Sunshine Wilson
M.A., CSD

I am a first-year graduate student in the Communication Sciences and Disorders program. I received a B.A. in communication disorders with a Spanish minor from Truman State University. I am honored to be awarded the Diversity Fellowship to continue my studies in an area that I love. The language barriers I experienced on my study abroad trip in Costa Rica redefined my ambition to enter the field of speech-language pathology. My native language still provided a means of fluent communication; however, people with speech or language deficits do not have such an alternative. I realized that I wanted to help language-delayed children as a bilingual speech-language pathologist. My personal motivation and the opportunity to study in SLU’s graduate program allow me to achieve my professional goal of obtaining a master’s degree and, ultimately, a doctoral degree in speech-language pathology.

Because of my McNair program research experience, I have found a love for investigation and discovery for the improvement in the practice of speech-language pathology. After having investigated infant language acquisition during my undergraduate career, I plan to continue studying language development in the area of intervention for linguistically diverse preschool-aged children. After working as a professional speech-language pathologist for several years, I hope to pursue a Ph.D. in this field.

I look forward to participating in the research opportunities at SLU. I know that the faculty and staff will provide excellent support and encouragement throughout these two years as I pursue my Master’s degree.