This is a picture of me on top of Arthur’s Seat! One of the 7 hills Edinburgh was built on!
Author: Abigail Joray | Major: Communication Sciences and Disorders | Semester: Spring 2022
My name is Abigail Joray and I am a third-year student majoring in Communication Sciences and Disorders and minoring in Medical Humanities within the College of Education and Health Professions. This summer, in 2022, I interned abroad in Edinburgh, Scotland with the Global Experiences Program. After being accepted with Global Experiences, they scheduled me interviews with placements that were in relation to my major and/or the field I wanted to gain professional work experience from. This internship not only gave me the opportunity to better understand foreign workplaces but also allowed me to appreciate the importance that cultural influence has on the execution of my future career.
In this international internship, I was given the opportunity to work with a company, called The Yard, for two months. The Yard is a non-profit organization that supports children with disabilities ages 0-25 by initiating inventive and creative play therapy through socialization, relational development, and growth enabled through positive challenges. The Yard is a place unlike any other – where children with additional needs are given the opportunity to play in a safe and comforting environment, free from the marginalization of the outside world, with support and encouragement from other children and staff. As a playworker intern, I was given the opportunity to help support the staff, children, and families by initiating play activities and relationship-building for the children. Upon starting this internship I underwent multiple different pieces of training for health and safety, fire safety, and equipment usage, which enabled me to aid the staff as a member of the team whenever necessary.
When working with children, outlined plans turn into mere suggestions, leading to rather consistent (and sometimes unwanted) opportunities to work on adaptability. While working at The Yard, I was given the opportunity to practice patience and flexibility each and every day, as every minute was driven by adaptability and spontaneity. One of the most remarkable things about The Yard is that they never harness onto the idea of a “Plan,” and rather minimize the expectations of such a thing before the day even begins. With that, countless things went “Wrong” as children refused to do certain activities, equipment broke, and staff dwindled due to sickness. Regardless, the children never let anyone get bored – making each minute a new and exciting adventure for everyone. Throughout this internship, my idea of something going “Wrong” was quickly dismantled, as even injuries can always be made right with a plaster and a kiss. Despite the organized chaos of each day, the children and staff always brought enthusiasm, challenging the idea that things can even go “Wrong,” with the idea that rather things just go “differently.”
Though my internship was under the title of “Social Work,” and therefore not technically my exact major, I got the incredible opportunity to work with children who had communication disorders, and countless other additional needs that I can only expect will one day show up in my career. After spending a few weeks around children with communication disorders I learned that each one presents itself in an entirely different way – making my career a much more versatile and fluctuating field than I previously imagined. Additionally, I learned that there is such a significant need for my major all over the world. This knowledge has helped to drive my passion for this field even more, after seeing children who were denied help from a Speech Pathologist simply because there were not enough of them. Even if this internship were to have absolutely nothing to do with my career, I learned patience, adaptability, humility, and the importance of living life through the eyes of a child – enthusiastic, carefree, confident, kind, and always in resilient pursuit of the goodness that life has to offer.
After taking a step back from this internship, I have been able to fully grasp how much of an impact this international placement had on me and my future career. Previous to this internship I had little to no interaction with children with feeding and swallowing disorders, so with the knowledge I have now, I am planning to pursue this passion through an internship in the Swallowing Clinic on the University of Arkansas campus. In addition, this placement gave me the opportunity to understand what my career would look like abroad – which I am currently hoping to pursue after receiving my Master’s in Speech Pathology. Though there is substantially more for me to learn, this international internship gave me insight into both my career and myself, that I might not have otherwise gotten the opportunity to see. This summer, through the challenges and the laughs, I was given an extraordinary opportunity to challenge my ideologies, grow in understanding, and strengthen my weaknesses in ways that might not have been possible in America. If you ever get the opportunity to do an internship abroad, take it; you might never understand the impact it could have on you until it does.