Welcome to Digication Scholars Conversations.
I'm your host, Kelly Driscoll.
In this episode, you'll hear part one of my conversation with Sharron Huang, recent
graduate of Stony Brook University, where she received a B. A. in Linguistics, an
M. A. in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, and an M. S.
in Speech Language Pathology.
More links and information about today's conversation can be found on Digication's
Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Full episodes of Digication Scholars Conversations can be found on
YouTube or your favorite podcast app.
Welcome to Digication Scholars Conversations.
I'm your host, Kelly Driscoll, and today I'm so excited to introduce
Sharron Huang, who graduated from Stony Brook University in May 2024.
Welcome, Sharron.
Thank you so much for having me.
Thank you.
Absolutely.
Yes.
So, we, uh, happened to stumble upon Sharron's extraordinary work and
experiences in Digication, and I just had to reach out to have her join me
on Digication Scholars Conversations because what she has created really
exemplifies a Digication Scholar.
Um, she has created this incredible representation of who she is, uh, the
story behind her background, uh, all of the work that she's done at Stony Brook
University, and as a recent graduate, also has things to share about life beyond
Stony Brook too, that I'm sure she'll have a chance to share with us today.
Um, so Sharron, I really just wanted to kind of kick off our conversation
today with you talking a little bit about, you know, how this interest
in studying linguistics and speech pathology came about for you, um, because
I know in looking at your background, you have a few different degrees.
And we'd love to hear a little bit about your, your journey and what has led you
to become a speech language pathologist.
Yeah, absolutely.
So thank you so much for having me.
Just a little bit of background on me, like, I, I know, like, I'm from
Brooklyn, New York, born and raised, so I've always been surrounded by such a
rich community of culture and language that comes hand in hand with it.
Um, growing up, like, I know, like, I come from parents of immigrants and,
like, I've a different mother tongue than a lot of the other students in my
community and being able to really be able to share that and see that within my own
students too, that's been super empowering for me to be on the flip side of it
and being able to teach these students.
So I, I started off, I actually, when I first entered college at Stony
Brook University, I was a bio major.
I was so headset on being pre med.
Yeah.
Like a lot of many other students at Stony Brook.
Um, I was a Biology major and I remember taking, um, the prerequisite like freshman
courses and I wasn't doing too hard.
And like, I, I remember really struggling, but also like struggling
adapting to college as a whole, being away from my family.
Um, but I remember like really enjoying linguistics and making my, my
switch to that full time as my major.
I continued with that and I know like for me, I'm a very like type A person,
like I wanted to make sure that I would still be able to graduate within four
years, even though I had changed my major.
So that just, even though like after I changed, I changed my major, I I
put it into like full drive, like trying to catch up on these classes
and like still trying to make sure that I graduated in four years.
And I guess it worked well because I actually ended up graduating
early and getting accepted into an accelerated master's program
for five years, which I ended up completing in four and a half years.
And that was the master's for teaching English to speakers of other languages,
which was a really nice segue actually from my, my bachelor's in linguistics.
Thanks.
Nice.
Well, congratulations.
I'm sure the accelerated program involved a lot of long hours and,
and hard work and to get that done and an even shorter period of time.
Um, so my, my hat is off to you.
Thank you a lot of Tetris playing with the different classes and schedule.
Like I remember even as a freshman, I had like a five year plan.
Like, what do I have to take?
Not only like this semester, like this spring semester, but like, how can I
plan it out so that I can know what I'm going to be taking as a senior, as
like, Even though I'm like a sophomore, yeah, like I know what I'm going to be
taking senior year, like down to a T in order for all the puzzle pieces to fit
in, in order for me to, to take all the required classes and the prerequisites
for each of those classes to stack up.
So I remember like being definitely like having a lot of stress that
came with it, but now like the fruits of the labor paying off.
So I'm very thankful for that.
Good.
Glad to hear that.
So, first you, you set off to get your, uh, B. A. in linguistics, and
then did you already know when you started that, that you wanted to, at
some point, go into teaching as well?
Yeah, so that was definitely in the back of my mind, especially during,
uh, my pivot over into linguistics from being a biology major.
Uh, so my, my mom, she's a huge role model of mine.
Like, she is like the person I look up to and she's actually an ENL teacher.
So she is a teacher.
Like I come on, I'm come from a huge family of teachers.
I think there are like four or five of us.
And then, yeah, yeah.
When you open it up to like family friends, it's like all my mom's friends
and everyone I've grown up with.
So being able to grow up in that school community has really shown me
nothing but like the positive sides of education and how powerful it can be
and how it really builds a community.
