Meet Rebecca Kall, M.A., CCC-SLP! Rebecca is an alumna of the UConn Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences Undergraduate Program. She attended George Washington University for her master’s in speech-language pathology.
Rebecca found the field of speech-language pathology when she shadowed a speech-language pathologist (SLP) during her high school career. During this shadowing, she saw a child use an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) device to tell his mother that he loved her for the very first time, and this experience really stuck with Rebecca.
Rebecca currently works at a facility that is a combination of long-term acute care and skilled nursing. She works in a specialty building, where her primary focus is patients who are tracheostomy and ventilator dependent. She commonly treats patients who are experiencing respiratory failure, had experienced a spinal cord injury, a traumatic brain injury, or a stroke. Rebecca’s clinical interests include working with patients who have had a stroke, patients who have dysphagia, and patients who are ventilator dependent. Her favorite part about her job is getting to see the progress that her patients make – she often sees them progress from having no engagement with the world to getting discharged home, and being independent with activities of daily living.
When asked about her favorite part of attending UConn for her undergraduate degree, Rebecca said that she loved the “great sense of community” among her and her classmates. She felt that she was always able to walk into a class and be comforted by familiar faces, and if she ever had to miss class, she knew someone would keep her in the loop with missed content and notes.
Rebecca’s advice for current graduate students is to reach out to current SLPs or previous students from your program to get advice – they know exactly what you are going through! These individuals can be great resources and connections for asking clinical questions or even discussing job opportunities.
A fun fact about Rebecca is that she did Irish Step Dancing for fifteen years! She also is a current alumni volunteer for UConn down in Washington, D.C., where she is head of the Athletic Pillar, which hosts game watching events!