In this episode you'll get a brief introduction to each of us as well as a brief history of how we came together and created the Bold SLP Collective & Podcast.
Highlights from this episode:
In the highlights section we will be choosing one word, one idea, one feeling that we are taking away from each conversation.
Transparency
Connection
Get this show on the road!
Transcript
INTRO:
Welcome to the Bold SLP Podcast. We are so
happy that you're here and can't wait to share
with you all of the amazing conversations
we've been having! We are the co-founders
of the Bold SLP Collective and we are also
your hosts. Liza, Desi, and myself Ingrid.
Each of us has a variety of experiences in
all things bilingual and bimodal Speech Language Pathology.
You'll get to know us pretty well on here. We started
this podcast to share our lived experiences
but also because we want to bring advocacy
and cultural humility to the forefront of
every speech therapy conversation. We hope
that you'll join us each week and we hope that you enjoy this episode.
EPISODE 1, Season 1:
Welcome to our first ever episode you guys! I can't believe that I'm saying that
I'm so excited to be here. My name is Ingrid I am
a bilingual speech language pathologist and
I'm here with my friends Desi and Liza they
are also bilingual SLPs like me
We came together
over the last year on Instagram everywhere
we go usually in our careers we are the only
Bilingual SLP and so this last year was really
important to us because we found each other
we found other Bilingual SLPs in the field
they're out there and are like-minded and so we
decided to come together and share with you
guys what we've been going through what conversations
we've been having uhm so I'm really excited
for this project and for this launch.
INGRID: Today I just want to introduce to
you the co-founders of The Bold SLP Collective
and then Desi and Liza are going to talk a
little bit about what we are all about and
what we want moving forward with this project
so I'm going to start really quick introducing
our co-founders. Liza is one of our co-founders
she is so impressive you guys she is second
generation Canadian Sri-Lankan, she is
a mom, a wife, choir singer, a member of the
Montreal steppers uh she also juggles a lot
with work she is a school based SLP and she
also is at McGill University and running her
own practice. So lots of stuff going on with
Liza we are so lucky to have her on the team.
Desi is equally impressive she is Cuban American,
she is a wife, and a mom and she also runs
her own business. She has experience in home
health and in schools and teletherapy and
she's always advocating in her community locally
and with us on Instagram for Multicultural
and linguistic diversity. I am so happy to
be among this group of awesome people and
like I said my name is Ingrid I am Mexican
American I am first generation I am a Spanish
bilingual SLP I've been an SLP for almost
10 years now and my focus has always been
on linguistic diversity and also fighting
linguistic oppression I have worked in early
intervention and in the schools mostly K-5
but being bilingual and being the only one
around I tend to work with preschool a lot
as well I have some med SLP experience I was
with adults at a SNF at the beginning of my
career but I have focused more on school based
and pediatrics so that's a little bit about
me I just wanted you guys to get to know us
a little bit there will be upcoming episodes
that are each focused on one of us just we
wanted you guys to know who you're listening
to and who we are and what we're all about
and where we're coming from because we bring
our experiences with us everywhere we go this
podcast included I will let Desi take it away
she's gonna talk a little bit about how we
came together and how this whole idea started
it started with her, she'll be humble and say
it didn't but it did so Desi how did this
all come about? ... DESI: so thinking back
I was trying to remember exactly what it was
like all things sometimes they don't come
from the most hopeful of places I think I
had been having some frustrations with some
situations that I was experiencing here in
my work settings and you know having the Clubhouse
app having that club there where we have discussed
a lot of issues relating to bilingual evaluation
and Service delivery it really hit me that
there still such a gap you know even having
a clubhouse or having private messages just
wasn't really making the cut in terms of having
productive conversations really bringing forward
the issues that we're experiencing as a subset
of speech pathologists so I thought that having
a podcast where we were able to engage with
guests engage with people within this small
community and really tackle these subjects
head on and come up with strategies for advocacy
for ourselves and for our clients I thought
it would be a wonderful space to create and
to really foster real connections with others
Speech Pathologists across the world even
so that's where that came from and we do have
a lot of varied interests and so I'm going
to kick it over to Liza and she was going
to talk about what topics we're hoping to
explore on this podcast. LIZA: Thanks Desi!
oooh! I am so excited to be here! So very
quickly I reached out to Ingrid during Covid
because I just felt so isolated and I'm thinking
of what Desi just said about this place of
desperation so I was really faced with a lot
of micro-aggressions a lot of unconscious
bias and it was just there was no one to talk
about it with. So I was very excited at the
idea of this podcast because there's so many
things that we have to talk about like Equity,
linguistic diversity, social justice, cultural
humility, identity, dialects, really actually
if any of you out there listening are interested
in these topics and want to help us strategize
and come on and be interviewed by us that
would be really amazing cause we can all learn
together and make positive change together.