So having that, yeah, was really definitely an example and model and how,
how I guess it sparked the flame early on.
But yeah, she, she's an ENL teacher, so she We share the
same master's degree title.
Like I have my ENL, like TESOL degree for my master's.
Um, and she does as well.
So it was definitely like nice, like having someone to go to immediately,
like to ask for help and like, I, I can see like how much she loves her job.
Like she.
She genuinely has such passion for what she does.
Like this has been her day one for everything.
So it's been nice to like kind of follow my mom's shoes a little bit.
And I'm actually like where she works is very close to home.
So I, I went to that school as an elementary school student.
So being able to like visit all the time and then now where I work, actually,
I work only 15 minutes a walk away.
So like, it's, it's actually been very funny because we.
Uh, up until recently, we actually shared a set of, uh, siblings, so she had one
brother and I had another brother in my school, so it's just like, wow, like,
we're that close and like, we share the, the school community that we are actually
like sharing a pair of siblings right now.
Oh my gosh, I can just imagine as a mom, she must just be glowing with so
much pride at what you're doing and to have that connection professionally
now too, that's so wonderful.
I love that.
It's endless, shared conversations to talk about too.
So, if you ever thought about like, Alright, like, when is the,
how's like the salary schedule?
How do I enroll in my retirement benefits?
How do I, like, All those little things!
Like, oh, like, have you, have you seen the changes to curriculum?
Like, little things like that.
It's definitely, like, very nice to have that person so close to home
and be able to talk to her about it.
Yeah, I bet.
And can you share a little bit about maybe what some of those first days when
you started teaching were like and maybe reflect a little bit on that experience?
And I don't know if you remember any questions or thoughts that came up that
you needed to immediately kind of go to your mom to because of her experience.
Um, cause you mentioned that you were doing some, uh, Teaching in that
little gap between one degree and the next so I'd love to hear a little bit
about that Oh, I'm happy to share.
That's so funny because I'm glad I mentioned that my mom like where she
works So after I'd graduated early from like the five year program
I it was mid year since I did in three and a half of four and a half.
So I couldn't start a master's program mid year.
And so I was like, all right, like, how, how do I want to play this?
Do I want to stay on campus?
And just like.
Continue living on campus and not attend classes or do I move back home?
So what I ended up doing is I moved back home and I took a maternity leave
substitute position at my mom's school.
So one of her, one of her, yeah, not even right down the hall.
We shared a classroom.
She served, she was the ENL teacher for my class there.
So a family friend, this is how close knit her school community is, where
like everyone has seen me grow up.
Like the fact that like the, her coworkers have all seen me like while
I was an elementary school student there, like on their own student.
And now to see like me as a teacher and like be full circle.
But yeah, like I, I was a substitute teacher.
Oh, maternity substitute substitute teacher.
So I was there for six year, uh, six months.
I was there for six months and.
I was able to take over a second grade class.
Um, they were absolutely amazing.
They were genuinely such a great class to start off with.
And like, not to say that there weren't any hiccups or anything, but I think
that was such a great learning class because the classroom teacher had
already set up so many great expectations and model behavior where I was.
Basically handed like a golden plate where everything was set for me.
Um, but yeah, from there, like my, it was my mom who was really pushing
it and serving these kids cause she was the ENL provider there.
Um, and so there were, there would be a period a day or a couple of periods
a week where, We would be co-teaching together in the same classroom.
Like, that's just so crazy to think about it.
But I remember like, how, how do I lesson plan for all these kids?
Cause I, I had my, my ENL degree where I was used to serving smaller groups for
my, my student teaching or my externship placements, where it would be just
strictly ENL, like I'm differentiating material and instruction for preexisting
curriculum or preexisting lesson.
That's been constructed by the classroom teacher.
But here I was kind of flip flops and I was a classroom teacher and I
hadn't had, um, as much experience.
Where I was like creating my own lesson plans.
I was making slides.
I was learning a completely new curriculum.
And I remember really asking her like, well, how, like, how do I navigate
all these different curriculums?
There's a different curriculum for math.
There's a different curriculum for reading.
There's a different curriculum for science and social studies.
Like, how do I stay on top of everything?
Um, while also like having a balance, because like at the end of the day,
like I, I was a substitute teacher, you know, like I was, you know,
How do I find the time to do this?
While also at that time applying for graduate school.
Um, so that was definitely like, all right, like let's,
you bring your work laptop home, I'll bring my work laptop home.
