Over the summer I worked at a summer camp called New Avenues to Independence summer camp at my hometown in Mentor, Ohio. This camp consisted of children with disabilities ranging from autism to down syndrome. At this camp, I was a classroom aide and assisted with preschool age children. I helped with the children’s individualized educational plans and the daily activities.

   This camp definitely changed my view on the world. The children that I worked with were from all different backgrounds. Each student had different socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, and gender. I was able to work with such a diverse population during this camp. The privileges that I had growing up were not the same for the children at my camp. 

    During camp my classroom passed the stomach virus around. Throughout the last two weeks of camp every child had the stomach flu. Many children still came to camp because they had no one to watch them at home. One father told us that he had to send his child to camp because this is the only time he is able to sleep. I felt awful for the child having to go to camp sick but at the same time I felt bad for the father. He has no other choice but to send his sick child. When I was growing up, if I was sick one of my parents was able to take off work and take care of me. I learned that not everyone is going to have the same privileges that I have. People all around me have different socioeconomic status. This camp helped me deepen my understanding in patient populations. 

   During lunchtime each day, I noticed there was one child who only had a few cookies or a pop tart to eat everyday. This child was nonverbal and would always try to take other children’s food, clearly still hungry. The teacher would communicate this behavior with the child’s parent, but each day he was only sent with a bag of cookies. The teacher and I began to pack extra food in our lunches for the child to have, and even other students would freely share their food. Growing up, I was fortunate enough to never experience any sort of food insecurity. At first, I felt angry and frustrated that this child was not being provided nutritious and filling food to eat, especially since he already struggled to communicate his needs as is. However, as the weeks passed I understood that his family may not have the means to feed him properly and was likely doing the best they could. Most importantly, I thought about how if this camp did not span through lunchtime, I would not have known that this child struggled with food insecurity, and may not have been as understanding of his behaviors. This experience has stuck with me, and I have made it a point to remind myself that a multitude of factors contribute to a person’s behaviors, many of which are out of their control.

   During my time at the summer camp, I assisted a camper who had a speech impediment that made it difficult to understand what he wanted to communicate. Many peers and teachers could not understand him and he would repeat himself over and over, resulting in his frustration and sadness. Growing up I also had a speech impediment that impaired my ability to communicate with friends and family. I empathize with the boy at the camp, because I completely understood what it feels like to speak without being heard. I had a strong connection with the camper and would work to communicate his needs to other staff members and campers. After consistently working with him, I was able to understand him much better than before. I would also tell him to use gestures to help communicate with us. When he was feeling sad, I would comfort him and tell him it’s going to be okay. At the end of the camp, other campers were able to start to understand him with the help of his gestures. He had more confidence in himself when communicating with others which made me so happy! I was so glad I could be a part of this camp, as it was an eye opening experience and I learned so much about the way children act with different disabilities. 

       I want to become a speech pathologist and work in an elementary school setting where I can fulfill my passion for working with children. As a young child, I struggled with a speech impediment that made it difficult for me to communicate and properly pronounce words. Not only did my speech impediment affect my communication skills, it was also the first thing people would point out about me. Students, teachers, and friends would constantly joke about my speech impediment and it became my biggest insecurity. I was embarrassed to say certain words and would avoid words I knew I could not say properly. Working with a speech pathologist allowed me to overcome this obstacle, improved my ability to communicate, and gave me back my confidence. I aspire to help children overcome the same issues I encountered and set them up for  success in life. My motivation is not only to fix a child’s communicative skills, but to help improve their confidence. This is exactly what I was able to accomplish at the camp. As a future speech pathologist, I will be working with all different types of family and clients. Each family/client is going to be unique in their own way and have multi factors that contribute to why they need my help. This camp has given me the opportunity to get hands-on experience working with kids who have disabilities from different diverse populations.