Welcome to Digication
Scholars Conversations.

I'm your host, Kelly Driscoll.

In this episode, you'll hear part
two of my conversation with Sharron

Huang, recent graduate of Stony Brook
University, where she received a BA in

Linguistics, an MA in teaching English
to speakers of other languages, and

an MS in Speech Language Pathology.

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conversation can be found on Digication's

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Full episodes of Digication Scholars
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You did an extraordinary job sharing
the clinical experiences that I

think, you know, would be so relevant
in them making decisions about who

is going to kind of go to the next.

level, you know, beyond just viewing
the resumes, who are they going

to make initial contact to, who is
going to make it to the, you know,

various rounds of interviews that
I'm sure happen, who becomes in that

final list of candidates to consider.

So, um, and alongside all of these
clinical experiences you had, something

that we don't always see in, um, these
kinds of professional portfolios is

that you had a section where you were
including recommendation letters.

So people have a chance, you know,
to get some kind of boots on the

ground information about what it was
like working with you too from other

people before they even, you know,
maybe invite you in for an interview.

What was it like for you to
kind of contact people that you

are interested in including a
recommendation on your portfolio.

Yeah, absolutely.

So if you do go to my Digication for
all the listeners, like I have quite

a number of recommendation letters.

Um, I, I, I don't have anything.

I'm happy to share them.

Um, so like I said before, like I've,
Quite, quite amount of involvement

throughout, um, my time at Stony Brook.

So I was able to be real, very close with
my academic, um, professors and whatnot.

So like they were happy to write me a
letter of recommendation, especially

in such a close knit, um, cohort
and program as Stony Brook's, uh,

speech language pathology masters.

Like we are, we were quite a - a tight
- quite small cohort of just 29 students.

I was also, um On the, the leadership
board for, um, our cohort as well.

So that, that helped definitely get me
very close with a lot of our professors

as I would always like often go to like
office hours or I'd stay behind and

help out as a student assistant too.

So luckily I was able to get really close
with them and they were happy to write

me a letter of recommendation as well.

So they were, of course, happy to do it,
and with it being a relatively new program

as well, um, they were, like, our success
is their success, and that, I think, is

also why I chose to come back to Stony
Brook, because I, I had other choices.

I was thinking about, like, whether or not
I wanted to stay back in the city, because

I had already moved back to Brooklyn.

Um, and I considered staying in the city
and applying to, I did apply to other,

um, speech programs within the city, but
I knew that, like, I personally had Dr.

Fabus, who's the head of the program, um,
I had taken her classes as a pre-speech

track student, um, in the summers and in
the winters, um, so being able to, like,

have that personal experience with her,
and I know how much she's invested into

the program and invested in our success.

I, I knew she would be happy to
write a letter of recommendation,

especially with how, how involved
I was with the program and how she

really would love us to see us succeed.

So, academic recommendations,
they were all super fantastic.

The externship recommendations were
actually my clinical professor's idea.

Um, she highly encouraged all of us
to ask for one immediately at, towards

the end of our externship, so that way
we weren't asking for a recommendation

from someone we haven't seen in a year.

Now, while you're fresh in their minds.

Yeah, exactly.

Exactly.

So.

So, um, luckily I've had amazing,
wonderful externship experiences.

I had, um, my very first one at the
United Cerebral Palsy and that was

really my first experience working with
a medically complex community, especially

amongst, uh, student populations.

And that is actually very similar to
where I work in now when I work with,

um, students who have special needs and
having that exposure genuinely is...

I believe that's why I got the position
that I have now, um, and she was happy

to write me a letter of recommendation.

Uh, I worked in outpatient private
practice and that was super great.

Like being able to collect these
experiences and look back so fondly,

I'm very lucky to be able to do that.

And then my last, my last externship
was in the New York City DOE and

that was actually very last minute
opportunity where I was almost assigned

to A school district on Long Island.

But my clinical professor knew that
I wanted to come back home for us.

And she knew that the DOE
was always a goal for me.

So she very, very nicely and graciously
pulled some strings and had our contract

early so that I was able to do it
because she was gonna have it done

for the following cohort just based
off of like the timing and everything

and and naturally with the program
being on Long Island there aren't too

many people from the city who come
to make the trek out there for their

graduate program since we do have
many graduate programs um for speech

pathology in the city but she she was
very kind to have that work out for me.

So I had my externship
recommendations there.