But yeah that's what we hope to accomplish
with this and it started on Instagram it went
through Clubhouse it's here now so I'm really
excited about it. INGRID: I know I am so thrilled
because we've had all these awesome conversations
on Clubhouse and I get so many messages from
people who want to make it, try to make it
and they're like can I get the transcript
can you get a recording and it's like No!
I Can't do that I I try my best to recap and
summarize and share what we talked about but
it's not the same as being there and it's
not the same as on this platform where we
can record and keep a record of what we talked
about and listen to again and see what the
conversation was all about so I'm really really
excited for that because I feel like our conversations
have been amazing and I want to keep Clubhouse going.
It's turning into a really safe place
for all of us to share what we go through
on a day-to-day basis but I am finding that
it's a lot of us already there are bilingual
SLPs a lot of us are Spanish speaking SLPs
and we're not getting these messages out to
SLPs who are not Bilingual and that would
be kind of like my number one with doing this
podcast get the conversation going and started
with SLPs who are not Bilingual because they
are serving our students out there, our clients
out there, our patients out there and I would
love for them to be a part of these conversations
too.
LIZA: absolutely
INGRID: And Desi she put it so professionally
how this whole thing got started. It was literally
a text message when she said "we need to do
something can you talk" and that's how this
whole (LAUGHTER) DESI: It makes it sound so
business like! Uhm yeah I mean I think that
but it definitely stems from the fact that
there's just not enough conversation it's
not enough to just say cultural and linguistic
diversity and put it in a box no you know
it really it is THE box! We all live in this
world where we all have differences in culture
differences in language and I just I hope
that this podcast is a place where we can
really Embrace that diversity and make people
who come onto this podcast feel embraced by
what we hope to extend everyone else so I
don't know if that made sense but we're just
going to roll with it! LIZA: yeah it totally
does! INGRID: I'm so glad you brought it up!
We have a post coming up on that where you
said "Linguistic Diversity is not the bow
it's the entire box" you can't just put a
cute little bow of diversity on every topic
and call it good. That's an awesome sentiment Desi. LIZA: It was it was so powerful to talk
to other bilingual SLPs who are like going
through the exact same thing and just searching
for answers searching for articles research
anything but they were all written by monolingual
SLPs and so a lot of the things that we're
finding aren't really helping us with with
the clients that we're trying to service so
yeah I remember talking to Ingrid and Desi
like everything I said was resonating with
both of you immediately which is not what
I was feeling usually. That's my hope for
this podcast too that people see themselves
in the conversations that we are talking about.
INGRID: and if you're wondering why we didn't
introduce ourselves extensively. It's because
we are having episode 2, 3 and 4 coming right
up and it's all about us the one episode about
each of us but I wanted to say Liza it was
that it was extraordinary to me when we were
able to zoom that first meeting we ever had
how I thought you were living my life but
in Canada. I'm like, how is this happening
over there too? So I I love I love that you
reached out I love that we were able to connect
and Desi I love that you've been a part of
Clubhouse and bilingual SLP club from the
very beginning. I am so so happy to know you
guys. DESI: Ditto. Yeah and doesn't that speak
to the urgency too right? That we all find
ourselves in similar situations even though
we live so far apart. LIZA: but Ingrid you
saying that I was living your life I had spoken
to dozens of SLPs before you and none of them
had any idea what I was talking about. And
I was always met with "Oh that's so interesting"
or "I'm sorry to hear that" and then I spoke
to you who was like yep that's very common, yeah that happens to all of us. And then you
invited me to Clubhouse where I met Desi who
all of your experience Desi I was like "I
feel seen"! DESI: and I mean I think that
that's you know again like I think that I
hope that we can make other people feel seen
that was the other thing that Ingrid and I
had discussed in establishing a podcast such
as this one. You know? Not centering the conversation
on same people that have always been centered
in our field and you know we needed to move
it to a different place you know include people
of diverse backgrounds include People of Color,
include Black people, include Brown People
this is just not you know this is not meant
to be a space where we're just going to keep
you know the average SLP very happy it might
make people feel uncomfortable but it might
help other people feel seen and that is really
the goal here we really want to help everyone
grow. INGRID: You've helped me grow so much
in the last year. I know I'll get into it
a little bit during my episode but yeah I
learn so much from Desi and Liza and I am
in awe that we're doing this I love it so
much. LIZA: Oooh! It's so exciting! INGRID:
So I'll talk a little bit about what the Bold
SLP Collective is, if you guys want me to,
it was really serendipitous how the name came
about Desi and I started a notes sharing on
