Lindsay Ferguson made the journey to Kuwait with classmates Brianne Haeusler and Jilleun Macdonald, with whom she was able to work closely. (Photo: Lindsay Ferguson)
As students prepare to graduate from their programs, they often find themselves looking back on everything they learned during their classes, projects and exams.
Lindsay Ferguson is looking back on her time in Kuwait.
The speech-language pathologist, who officially graduated on November 20 from the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine's MSc Speech-Language Pathology program, jumped at the opportunity to complete an international placement at the Fawzia Sultan Rehabilitation Institute (FSRI).
"I was interested in an international placement in general, but I was thinking of Australia or Ireland," said Ferguson. "When my placement coordinator described the opportunity in Kuwait, it sounded so different and interesting that I thought I should give it a try."
Ferguson made the journey with classmates Brianne Haeusler and Jilleun Macdonald, with whom she was able to work closely.
"There were essentially two different placements. There was an adult placement and a pediatric placement. They were extremely different experiences. I had a pediatric placement, so I essentially worked in a private clinic full-time, treating patients of varying ages and diagnoses. Most of the time, Brianne and I assessed/treated clients who spoke English; however, we did assist with some assessments that were solely in Arabic. We usually worked with the families or nannies as well.
As for the adult placement, Jilleun went to client homes or to hospitals and completed assessments and treatment there. Most of her clients only spoke Arabic, which was obviously challenging, but I think she became quite good at nonverbal communication."
Working with non-English speaking children proved to be a challenge at first, but Ferguson believes her experience with bilingual/multilingual clients set her up for success in her career working as a speech-language pathologist with the Edmonton Catholic School District.
"I believe Kuwait set me up well for my position now as I work in early education, so I have a lot of children from different cultures and many of them have other language influences other than English."
The success she has experienced is something Ferguson believes others will achieve by completing international placements.
"I would 100% recommend doing it. It won't be easy, there will likely be lots of challenges, but totally worth it in my opinion."