And then of course with my,
my many extracurriculars, I

had a great support staff.

Many, many support staffs
where, um, I reached out to

my current staff at that time.

And the people who I hadn't
talked to like two, three years.

Who I know had, they had written a letter
of recommendation for me a while ago,

but I asked them because I see them
every now and then at RA events or campus

residence, um, like networking or career
day, like being able to still have that

connection with them, even though I hadn't
worked with them or directly under them

for like two, three, four, five years.

Like they, the fact that, We had such
a memorable time and that we were still

on great terms, like, the fact that they
were willing to, to write me a letter of

recommendation, I'm greatly appreciative.

Yeah, you clearly made
very strong connections.

Yeah, like, and they were so detailed
too, like, they would write in, they would

write in different examples and stories
and like, like, wow, like, being able

to, to have such a, like being able to
see what they, they thought about me too.

And to have it written out
in paper was so reassuring.

And like, I'm like, Oh, look, I know I had
an amazing time, like working with you.

It's to hear all these like wonderful
words that you're saying about me.

Just, I feel elated, you know?

And then, um, my last, my last, um,
category, I guess, of letters of

recommendations was summarizing my
teaching experiences because I had not

only done my long term subbing out on, out
in the city, I had also done a maternity

leave replacement as well on Long Island.

So I was able to get a mix of both and,
um, I had also volunteered during the

pandemic to, to do a program, um, And
where we were reading to a lot of the

parents, kids who were involved in the
Stony Brook community, because imagine

like being back home in the middle of the,
in the middle of the pandemic with your

kid and you're constantly with your kid,
like naturally these parents need a break.

They're, they don't, I'm sure
like they're petrified with what's

happening in the world right now.

And then, Hey, like all my
classes are remote anyway.

So I couldn't go back.

I couldn't go back in.

I couldn't go back in subbing
with, with all the schools closed.

So that was genuinely like such
a great way to use my time in

such a meaningful, impactful way.

Yeah, yeah.

It's extraordinary.

So I was curious, so you mentioned
you, um, were, you spent about a

year and a half, maybe almost two
years working on the, uh, ePortfolio.

As part of, it sounds like there
were three different classes, so did

you start in one and then it kind
of carried through the other three?

What was the professor's name?

I'm sorry if I missed that earlier.

Yeah, Elisabel Chang.

Okay.

So it sounds like she
gave some great advice.

Oh, yeah.

And then she, she actually showed
us some, some of the Digications

from previ, the previous cohort too.

So she showed examples of like what
you could possibly do with this.

And it definitely got the
wheels turning, of course.

Uh huh.

It was nice to like, see what my peers
were doing and like, take some of

like, their, like, their great work
and how they were displaying it and

different features and gadgets to use.

Um, While also like
figuring out my own style.

How do I want to present it?

How, what kind of, like, I
have extra teaching experience.

I went to the ASHA convention.

I really wanted to highlight that because
I was specifically related to the field.

Um, but a lot of, uh, a lot of the, um, my
peers and I had a lot of similar tabs and

whatnot too, because like we have the same
classes, we had, um, three externships,

we should have a contact information.

And, my professor was
really great in that.

She had a rubric for us, too, so
that we started off with requiring

a certain amount of things,
um, our first, um, assignment.

So that way it was like a slow build
to it instead of just having all these

expectations done immediately overnight.

So that was, it was nice to like always
be like, Oh, like I have some spare time.

Let me just add a little something
to my, my Digication now so that

it doesn't build up over time.

Yeah.

Yeah, often when we're working
with, um, students that are part of

these kind of professional practice
programs, there, there are kind of

big expectations for what it may
look like at the end of the program?

And I know very often instructors
and, you know, those that are kind of

thinking about what, you know, what
the requirements might be or what, um,

kind of the grading expectations may
be in designing some of these rubrics,

how, how much structure do they want?

To give the students to start or how,
how much do they just want the students

to be able to kind of take their,
take the reins and have ownership over

how it's organized and what content
is going to go in it, how much.

Mentorship is going to be involved.

How often are they going to be
able to see peers portfolios

as they're being developed?

And it sounds like there was
some natural sharing that was

happening between your cohort.

Was that something that was kind of
built into time that you had in class

or did you find that you guys were just
kind of doing that on your free time?

Did the professor encourage you to?

Share with each other.

What was that process like?

