Exploring Options Overseas

Emily Brant ’16 has always been on a bit of a fast track.

So she was a little surprised at her own decision to take a year off between undergraduate and graduate school.

But she won’t be lazing around.

She’ll be pursuing at least two clinical experiences in speech-language pathology, including several months in Israel, where she will work with children with disabilities.

Brant, who completed her bachelor’s degree in just three years at Pacific University, has always had her eye on the prize. But it was her interaction with graduate students in her chosen field that helped her choose the route that she believes will best prepare her for the next step.

Brant was homeschooled during high school and spent what would have been her senior year completing college credits. She came to Pacific with sophomore standing and a long-term interest in becoming a speech-language pathologists.

After growing up in a family of dentists, she said, she knew she wanted a career in the health professions “without the blood and guts.”

As an undergraduate, she pursued a degree in education, with minors in disability studies and in communication sciences and disorders. The latter provides the prerequisites for a master’s degree in speech-language pathology.

She took about 20 credits a semester to get done early, though she also made time for her Theta Nu Alpha sorority sisters and the academic Pre-CSD Club, where she got to know faculty and students in Pacific’s master’s program.

It was there that she began to see the advantages of taking a break between academic programs.

“I realized I was so focused on classes, I didn’t take time for hands-on experiences,” she said. “I was really inspired by the current graduate students. They told me it was OK to take a year off and explore. I wouldn’t have known that if I hadn’t gone to Pacific."

Brant will spend part of this summer volunteering at a camp for children with autism before heading to Israel in the fall. Her older sister, on her way to becoming an occupational therapist, worked with an organization that placed interns with healthcare workers in Israel — and loved the place so much that she now lives there.

Brant will work with the same organization, interning with a speech-language pathologist and serving children with disabilities.

“I’m really excited about a year to explore my options,” she said.