PDSB SpeechLanguage

SLP student Michelle Balzer wants to be the person who listens to, collaborates with, and supports individuals with a range of communication disorders. She is looking forward to setting goals with her clients that are meaningful, functional and motivating. “I might be a little biased,” she says. “But to me, a career as an SLP is the best career out there.” Initially, Michelle was motivated to pursue SLP because of her love for all things brains and language but now also recognizes how central communication is to our lives: for expressing ideas, building relationships and participating in meaningful activities. She finds being part of the team that helps develop and/or restore communication skills exciting, and believes witnessing the meaningful life changes that occur as a client develops these skills is a privilege. Michelle enjoys the detective work involved in being in SLP, including synthesizing information, conferring with colleagues and trying different strategies. She acknowledges it’s challenging, but also exciting, to land on an accurate diagnosis, identify a motivating activity, or find an effective strategy for a specific client. She has found that guest speakers with lived experience of a communication disorder in her classes have had a great impact on her. “Sometimes, I get so focused on the academic side of course material I forget I will soon have a real person on the other end of that diagnosis,” she explains. “These experiences remind me of the functional impacts of speech and language disorders on individuals and their families and I’m reminded of the importance of doing my job well so I can help clients make meaningful changes in their lives.”