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Alica Samuel ‘27SLP didn’t realize one of the most memorable experiences from her recent service trip to Belize would involve a swivel chair.
Samuel was among a group of students from the Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) and Occupational Therapy (OT) programs in Drexel’s College of Nursing and Health Professions, who recently traveled to the county for an immersive 10-day experience to provide direct service to both children and adults requiring assessments and interventions. In fact, the Belize trip was one of reasons she applied to the Drexel SLP program, based in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania.
And it paid off in experience and memories. Paired with an OT student, one of the interactions Samuel had was with a young boy who had limited verbal communication. The OT student had been working with the boy in a swivel chair as the boy counted aloud each time he spun around in the chair.
“Hearing him count each spin while smiling was such a heartwarming moment for me,” said Samuel, from Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, who received her undergraduate degree in Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences from Temple University. “Seeing the little moments of him slowly interacting with other children, participating in group activities and genuinely enjoying himself is something I will always cherish.”
The service trip was coordinated through Therapy Abroad, whose mission is to create an interactive educational environment for students and professionals to learn and enhance core competencies in their professions, and gain valuable clinical hours while enjoying the richness and challenges of service learning and traveling abroad.
Students design and implement an interprofessional camp for a group of children who require development in communication and activities of daily living (ADLs) skills. Activities developed allow the children to quickly learn and practice new skills in areas such as literacy, play and social interactions. Other areas such as mobility and feeding and swallowing are also incorporated in entertaining group events like an obstacle course, science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) lessons and snack time.
According to Robert Serianni, MS, CCC-SLP, FNAP, chair and program director of the SLP department, students also provide individual assessments and therapy sessions to community members in need of specific services.
“Very few citizens in Belize have access to rehabilitation and special education services so these opportunities deeply assist the clients and their families to address areas of need,” said Serianni.
He added students addressed speech and language skills, designed and updated augmentative communication devices, increased pragmatic skills and improved reading and writing through thoughtfully, culturally relevant designed activities. They also spent time with parents and other caregivers to make sure the newly taught skills transfer to home, school and other environments. The students are supervised by faculty who guide and support them as they gain clinical skills and build cultural competence.
“As a professor, I enjoy watching the students transform in such a short time - they go from somewhat apprehensive in the beginning of the week to almost autonomous practitioners, utilizing limited resources but fully engaging their clients and the families, who are so deeply appreciative of the services we are able to provide,” said Serianni.
Ruby Murrani ‘27SLP was an English as a Second Language teacher looking to move into the medical field in a profession still rooted in language. She found the Drexel SLP master’s program through a Google search and “became hyper-fixated on it.”
After being accepted into the program, she wanted to branch out and try something new and challenging. The service trip to Belize provided this opportunity.
While there, she and the other students helped curate lesson plans and lead sessions for the children with speech and language deficits.
“We were able to advance not just our clinical skills, but our creativity and ability to work with limited resources,” said Murrani. The Mount Laurel, New Jersey native earned her undergraduate degree in English from Rutgers University. “Just seeing how thankful the families were for our services stood out for me the most. It was a good reminder that we are needed and appreciated, and that we can truly make such an impact in their lives,” she said.
Jessica Rendfrey ‘27MSOT, is pursuing a career in OT because she wants to be able to provide opportunities to individuals to become as independent as possible. She helped care for her grandmother and watched as a young cousin of hers overcame a rough beginning in life to now be able to play and go to school.
She said learning to work with limited resources in Belize was invaluable to her training.
“I had one patient, while there, who was sitting at the top of the slide working on core strength and postural control. I would have him reach across his body across his midline to grab a lime and throw it down the slide,” said Rendfrey, of Pennsauken, New Jersey. She earned an undergraduate degree in Exercise Science from Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia. “This (activity) worked on a number of his goals, so being able to target those goals and work with a team to accomplish this made me really proud and excited of this little one,” she said of her experience.
As her first service trip, she said the experience she gained helped her grow both as an individual and as a practitioner.
“This experience truly confirmed to me that I made the right career choice, that OT is for me,” she said. “Being able to feel like I was making a true difference in not only these children’s lives but also the lives of their families was incredible. I grew so much as a professional.”
That’s exactly one of the many goals of these service trips, according to Serianni.
“As a clinician, I am always amazed by the connections we get to build, how humbling the experience truly is,” he said. “I always feel like I walk away with an enhanced perspective on how to approach providing care, focusing less on the technology and stuff that facilitates treatment and more on the teaching and carryover aspects of the sessions. I feel like I learn just as much as I teach on one of these trips.”
