By: Carissa Kautz, MS, CF-SLP, TSHA Graduate Student Representative 

February 25, 2022—It was the day I joined the Texas Speech-Language-Hearing Association (TSHA). I remember it because I was a sophomore in college who had just Googled "business casual" for the first time. 

The TSHA Convention was being held in Fort Worth, and one of my professors encouraged me to attend. I expected a weekend of continuing education sessions and information about a profession I was still learning about. That weekend became the start of relationships and opportunities that would shape the next several years of my career. 

At the time, I was interested in working with children with hearing loss, autism spectrum disorder, and Down syndrome. Convention introduced me to clinicians working with those populations, but it also exposed me to areas of practice I knew little about. For the first time, I could see the breadth of speech-language pathology beyond the classroom. I met professionals from schools, hospitals, private practices, universities, and research settings across Texas. TSHA creates a place where those perspectives can connect. I arrived as a student trying to learn about speech-language pathology. I left feeling like I had found a place within it. 

The people I met through TSHA became mentors, colleagues, and advocates. They shared advice as I navigated graduate school, invited me to observe their areas of practice, and supported me as I prepared for clinical fellowship (CF) interviews and applications. Through those relationships, I participated in mock interviews, observed pharyngeal manometry, and even traveled to the Texas Capitol to meet with legislators about policies shaping access to care, professional practice, and the future of our fields.  

Professional organizations create conditions for those relationships to form. They bring students and young professionals into the same spaces as clinicians, educators, researchers, and leaders, allowing knowledge and experience to move between generations. The benefit extends in both directions. Students and young professionals bring curiosity and new perspectives. Experienced professionals bring the knowledge they have accumulated through years of practice. The professions become stronger when those perspectives remain connected. 

My own path through TSHA eventually gave me an opportunity to contribute to that community as well. During graduate school, I served as the TSHA Graduate Student Representative, advocating for student interests within the organization. The role gave me the opportunity to work with leaders across the state, contribute to discussions about student programming, and help support initiatives that expanded opportunities for students attending Convention.  

More than anything, the experience showed me that students and young professionals already have a place within TSHA. They are not waiting to become part of the professions after graduation. They already serve in leadership roles, contribute to committees, participate in advocacy efforts, and help shape the conversations that move the professions forward. TSHA creates opportunities for students to move beyond preparation and into participation, allowing them to engage with the professions while they are still developing.  

Through TSHA, I came to see our fields as something much larger than any individual clinician or practice setting. It is a community of speech-language pathologists, audiologists, assistants, students, educators, researchers, advocates, and leaders working toward a common purpose. It is shaped by the needs of the patients and families we serve, the policies that influence access to care, and the collective efforts of professionals committed to advancing the fields. 

TSHA brings those dimensions of the professions into conversation with one another. It creates a place where clinical practice, education, research, advocacy, and leadership intersect and where people at different stages of their careers can learn from one another and contribute to the future of the fields. 

Now, as I complete my clinical fellowship at Texas Children’s Hospital, I recognize how much of my professional identity was formed before I entered clinical practice. My clinical world is centered at Texas Children’s, where I am learning from colleagues and caring for patients and families. My professional world is larger because I entered practice with an organization already supporting me. Through TSHA, I built relationships with mentors and colleagues across settings, found opportunities to lead and advocate, and developed a perspective on speech-language pathology that extends beyond any individual workplace. 

That continuity has become increasingly meaningful as my role has changed. As a student, TSHA gave me access to a profession I was eager to understand. During graduate school, it gave me opportunities to contribute to conversations and initiatives that affected other students and the fields more broadly. Now, as I complete my clinical fellowship, it remains part of the professional community I can turn to throughout my career.  

When I attended my first Convention, I was a student trying to learn more about speech-language pathology. Today, as I complete my clinical fellowship, I realize I was doing more than learning about the profession. 

I was becoming part of it.