The University of XXXX’s Master's Program in Communication Sciences and Disorders is my first choice among graduate programs for several reasons, including the location and the sheer excellence of your program. I hope to begin in the spring of 2020, working towards certification as a Speech-Language Pathologist. XXXX is my hometown, UXX has been my academic community since I earned my undergraduate degree at UXX, and I love my university. Thus, I hope to complete my graduate work in the exact location where my routines and resources are well established and organized. I appreciate UXX’s innovative technology and your mission to produce leaders that positively and progressively impact the community, which aligns perfectly with my personal and clinical goals.
I appreciate how UXX ranks among the top one hundred universities in the US and the diversity of your faculty and student body. I am also favorably impressed with the substantial number, more than two hundred, of internship/practicum sites in the XXXX area. Your program's strengths complement my diverse background, education, and experiences. By earning my master's at UXX, I am convinced that I will be fully ready to begin making my maximum professional contribution upon graduation from your program. I keenly look forward to decades to come helping individuals, especially children, to deal successfully with voice disorders.
I sing and have done so professionally upon occasion. Thus, I have an advanced appreciation of voice, and I believe that this will help drive me to excellence. Along with children, I look forward to directing my practice to other singers, actors, broadcasters, etc., people for whom voice issues have immediate professional relevance. I finished my BA in Radio/TV degree and have worked, among other things, as a professional performer during the seven years I have been out of college. With extensive training and experience, much of it in voice, I look forward to making effective use of my talents and helping others develop their vocal capacity. For the past couple of years, I have been taking the classes online at UXX that I need to fulfill the prerequisites for your program.
Making a lasting impact on individual lives by helping clients develop their voices as fully as possible, I thrive on collaboration with other professionals in the ongoing search for creative responses to challenges. My passion for voice goes back to an incredibly early age when I first began singing. Music has always been part of my life, and it led me to actively be involved in the performing arts throughout my academic career and continue to act after my graduation, both in film and on stage. As a performer in the Orlando area, I became fascinated by this incredible instrument's capabilities and the many ways the voice can produce a beautiful sound.
My basic understanding of the anatomy of the vocal tract and how it is used to create sound will be helpful to me as a voice therapist. I was fortunate enough to have a teacher who had retired from her opera career in New York City and mentored me for some time, bringing out the best in my vocal abilities and protecting and nurturing my voice despite the rigorous and constant demands of performing. Long intrigued by how humans manipulate voice to convey emotion and express ideas, I am a natural for the field of SLP. This was confirmed when I shadowed an SLP professional working with children and, later, a voice pathologist who performed with various patients needing voice therapy.
Some of my favorite classes have included foreign languages, and I excelled in Spanish in high school and Italian in college. I continue to practice my Spanish hoping that mastering Spanish will benefit my capacity for professional service, especially as a volunteer helping children from underserved families. I consider voice to be such a blessing and have been highly motivated by my study of the prevalence of speech and voice disorders and the subsequent reduction of quality of life.
My central long-term goal is to become a speech-language pathologist, increasingly specializing in voice disorders and eventually having my practice. I seek to harness my great passion for communication through singing with my desire to help others who have lost or whose voices are underdeveloped, agents damaged by improper technique or overuse. The ability to treat those who have lost their voices would be a special honor for me as a performing artist who understands and has genuine compassion for those who experience difficulties with vocalization. In addition to my efforts in the academic and professional worlds, I am also a volunteer with Harvest Time International. This non-profit organization sells low-cost food and household items to those living in poverty. I've done community theater in addition to singing, playing the ukulele, going outdoors, enjoying nature, swimming, and reading.
I place an extremely high priority on ethical and professional codes of conduct. I will maintain the highest standards of conduct in all situations to fulfill our professional challenges and duties – always working as a team, collaborating to provide the highest quality of care possible for our patients, thereby safeguarding the integrity of our profession. I know I can be successful in this field for many reasons. I have already taken several advanced science prerequisites and scored near the top of my class due to my passion and dedication to succeed, confirming this is the right pathway. I am also finishing my certification as a registered behavioral tech to better prepare me for working with children, many of whom have autism and other developmental disabilities. I’m excited about being a part of the spring 2020 cohort at the University of XXXX and the prospect of being part of the advancements being made at UXX in research into communication disorders. It would be a special privilege to have the opportunity to participate in a study into vocal health and conditions under the supervision of Dr. XXXX, whose work I especially admire.
I thank you for considering my application to your program.
Master’s Communication Science and Disorders