“Where are you from?” “What are you?” “You don’t look Asian.” “You’re not really Asian.” “Asians don’t experience racism or struggle.” “Not to be racist, I just don’t want to get the virus.” “Just pick one nationality.” “You don’t sound like English is your second language.” As a multiracial and multiethnic Asian American, first-generation SLP graduate student, and student leader, these are just some of…
Meet Lynn Coyle-Handy: Changing Careers After Two Decades
After nearly two decades as an early intervention child development specialist and former school social worker, Lynn Coyle-Handy’s changing careers and going back to college to become a school SLP—where she can shift her focus onto helping children with communication challenges; specifically, children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Quick Facts About Lynn Master’s in psychology from LaSalle University New Jersey-certified school social worker Current post-baccalaureate…
Curing Autism Would Erase Me: Discouraging Ableism, Encouraging Advocacy
As a child, the world seemed so alien to me. For some reason, everyone else appeared to have an internal rulebook of norms that I didn’t. Eye contact felt extremely uncomfortable, but it was so important to everyone else. No one liked to play like I did. I could read words by the age of 2, but I struggled to dress myself. I walked on…
From “Imposter” to Insider: How I Found My Niche in Research Audiology
Science magazine defines imposter syndrome as “the feeling that one doesn’t belong or deserve their success, and that they will be discovered as a fraud.” When I first began my audiology career and discovered my niche of research audiology, I distinctly felt imposter syndrome slipping into my psyche. Research audiology was a career track I hadn’t considered before: In fact, I hadn’t even known it…