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From: Russ Hicks
Date: 09 Oct 2008
Time: 11:42:44 -0500
Remote Name: 70.104.19.41
Hello Mystery Student! <smile> Thanks for reading my paper and I'm glad you enjoyed it. Your observation about melding academics with real world experience is absolutely universal. I experienced the same thing at Purdue in Electrical Engineering and wound up at Texas Instruments. So did my son at Texas A&M and then as a Marine Aviator. College takes you only so far, then the real world throws you to the wolves! The good news is that the real world CAN be a lot more fun that spending your life with your nose in books. ... Let me take a crack at your question about turning an uncomfortable situation into a success. 99% of my student interviews have been fun from start to finish. But let me tell you about that other 1%... I was interviewing an older GUY - one of the few male student SLPs I've ever interviewed. It started out to be the most uncomfortable interview I've ever had. And it was even worse for him. Nothing worked for him. His new recorder didn't work. His pen ran out of ink. His pencil broke. You name it, it went wrong. It was horrible! We struggled together for about half an hour getting the barest bones of the interview completed, then out of pure desperation I stopped the interview and ask "Jim, what really turns you on? Why are you in this field? What do you REALLY enjoy doing?" Then within five seconds (really!) the interview took a 180 degree turn! He told me he LOVED working with autistic kids! His interest was in autism, not stuttering! (Hey, no problem! Teach me about autism!) So we talked for nearly two hours in the most exciting animated discussion I've ever had! I learned more about autism from him in 90 minutes than I have EVER known before! What started out as a ghastly interview turned out to be one of most exciting and memorable interviews I've ever had. So we didn't talk much about stuttering. So what? We talked about things that were important to HIM! (He was really an advanced autism specialist taking a course in stuttering as a required course for his advanced degree.) The trick to turning that interview around was learning to LISTEN to him. LISTENING is one of most important skills you can develop. I never learned how important that skill was until that day. I learned more from him that day than 99% of my "comfortable-starting" interviews. ... I've learned to use that skill working with my 97 year old father in a nursing home. "LISTEN RUSS! People have something they want to tell you. Keep your ears open and your mouth closed!" Listening can absolutely work miracles! ... I wish you the best in school, Mystery Student. ... Sorry to be this late answering your post. I had a couple of really goofy days in the hospital. No worries, all is well, but I'm drowning in backlog now! ... Russ