Simirin Bains received her Bachelor of Arts this spring. She completed a major in linguistics, minor in psychology, and certificate in the linguistics of speech science. She has been accepted to the UBC Master of Science program in Speech-Language Pathology for Fall 2020.

What are some big takeaway skills that you learned while studying linguistics?

I learned that you do not have to be good at everything in linguistics, there are specialties for a reason. When I took Ling 222 in my undergrad, I questioned whether linguistics was for me because of how challenging I found it, but once I learned the way things patterned and that there are so many parts to linguistics, I realized it was for me, I just had to approach it with a different mindset. I learned to problem-solve and think outside the box through my studies in linguistics, and I also found my group-work skills to have grown through various group projects in my undergrad that require teamwork and adaptability.

A big aspect of the SLP application seems to be volunteer experience. What kind of volunteer experience did you have? How did this experience relate to your goal?

I have had the luxury of volunteering with several stroke and aphasia communication groups, all of which had very different approaches when it came to the sessions, but they all had the same foundation. I found these volunteer experiences to really open my eyes with how prevalent speech-language pathology is to adults, as I never really thought about it until I began working with these groups. In these groups, there was an SLP that would provide us with guidance on how to approach and work with individuals with aphasia, and often we were able to help lead certain activities. Originally, I had always thought I would be working with children, but after these volunteer experiences, I would be more than happy to work with adults as well.

Other than aphasia groups, I am also a research assistant in the Language and Brain Lab here at SFU, and I find it a great way to learn how important research is in linguistics, and how it is constantly changing. Lastly, I have been working as a behaviour interventionist with children with developmental disabilities, and I find it very relevant to the field of SLP because many children requiring behaviour therapy may also have SLP’s as a part of their home teams, and with many of the children I worked with, we often incorporated speech goals as a part of the intervention plans.

How did you build a strong SLP application?

I believe the key to building a strong SLP application is finding a balance between academic success, volunteer experiences in the field of SLP, and then passion and drive towards the field.

Although grades are important, it is very important to illustrate your passion of the field in a way that also displays your personality. Rather than trying to sound professional and proper, I tried to show my personality in my letter of intent through various volunteer experiences to try to help the admissions committee see what type of individual I am. This is a program involving close connections with others, and therefore, they are looking for people who can illustrate that they can make these connections and work with others. Practical experiences are very important because many volunteer experiences I did during my undergraduate years also had students from the UBC SLP program doing their practicums there, and it is through these practices that people gain hands-on experience. 

INFLUENTIAL COURSES

• LING 220: Introduction to Linguistics

• LING 321: Phonology

• LING 350: First Language Acquisition

• LING 415: Neurolinguistics

• PSYC 354: Development of Children's Thinking