Author: Tiffany Smith | Major: Communication Sciences and Disorders | Semester: Spring 2023
Tiffany Smith is a senior honors student in the College of Education and Health Professions studying Communication Sciences and Disorders. She and her team at Farmington Junior High School developed a program called Cultivating Communicators to meet the need for social skills regression among students.
From September 2021 to March 2022, I interned at Farmington Junior High School for my honors project to observe social communication among students. I have been very interested in how the pandemic of COVID-19 has impacted the way that children interact with one another, so I thought being able to observe students in their natural environment would be beneficial to add to my research. While at my internship, I volunteered at Kirksey Middle School at an event called the “Circle of Doom” which was essentially a mock interview for students to participate in and practice their professional and communication skills. They utilized the program from Ron Clark’s Amazing Shake Competition which is an academy that trains and develops young individuals’ professional skills. Upon reflecting on my experience at Kirksey and telling the Speech Pathologist I shadowed, Mrs. Amanda Carter, about the event, I thought how impactful a program like Ron Clark’s would be at Farmington Junior High.
From that moment, the program that began as just a dream and hypothetical idea came to be a reality thanks to my incredible honors mentor, Dr. Rachel Glade, and Farmington’s speech pathologist, Mrs. Amanda Carter. As a team, we collectively began brainstorming and putting ideas together which has now resulted in a program that has just finished its first full year called Cultivating Communicators. I also brought a junior at the University of Arkansas, Rachel Siemens, to join my research team so she can carry on the research aspect once I have graduated! The program, Cultivating Communicators, is an opportunity for students to grow and develop their social skills in a comfortable and engaging environment with their peers. This program strives to equip students with a toolbox of skills to improve their communication abilities. Each meeting will focus on topics such as building relationships, problem-solving, and interpersonal skills. Students will be participating in particular challenges and games such as mock interviews and situational practice. Small groups have taken place weekly, and the large group will meet once a month at Farmington Junior High School.
The idea behind the first theme was finding ways to relate to peers and make friends. We began with a small group of about sixteen students to essentially be our pilot group. The four small groups leading up to our large event introduced concepts such as effective handshakes, appropriate eye contact, how to introduce yourself, and how to appropriately maintain conversations. The large group event was Speed Friending which was a fun opportunity for students to apply the skills they learned in the small groups and make friends!
The next semester, our team added some more students who were interested in participating. They learned about practical skills to work as a team and communicate effectively. The students participated in a mock restaurant and were able to craft their own recipes and practiced the roles of servers and customers.
I am excited to see the impact this program will have on students. I cannot wait to see the way this program grows and develops over time. I am hoping this initial pilot group will yield positive results because I can see this developing into something way bigger than we ever intended. The Honors College allowed me the opportunity to not only explore this area of research but also provided me with opportunities such as presenting my findings in Little Rock, Arkansas, and has connected me with many faculty members and professionals in the local area. One main factor in staying at the University of Arkansas for graduate school to further my studies in Speech Pathology was this honors experience. This program has already given me hope for the progression of pragmatic skills within students, and I am eager to continue researching and developing this program in graduate school.