Speech-language remedy wasn’t Gina Baxter’s first profession selection, however it’s the one she believes will fulfill her want to assist folks preserve their closest relationships.
“To me, that’s an important factor in our lives — the connections with the folks we love,” stated Baxter, who’s president of the Grasp of Science in Speech-Language Pathology Class of 2024 and was a 2023 Presidential Ambassador Scholar.
Baxter spent her early profession as a wildlife biologist. She labored as an animal coach at a personal zoo with bobcats, lynx, birds of prey and squirrel monkeys, and with dolphins, and seals and sea lions at aquariums. She made her first profession pivot into enterprise when she took over her mother and father’ property administration firm operations. She quickly began her personal property administration firm and constructed up a sizeable trip rental portfolio alongside the Frio River within the Texas Hill Nation.
After having her two kids, Baxter was prepared to return to high school. She started researching careers.
“I believed again to all my expertise, and one factor I beloved was folks — attending to know them and serving to them,” she stated. Speech-language pathology, with its neurological and cognitive facets and broad vary of settings and affected person populations, captured her curiosity.
“The problem and the complexity attracted me to this area together with the chance to make a distinction in [patients’] day by day lives,” she stated.
Baxter had heard that the College of Well being Professions’ speech-language pathology program was rigorous, which was precisely what she wished.
“I wished the additional work and the additional data,” she stated. “[The faculty’s] mentorship and their background and experiences are so various, it provides you a extremely broad vary of data. They’re so keen to share that can you. It makes our data base a lot larger.”
Baxter hopes to work with folks with aphasia, traumatic mind harm, Parkinson’s illness or different neurological circumstances that have an effect on their capability to speak.
“It’s getting these instances and determining the individual after which selecting the suitable remedy that particularly targets their deficits,” she stated.
With the conclusion of graduate college, Baxter hopes to seek out time to restart her apply of martial arts, which she started the 12 months earlier than she received the gold medal within the blue belt, light-feather weight division of the 2022 Masters World Jiujitsu Championship.
“I do nonetheless apply jiujitsu and assist coach my child’s class,” she stated, explaining that she hasn’t competed for some time due to time limitations. “I’ve at all times been curious about martial arts however by no means had the time, and I lastly simply made time for it.”
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