Like, I'll show you how to navigate around like different websites, which I
thought was pretty funny because usually I'm the one who's going for how to use
technology and all of a sudden she's schooling me and like, all right, like
choose this tab, go here to this link.
She's like flying through.
I'm like, slow down.
So it was definitely interesting to be on the other side.
Oh, I love that.
Oh, so you mentioned you grew up not too far away from Stony Brook University, but
how did you make your decision that that that was going to be the school to attend?
And it must have been a good choice for you to stay for all of those degrees.
I couldn't get enough of it, honestly.
I really, I truly do love Stony Brook.
I, and you'll, you'll hear this time and time again.
Like I, I genuinely did enjoy my time there.
I love Stony Brook.
Um, I'm incredibly appreciative for all these opportunities that they've given me.
Not only in terms of like academic, but also like community.
Like, um, different like leadership positions that I've had.
Like they've truly given me so much.
And I, I do genuinely think that college is absolutely what you make of, out of it.
And that's a life lesson for how much, like, life, like, you,
life is what you make out of it.
You know, the opportunities you take, the risks you take, the people you meet,
and the connections you make, right?
So for me, like, I grew up in Brooklyn, um, I'm extremely close to my family, I've
got quite a large family, and then another outer circle of family friends, uh, so
I knew I didn't want to stray too far, but I did want to go away for college.
So Stony Brook, Brooklyn.
on Long Island definitely gave me a good mix of both where I was far enough to
have to and be able to dorm, um, but also just a two hour lure ride away, like a
Long Island railroad ride away because at the time I wasn't driving either.
So, um, Being able to commute back home for long weekends and all the
breaks was very convenient while also having a good amount of like some of
my friends, like my friends from home, also choosing that school because of the
same reasons of being super commutable.
And then I have family out on Long Island as well so that was a good.
Oh nice.
Reassuring thing about like oh like if something did happen and it was
like too late to catch the last train like that they'd only be an
hour train of an hour car ride away.
Yeah.
And it's such a beautiful area too.
Yeah, absolutely.
And then at that time I was, I was a Bio major.
So it was, I mean, they've got their own hospital there and they're very well
known for their incredible healthcare system and their major and how well
like they do with innovation tech.
So yeah, definitely.
But big, big Seawolf, big Sony Brook fan here.
And you won some awards while you were a student there?
Yes.
Quite a few actually.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Would you, would you mind sharing what some of those awards were
and, and what they entailed?
Yeah, I'm happy to.
So while I was there, um.
I want to, I think one of the biggest ones for me, like I was most wowed about,
um, is the SUNY Success Story Award.
That was definitely a really big one for me.
This was a nomination from Stony Brook to the SUNY system.
Um, and I guess like that was just like an umbrella of like all the different
leadership roles that I've undertaken, which I'm incredibly grateful for.
And that was back in 2022.
As a part of that as well, they also invited me in for their marketing
campaign, um, to promote SUNYs and the SUNY system and I'm a huge
proponer of the SUNY system because I think it really allows like students
to get affordable, Um, access to higher education, like anything.
And I think that that's so incredibly important because
college can be expensive.
College isn't necessarily an option for everyone financially.
And so, especially coming from New York City, like.
It's not a guarantee for everyone to go to college, unfortunately.
So, um, it just makes it more accessible.
And I, I really do appreciate everything that SUNY and Stony Brook has given me.
Um, so that was definitely a very, um, important one for me.
I, I know for that marketing campaign, especially too, like, uh, I've
heard, I haven't seen it myself, but I've heard that I was on, um,
a couple of the MTA train ads.
Um, on like the platform, in the trains, like, I wish I caught it, like, I
take the train almost every day now.
Are you telling me I could be on the F train?
Yeah, like, crazy to think that like my face is on, you know, some, some
marketing material in New York City.
And like, I feel like that was, like, SUNY is so such a big, widespread
thing to, for it to be like, popular.
So close to home really is impactful for me.
And then in addition to that, um, so just to give a little background
on a lot of these awards, some leadership positions that I've, I've
had the pleasure of taking and the honor to really be able to, to share.
Um, I was a chapter president for our undergraduate NSSLHA, which
is our National Student Speech and Language Hearing Association.
That's kind of like our pre speech track that I was in since sophomore year.
Like I was very involved immediately, like knew I wanted to not only change
my major, but like go all in on this, like this is what I wanted to do.
And then I was a Resident Assistant (RA), so not only did I dorm, I enjoyed dorming
so, so much and like I wanted it to be.
encouraged and like, I really wanted to, to have everyone welcomed on
campus so that they enjoy their college experience away from home.
