November 30, 2020
The job shadowing program at Emma Grace Cornell’s high school worked just as intended for the Greenville, South Carolina native. After spending a day with a speech-language pathologist at a local elementary school, Cornell knew she had found her passion and immediately began tailoring her high school experience to prepare for a career in communication sciences and disorders (COMD).
Cornell chose classes that would expose her to populations that utilize speech therapy services and continued shadowing therapists at outpatient clinics, schools and hospitals. She also joined her school’s peer tutoring program, which led her to work with students who have developmental disabilities such as autism.
UofSC is full of opportunities and programs; it was not difficult to make my decision in becoming a student.
-Emma Grace Cornell, B.A. in Public Health 2020
With several Gamecock alumni in her family, Cornell naturally set her sights on Carolina – zeroing in on the Arnold School’s public health major as a pathway to pursing a COMD career. “UofSC is full of opportunities and programs; it was not difficult to make my decision in becoming a student,” she says.
Within a few months, Cornell had found her people. She joined a sorority, where she would hold various leadership and service positions during her tenure as an undergraduate, and she decided to become a recruitment ambassador and University 101 Peer Leader. These experiences and other volunteer/service activities would culminate in Cornell achieving Leadership Distinction in Professional and Civic Engagement. In Jessica Klusek’s South Carolina Family Experience Lab, Cornell found yet another group of her people.
“Getting involved in the Family Experiences Lab was one of the best take-aways I will have from undergrad,” Cornell says. “It allowed me to meet people that are driven, like- minded, and interested in speech-language pathology.”
With a background in psychology, neuroscience and speech-language pathology, Klusek established the lab when she joined the Arnold School’s COMD department as an assistant professor in 2016. Together, the close-knit, interdisciplinary team of undergraduates, graduate students, and staff works to understand how communication features associated with autism and fragile X syndrome are shaped by genetic and physiological factors.
Getting involved in the Family Experiences Lab was one of the best take-aways I will have from undergrad. It allowed me to meet people that are driven, like- minded, and interested in speech-language pathology.
-Emma Grace Cornell, B.A. in Public Health 2020
During her three years with the lab, Cornell learned how to assist with research data entry and score a variety of standardized assessments for language, communication, and cognitive skills. Most notably, she spent months completing hands-on training in the reliable evaluation of subtle pragmatic language skills in adults using the Pragmatic Rating Scale.
“Pragmatic language, or social language skills, are notoriously difficult to assess as their evaluation relies heavily on expert clinical judgement,” Klusek says. “Emma Grace’s work with us is going to really set her up nicely for graduate school and when she begins work as a speech-language pathologist. She will have a very sharp sense of when pragmatic violations have occurred and will be able to pick up on subtle deficits that others might miss.”
“The depth of knowledge I gained about pragmatic language impairments grew my dedication and eagerness to learn what drives this practice,” says Cornell, who is graduating with Cum Laude Honors a semester early and plans to join the COMD department’s Master of Science program next fall. “I am looking forward to continuing my education next year to become a speech-language pathologist.”