Yeah, a mix of all of that.

We, I remember in the classes we
would... she would have dedicated

time for us to work on our Digication
portfolio, for us to talk to our

neighbors, for us to ask her any
questions in the moment if we had any.

So she definitely built into that, that
time to create a Digication portfolio

within the class time so that we were,
um, around different inspiration or

like have that... have her able, like,
be able to quickly look at our, our

website to see if there are anything
that she wanted to add or like, oh,

should I make my head shot over here?

Should I put it over here?

Should I not have it at all?

Those are like quick questions
for her to answer too.

Mm hmm.

And it sounds like you got some
guidance too, and correct me if I'm

wrong, but it looks like you might've
gotten some guidance because you were

a part of these kind of Clinicals
and you also had these teaching

experiences that you wanted to share.

But, there's always, you know,
privacy kinds of guidelines

and how much is shared.

Does she give you some kind of
coaching on best practices there too?

Yeah, definitely.

So we, we had our rubric and
it was straightforward, but it

definitely left a lot of room for
creative decisions and, and whatnot.

So, um, she, she listed that she
wanted work from every single class.

And your resume, of course,
and your cover letter.

You weren't required to put down any
extracurriculars because some students

might just simply not have any.

But for the information that we
put, I know in a lot of our academic

work, we have our peers names, or our
students names, or our clients names.

So she, she made sure to tell
us to make, um, to make them

unidentifiable, unidentifiable.

So either like client xxx or client
initials or just the client first name.

That way they weren't, there
was no violation of FERPA.

There's no FERPA violation as well.

Mm hmm.

Um, I know like in, like some of my
favorite tabs to make, especially

in Digication, were the ones about
my externship experiences and my

teaching experiences, and they do
look very similar in terms of format.

So I would put the picture of
the school, but make sure there

aren't any students in there.

But, um, she encouraged us to
put pictures of our students or

any thank you notes that we had.

So I included that, but I made sure
to put little like emoji smiley faces.

Yeah, you've got your, yes, emoji.

Over every single little kid's face
so that they're unidentifiable.

And then you can see like just me, um,
without, which I think is kind of funny

for some of my pictures because I'm, I'm
the size of my middle school students.

But it's great because we get a
window into the environment, right?

Yeah, yeah, and that was the thing.

And that was the whole purpose.

Like I wanted for whichever,
whoever the employer was or the

hiring committee to almost be able
to picture me at their school.

Like you can see that I'm comfortable
in this school environment, all

these different school environments.

You see that I'm having a great
time with these kids, like be

able to work with these kids.

Um, like I want them to envision me in
their school and be comfortable choosing

me and enthusiastic to choose me.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I just think about those words in
comparison to the kind of bullet point

about the experience that would be on your
resume and how, how different that is.

Yeah.

This like paints the whole
picture of, of my experience.

Like I always find that I have
a harder time cutting down

on words than filling it out.

So I'm just like, cool.

This and this and this.

I'm like, Oh, what about this project?

It's hard to cut down all these like,
amazing things that we've accomplished.

Um, so like, to be able to talk about
them more through the Digication

website was more exciting than ever.

Like, I was able to put down exp...
explicitly, what we did, what curriculum

we use, how many kids I have, and how
often I saw them, like the fact that

it was during COVID, like being able to
talk about what struggles we worked on,

like how, how difficult was it teaching
through a mask and a plastic shield?

So, really, allowed me to speak on
my experience and that... kind of

naturally brought me to my next question.

I love it when there's these beautiful
little segues because my next question

was... If, you know, has it always
been easy for you to be able to talk

about yourself and your experiences
or do you feel like that's something

that's kind of grown over time?

Or maybe it was, you know, in working
with this professor or maybe in some of

your leadership roles that this started
to come out for you because some people

have a really difficult time talking about
themselves and you definitely seem very

comfortable with it now and you definitely
seem like you're very comfortable with

it through, you know, all the information
that you've shared in your portfolio,

but that, has that always been the case?

Yeah, so definitely did not
come out of nowhere overnight.

Um, so I would say it started, um, a
little bit in high school where I, I went

to a high school where I didn't have many
friends coming in from middle school.

And I know I had, I had to push
myself to make new friends and make

new connections, um, from the start.

However, I think it really began and
like continued to push where I am now.