Especially I know like, so, Stony Brook has so many students from this city
who have never really been far away from home or like, Long Island and the
suburbs are so different from, from the urban area that like, I wanted
them to feel welcomed and like have the most of their college experience.
So I was an RA there.
I would say that was definitely the most, I'm trying to find a word for
like the Just the most impactful for me.
Like I know like the campus residents community and like the department there,
like not only like gave, there's a saying that like, not only did they give
give me housing, they gave me a home.
Mm. They the people that I've met, the opportunities, it's further open.
Yeah.
Like being able to have a home away from home is.
Yeah, something you can't put words to.
So I, and I was in that position for, for six years, six out of the seven years,
longer than most people are in college.
Oh, wow.
Yes, so it really does speak to.
So I've been to different, different areas that I was an RA and bounced around.
Um, love my staff every year, and then in my graduate year, um, I was one of
the senators for the graduate student organization, so I know the undergraduates
get a lot of funding, get a lot of hype.
Of course, like all these freshmen are coming in very excited to go to college,
um, and I, I'm, I fear that a lot of the graduate students are forgotten
about, especially like our international graduate students who are coming in to
this country for the very first time.
But there might not be as many like open doors and like welcome invitations
to events as many as like the first year students have because a lot
of the graduate students who aren't international have been here and know
the drill and how I know how it works.
So it's it was really great being able to be on a senator and advocate for.
Not only the graduate students, but also the ADA working group
there and their disability group.
Yeah, yeah, so I just wanted to give a little background on that.
So I, I, from I, what I believe, um, all those different leadership
positions then gave me, um, the Gerald L. Stein Organizational
Leadership for Student Life Award.
Uh, that one, that one did like feel, that one was back in 2022 to 2023.
So at the end of 2023, I got that award and I remember being Like, it felt
like such a, an appreciation and an acknowledgement for all the work that
I've done with the community and like, be able to be like an upperclassman and
be coming towards the end of my academic journey there and like, it was such
a nice, like, goodbye to the school.
And then I was also able to get the Henry and Marcia Laffer Student
Scholarship Award for my graduate program.
Um, that was fantastic.
As, like, as I said before, like, I, I really believe in affordable
access to higher education.
So, the student scholarship really, really helped me.
Helps along way.
Absolutely.
And then through a lot of these trainings and RA training and
student involvement, we want to make sure that our students are, like,
have accessible resources to them.
And that includes, like, Red Watch Band training, Green Dot training.
Um, uh, so through all these trainings, I was also able to get the Upstander
Award for Prevention and Outreach, making sure that these students are
not only equipped for themselves, but also equipped to help others, too.
Mm hmm.
Absolutely.
You know, a lot to summarize.
I spent a long time at Stony Brook to put it all together, it's just
like, oh my goodness, let me speed run it and give you the TLDR.
Well, and I think that's one of the things that really, you know, drew us
to want to have this opportunity to really showcase you because you did
such an extraordinary job of presenting, you know, the kind of the breadth and
depth of your experience as a student.
And, you know, you were there for a number of years and had so
many incredible opportunities to, you know, develop as a person and
grow and, um, you know, shape your trajectory and incredible achievements.
Thank you.
Really at each step of the way.
And you've done a beautiful job of Sharing that so that when people come and look
at the, you know, kind of compilation of work and experiences that you've shared
in Digication, even though you do have, you know, many layers to what you've
done and different experiences, you've made it really easy and inviting for
viewers to come in and get to know you.
And, you know, each of these different kinds of experiences that you've had,
you know, on the pages that you've created, you have these wonderful
written reflections that pair with those experiences or examples of work that
you've done or clinical experiences.
So People really get the opportunity to learn more deeply how, you know,
how each of those experiences impacted you and different ways that it kind
of, you know, Let you grow and kind of become the person that you are today.
And it's just such a beautiful example that we're excited to share.
We'll include a link to it in the, um, show notes for our podcast so that
people can go and visit it and get inspired and creating, um, their own.
And, um, It was one of the ways that I, you know, had the opportunity
to learn about some of these many awards that you receive.
And, um, you know, sometimes when we're working with students, sometimes
they may struggle with, um, kind of seeing the value of the different
experiences that they're having.
Some students, uh, especially maybe as undergraduates or, um, new to
the whole college experience may not recognize so easily, uh, the value that
each of their experience is having.
Sometimes they kind of see, you know, each kind of, um, you know,
course that they're taking in college is kind of, you know, checking
off and getting to the next thing.
And you know, the real life is going to happen after graduation
and not taking note that there's all of this incredible growth and
learning that's happening each day.
