Communication Sciences and Disorders Pre Grad Intern Leah Arnell
"Today I went to the language learning and bilingualism lab for the last time. It's hard to believe my time with the Intellectual Entrepreneurship is almost over. I will take the lessons I learned from the experience and continue to grow as a scholar. When I began the internship I was a good student but I wasn't an active student. After my experience with IE I feel more confident to approach professors and graduate students. I also feel more confident in my academic abilities through the assignments with which IE challenged me. In my assignment to transcribe and code language samples I have worked more diligently and accurately than I knew possible. In my creating and presentation of a poster at the Longhorn Research Bazaar, I developed academic reasoning skills that I didn't know I had. I definitely feel more qualified and prepared for entry into graduate school.
This summer I will be scoping out graduate schools, taking the GRE and interning with another professor at summer camps and individual sessions for adults and children with speech and language disorders. I very much look forward to the final opportunity directly given to me by the IE program; in June I will be attending the Symposium in Research on Child Language Disorders in Madison, Wisconsin with my mentor and scholars from across the country. In the fall, I will be completing another internship. After graduation in December 2012, I will be applying to graduate schools with the academic strength the IE program has given me."