I delight in ASHA 2011.

picture courtesy of megan b's facebook

I just returned from my third and final trip to California for the year. This time I went a little further south than the previous two trips to San Diego. It was absolutely fantastic knowing it was snowing in my home state of Utah, and that I was no where near there.

ASHA stands for the American Speech Language Hearing Association. I'm currently a member of NSSLHA (pronunciation determined by your region) or the National Student Speech Language Hearing Association. Each year, a community of Speech Language Pathologists and Audiologists gather together for a huge conference (and I really do mean huge). There were classes on everything from total laryngectomees to trach babies and vents, to dysphagia and the lifecourse of the lung, to assessing pragmatics in autism, to ipads and apps. Of course you've also got your typical ebp (evidence based practice) study results for new programs such as hanen's more than words. There were also classes on everything from morphological awareness and literacy, to traditional articulation approaches now taught with ipad apps. There is certainly something for everyone at ASHA and it does not disappoint.

To fill in the spaces, there was always the exhibit hall full of a seemingly million companies selling everything and anything that you might possibly ever/never need during your career. The postcard was just one treasure found at one booth. I also found a place with a notepad of animated vocal fold vibrations so as you flipped through the pages, the vocal folds moved. I kid not. It was hilarious. But probably only hilarious to a "speechie."

I also determined that it is quite possible that to become a "true speechie" you have to have short hair and wear scarves. I've got the scarves but I'm holding out on the short hair, at least for now. There was a booth selling cashmere scarves and it was always swarmed with people!!! I was shocked every time I walked past it!

My stock of pens, sticky note pads, clips, pedometers, sunglass holders, hand cleaner plus holder, waterbottles, measuring tapes, and bouncy balls was restocked. I have 10 or so bags I collected from the exhibit hall as well. On an even better note, I had the opportunity to talk to lots of potential employers from all across the United States. I gave them my resume, and learned more about their company. It was a fantastic experience. Now I just need to figure out what 'experience' I want to have for my CF aka Clinical Fellowship. Decision time.

What I haven't even talked about yet was the amazing people I went with. 10 girls from my same year in the program also went to ASHA. I stayed with 2 of them. We had a blast together. Searching for dinner in little italy, looking for the the pizza place in the gaslamp, eating dessert for dinner at pinkberry, going to the social gathering for the Intermountain West Universities where I saw professors from my days at BYU as well as talked to professors and supervisors in a more casual setting than the clinic.

The trip was great. The learning was incredible. The company was better than ever and the food was really yummy. Now back to real life, papers, clinic, reports, and projects. At least I have a more distant goal insight than just making it through grad school. :)