sebastian
My role as an IE Pre-Grad mentor in the spring of '08 was an incredibly rewarding experience. This is a great program for undergraduates as this gives them an opportunity to get closely involved with research under a designated mentor. I had the opportunity to provide some insight to two prospective graduate students in my field. In addition, the mentoring experience also helped to widen the perspective in my own little graduate world and remind me of my central motivation for pursuing higher education: to learn and help others learn.
I mentored Sara Sandroussi and Natalie Schemear, two bright and enthusiastic undergraduates, in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. We worked on trying to better understand what happens in the brain when people suffer aphasia by using functional neuroimaging. Both Sara and Natalie thoroughly enjoyed the research experience and I personally believe that teaching somebody else is the best way of learning and my experience as a mentor helped me grow both as a teacher and as a graduate student.