Lupita Perez

Quick Facts

Program: Speech-Language Pathology, MS
Graduation Year: 2024
Previous Job Title: Speech Language Pathology Intern, CHOC
Current Job Title: Clinical fellow at a local school

Life at CBU

Why did you choose this graduate degree program? What interested you in this particular field of study?
I didn't really know what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to do something that helped people. I thought about psychology or social work, but I observed my cousin who was an SLP at a school, and the day that I observed her, one of the kids was graduating from speech. I was able to learn about their story, why they were there, how much progress they made. Listening to them with their joy and excitement of how much they've learned and overcome just filled my heart. I went home and I looked up everything, all things SLP, to try to figure out what it was all about. Now, every day I am so grateful that I'm able to help someone have a voice.

Did you complete any field work?
Yes. The CBU program requires you to have a placement that's different every semester except for your first semester. So basically you enter the SLP program your first semester, where they really emphasize the education component, making sure you understand concepts, providing examples on what you would do during therapy, so that when you do have a placement the next semester, they know that you are well equipped and prepared for that placement. And then from the second semester on, you have a different placement every single semester.

And this is extremely helpful because I was able to get two summer placements, one private practice and one hospital (at CHOC). So you get an extremely broad understanding, and you're able to gain clinical skill sets in different areas because you're going to different sites. Every supervisor's different, every patient that you meet is different. Every site that you go to will have different experiences, and you just improve in your clinical skill set because of it.

How did you grow while in this program at CBU?
CBU gives a great foundational skill set on the information that you need to work in a place like a hospital, but getting that hands-on experience in my medical internship at CHOC, it just really helped me understand the subject better and work on my clinical skill set. ... I was so grateful to have the opportunity to intern at CHOC because it is so difficult to get into an experience like this. I was able to see such a vast range of disorders. I could be doing cognition, I could be doing dysphagia, I could be doing an MDS. It was so rewarding to come in every day and challenge myself to learn new skill sets and further my clinical skills.

Did your program help you figure out your purpose?
I initially started this program not knowing that I liked the medical side. It wasn't until I took the dysphasia courses and the neuro courses that I sat in class and realized this was really interesting. ... CBU was able to guide me in the direction that I wanted to go (the medical route). They helped me find the resources to apply for medical internships and further my education.

What did you think about your professors?
Professor Ross, Professor Sendor, Professor Homer — they were able to guide me and give me advice, they checked my resume, gave me resources and helped make me more competitive for my placement applications.

Life after CBU

What have you done since graduating?
After graduation, I will do the school route for my clinical fellowship, and then I'm hoping to do per diem at a hospital or a private practice that's more hospital based.

What are your future goals and plans? 
I have so many. I hope to gain a deeper foundational and clinical knowledge. I want to be a seasoned SLP, where I have gained a lot of hands-on experiences to aid my clinical judgment and assessment skills. But at the end of the day, I really just want to keep helping my community.

How are you making a difference in the world?
Just being able to help and support my community and being there for families during some of their hardest days. It is such a rewarding feeling to have that kind of impact on someone's life.