And having this space where they can kind of showcase that and reflect
on those things can be so valuable.
And I was curious, you know, when you were at Stony Brook, at what stage did
you start kind of creating this, um, Kind of curated experience and kind
of personal branding describing who you are and all of these skills and
were there certain professors that you encouraged you to do that or was it
something that you picked up on your own?
I would love to hear about it.
Yeah, absolutely.
I'm so glad that you mentioned the like first year students because I
actually remember back in my first year I I was also assigned assigned
as like an assignment to do a Digication and I promise you it does
not look as good as this No weird Yes, like I I'm sure It's somewhere.
It definitely still exists somewhere, but it definitely does
not look nearly as good as this.
It was definitely like a, you check a box, you throw a picture in the
background, make it look like semi nice.
But I definitely did not know how many options there could possibly be with this.
However, I, I started this, um, I believe in 2023.
2023. Um, at the very beginning of 2023.
Uh, so I, I had been working on this for over a year and a half, maybe,
yeah, like over a year and a half.
And this was an assignment, um, from my Clinical Professor.
Uh, she actually had us, this is like our, she had us create this because it was.
Our portfolio to send out to people who are hiring, who are hiring or
interviewing us for post graduation.
Okay.
So.
What course was this?
Um, there were a couple different courses that she listed.
So it's the clinical one, two, three, four.
I'm trying to, I'm trying to remember, I can actually pull it up, HHS 582.
So there are a handful of Clinicals that we have to go through, um, there are four
Clinicals, and I believe it's like HHS 581, 582, 583, 584, and these are all
attached to the Speech Language Pathology Program at Stony Brook, um, and, um,
These are in person classes, but they're also a mix of what we do at externship.
How can we apply these skills and talk about our externships and how they'll
compare to what our clinical fellowship is going to look like post graduation.
How after clinical fellowship experience, how that's going to carry
over and look like in our, like our CCCs, like our actual position and job
as full time, um, service providers.
So that was really nice to be able to give me like, okay, like, this is not only for
an assignment, but like, this is what's going to help me get a job in the future.
You know, like I, this is how I'm going to sell and market and like present myself
to a future employer to, to give them a little, bit about me that's beyond just
like three bullet points on a resume.
Right, right.
Like how can I make myself stand out from a thousand other applicants?
And I, for me, like I knew that I was coming back to the New York
City Department of Education.
Like that's always where I knew I wanted to go, especially
because I'm from Brooklyn.
I have that school experience.
I love working with kids.
Um.
And I know that like, this is where my mom worked.
Like I knew that it was a great union to be in a great, a salary schedule to
follow, great school schedule to follow.
And then from my previous subbing experience too, like I, I knew I
wanted to end up in the DOE, however, the do e is extremely competitive
to get into because everyone else also wants to get into the DOE.
So I knew that I, if I wanted to get the position, I had to stand out and.
I thought to myself, like, well, I had already been to the career fair,
like, I have a pretty strong resume.
What else can I do to help me not only do well in the interview, but how
do I even land myself an interview?
How do I get my resume to their eyes, you know?
So I remember, um, cold, cold emailing, admittedly.
Um, that's some advice I'd gotten from other um, Speech Therapists that had
already gotten into the DOE like that, they got in through cold emailing and like
had going into the database and like this excel sheet of like two hundred something
Speech Re... ... And Speech Revisors and you write in a paragraph about yourself,
who you are, and attach your resume.
But a lot of people, like, might still have, like, paper
dedu... paper portfolios.
Some might not have shared their portfolios.
Some might not have felt confident about their portfolio enough to share.
Um, but I remember very proudly attaching my link, um, to that,
that mini paragraph about myself.
And I like to think that, like, this is something that they would look at.
I know that a lot of times, like, they'll briefly skim through Um, your
resume, but if they have another link and have something else that's eye
catching to look at, um, why not?
Or have something memorable if they just click that link.
So I wanted it to be, um, a strong representation of myself.
Like, it's not only very organized, but I've got a lot of leadership experience.
I want to show it off, you know.
I have a lot of extracurricular essay.
I want to show that I'm not only great at my externships and my academics,
but I'm a well rounded person.
Well rounded candidate for the position that I've had a lot of experience to.
Here's a preview of what's coming up next in part two of my conversation
with Sharron Huang, recent graduate of Stony Brook University.
Our success is their success and that I think is also why I chose to come back
to Stony Brook because I personally had Dr. Fabus who's the head of the program.
I had taken her classes as a pre speech track student in
the summers and in the winters.
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.