Um, my sophomore year of college actually,
and I think it lines up very nicely Um,

because my freshman year, I was, uh,
a bio major on the pre med track, not

enjoying my classes, having a really
tough time studying and not going out.

Um, but at the very end of freshman
year, getting the RA position, the

Resident Assistant position, where
I was all of a sudden like sprung

into this leadership position that
I really hoped and prayed for.

Um, because then at that I was a,
I was a leadership role model here.

I'm like being able to have a reason,
have a why to push myself to not

only enjoy, um, college life and like
living away from home and dorming.

But now I also have to kind of
market this and sell this and,

invite other first year students
to feel welcome on campus as well.

So having them come out to events
and showing them different resources

and different, um, spaces that we
had, um, and hosting these spaces and

being able to explain like, 'Oh, like,
this is what we're doing and this

is what we have planned for today.'

And like, like 'I have free pizza,'
like 'you want to come here?' And

like 'come out at eight o'clock on a
Tuesday?' So like being able to have

a reason, have a why that pushes me to
be comfortable in my skin, be confident

and like, sharing not only about myself,
but about Stony Brook and I feel like

that's also what allowed me to learn
so much about the school and now have

so much pride about the school too.

Yes.

Well, you, you definitely exude that
and, I can imagine that, you know, the,

the comfort that you have in sharing
who you are and your experiences

probably really resonates with the
students that you work with now also.

So it's wonderful that you had that RA
experience on campus and you know, I

think this kind of, um, storytelling and
highlighting your achievements, so your

portfolio is reinforced that and has
this, uh, kind of additional audience

around who you are and what you do.

And I think, you know, this kind of
celebration of who you are and your

experiences and your passion for speech
and working with students probably really

inspires all of the people that you work
with, the students and the, the colleagues

that you have at your school today.

Thank you.

Yeah, I was curious.

So, as a recent graduate.

But, you know, what, what are some
of the connections that you've

already fostered as an alumni?

Or what are some of the relationships or
connections that you hope to keep, um, now

that you've graduated from the university?

Absolutely.

So, um, I know, luckily Stony Brook is
only, uh, a two hour train ride away.

Uh, happy to hear about that.

I know like I, I'm definitely
on their alumni list.

I like to know when
homecomings are and whatnot.

Um, but also I, I stay very
close in contact with a lot of

my friends who are still there.

Um, also fellow alums
from the college as well.

Um, I would say my biggest contribution
still to this day is, um, being

part of a program called SLPeers.

So our speech language pathology is
usually an SLP, and we have a program

that we made with, um, peers that comes
with it and it's a mentor-mentee program.

So I luckily still have a,
a mentee in the program.

And so it's really great still
seeing where they are now in their

academic journey, having, um, to give
them advice and talking about their

experiences and their externships and
rooting them on because just a year

ago, I was in their exact same shoes.

You were right there.

Yeah.

Like I, I know, like I talked to them at
least once every two weeks, like being

able to share like, Oh, like you got
this, like, Oh, like, where did you get

placed for your externship this year?

Like, Oh, like how,
how, how'd your test go?

Or what are some places that you're
looking to apply to for Your CF, like

post grad and any advice that I can
give or we have our licensing exam,

which is the practice and I know a
lot of them are studying for that

then and being able to share that
material with them, like, it's nice to

pass down like all this information.

And you know, the, Cause I, I didn't
come in with this empty-handed either.

Like I, I had a wonderful mentor
too, who, who shared her fountain

of, of wisdom with me too.

So being able to pass that
along feels like you're, you're

part of something so much more.

And then, uh, of course, still being very
involved, like I, I love being part of,

um, the admissions committees too, as
well as, uh, I guess now as like an alumni

interviewer, but I was, um, a student
interviewer, um, during the time, and now,

um, um, they send invitations out to the
alumni to see if they'd like to be part

of the, um, admissions committee board.

So that's something that I look
forward to taking part in and, you

know, continuing my, my involvement
in the program and at Stony Brook.

Oh, that is wonderful.

And I'm sure that you'll be an inspiration
to our listeners as well and anyone that

comes to see your extraordinary portfolio.

Thank you so much.

We appreciate you.

Yes, I so appreciate you taking the
time to to join me and talk about your

extraordinary achievements and all that
you've done and really looking forward to

to sharing your story with our listeners.

Thank you so much.

I'm so flattered.

Thank you so much for having me.

Absolutely.

Take good care.

Thank you as well.

This concludes our conversation.

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