our phones and she had we had started talking
about a possibility of fundraising or scholarship
you know we were looking at ways to
help students coming in and she had thought
of something and she said I have a link I
have a link and I had three ideas on our notes
one of them was called Bold clinicians I wasn't
sure should we do SLP, Bold clinicians, Bold
speech. I don't know why Bold was speaking
to me I think because of the B in Bilingual
and then Desi puts her link on there and it
was Bold.org the place that she was thinking
about the place where you can fundraise for
good causes and I was like that's it Desi,
it is meant to be we are going to be The Bold
SLP Collective - and collective just means
a group. We thought it had a good ring to
it. We got the handle done the email done
and we just kind of started moving really
fast and we pumped the breaks a little bit
after summer ended but every time we pumped
the brakes there was another situation in
our speech world that caused us to come together
and be like okay we need to keep going we
need to you know listen to our own words and
be Bold and put it out there even if it's
not perfect, even if it's not ready, even
if we're not complete! Cause we didn't feel
complete just the two of us and so we're so
glad to have Liza on board! Anything else
you want to add about how the Bold SLP Collective
came about? DESI: I think the nice thing about
you know why we chose the word Collective
is just the fact that again we really want
to make people feel like they have a community
you know we really want to connect with people so it's
really rooted in that in that connectedness
I mean and like you said adding Liza on was
so awesome in the sense that like it felt
like we really had established like some sort
of you know International cross-linguistic
bind together like it's it's really awesome
the way that we've come together to have the
space, represent different backgrounds that's
really what the collective means to me so.
LIZA: yeah I was sitting on the subway when I saw
you to post about the Bold SLP Collective
and I was like "this is amazing look at these two go!" I was just so proud
of you two not realizing at all
that I would have any you know major part to play in it
and when you texted me saying hey can we talk
I had no idea that you were going to ask I
thought you were going to tell me hey we started
this thing like you come out and support?
And when you said you wanted to do the podcast
and like I can join you guys, I was like are
you joking? I totally look up to you two!
Yes! Yes absolutely. INGRID: I pulled a Desi
and I was like "we need to talk!" DESI: It
was the only right way to do it Ingrid! INGRID:
yeah! and Liza knew I meant business, just
like you did to me I'm like Desi means business
she wants to talk. LIZA: Isn't it fun though,
that whenever we get any message from any
Clubhouse SLPs or like one of you two and
it says "we need to talk" there's never a
fear that were in trouble it's always like
a "oh! something is about to change, we're
gonna make a change". INGRID: Yep! Something
is afoot and we need to assemble! LIZA: Get
movin'! Make a plan! DESI: yeah, mobilize!
LIZA: I love the the transparency I feel that
I have been living with like a lot of competitiveness
in the field as opposed to transparency and
sharing so I I love that with this and I know
that we're all going to be transparent about
the truth about things things that we've seen,
things you want to change. INGRID: mistakes
we've made. LIZA: oh yeah! DESI: all the mistakes.
(LAUGHTER) LIZA: For sure that will come up!
INGRID: Rough days we have, hard days.
LIZA: the drinks... maybe you could edit that out.
(LAUGHTER) INGRID: No! Remember the transparency!
DESI: So yeah I think yeah we'll just keep
it Rollin' then we'll roll out a new episode
here and the next few days introducing each
of us but we are so excited hope you guys
will join us. INGRID: well any last words
about what we're doing what we want to do?
I'm just thrilled I love everything you guys
are about I love that we're all moms that
were all Bilingual just I don't know you guys
are awesome humans. LIZA: thank you! so are
you! I'm wondering if we could end each one
maybe with like a like a keyword or something
that we're taking away from what we talked
about -but for me it would be transparency.
INGRID: Oh! That's an awesome idea Liza! DESI:
Yeah like a word-of-the-day or like a Last
Words. INGRID: the last word! LIZA: it doesn't
even have to be like on theme, it could be
like a silly joke or just something that was
said that's kind of sticking with you. INGRID:
Yeah just something that you're taking home
from this episode, I would say I'm going to
take back from this episode connection, my
last word is connection. DESI: My last my
last word ... uhm I'm gonna give a phrase
sorry to be difficult but we're going to get
this show on the road! I'm pumped! LIZA: Ok!
get this show on the road, Ok! INGRID: I'm
going to close us out... our first episode!
(Musical interlude)
OUTTRO:
Thank you for listening and supporting the
Bold SLP Collective. You can find a closed
caption version of this podcast on our YouTube
channel we will also have show notes on our
website if you enjoyed this episode we'd really
appreciate it if you'd do all the podcast
things: Follow, Subscribe, Download, and Review.
And don't forget we love hearing from you
so connect with us on Instagram @theBoldSLPCollective.
Stay Bold + humble
See you next time!
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