• ___ seniors • • ---- ,. Senior's cultural heritage inspires future career Senior Denice Sandoval knew how it felt to be the "new kid." As a child, her family moved frequently, and by the time she graduated from high school, she had attended nine different schools. "My parents have been missionaries since I was a 5-year-old," she said. "We zigzagged between Chile and Argemina." Sandoval, whose mother is Argentinian, g rew up speaking both English and Spanish . During the summer of2006, she put her language skills to use. Sandoval d ed icated her summer ro working on a research project involving three 4-year-olds in Searcy - one English-speaking, o ne Spanish-speaking and one flu ent in both English and Spanish - to examine the differences in sound production by each. She also wo rked fo r rhe White Coun ty Heahh Department. where she helped Spanish– speaking diems fill out paperwork and served as an interpreter be(Ween them and the nurses. "My first real job was my dream job," Sandoval said . Beverley Haze, a county health record s clerk, worked closely with Sandoval at the health d epartment and said she was an asset to the workplace. "She's very fri endly, always willing to help and seems to have a lot of compassion for people," Haze said. "I see her having a very bright future [because of] rhe combination of her backgro und and education and the ~ Gathering games to play with clients Sept. 20, senior Denice Sandoval uses games as a reinforcement for a child's proper speech sound production.When Sandoval was not interpreting. studying for classes or working at Westside Elementary, she found the time to maKe.'" lesson plans for her clients. -Jon Bryon . .....-",8 people good choices she makes in life." Sandoval grew up in Vifta del Mar, C hile, but she had moved all over the world and struggled with language barriers. Her desire to help others stemmed from her own childhood. "I just know what ie's like when the way you communicate is dif– ferent from the way others do," she said. "Even switching dialects is a big deal." Dr. Dan Tullos, directOr of the commu nication disorders program, expressed Sandoval's impressiveness as a student and prospective speech pathologist. "[Sandoval is] representative of the type of studenc we like to have," Tullos said. "She'll be graduating in December, so she's one step ahead of many other students." Tullos said he expected Sandoval's faith to make an impact in the largely non-Christian field of speech pathology, because of the need for C hristians in the communication disorders field. After graduation, Sandoval said she hoped to work as a speech pathol– ogy assistant and planned to attend graduate school in the fall to continue researching the differences be(Ween Spanish and English. "I want to be able to help Spanish-speaking people in the United States by offering them my services," she said. -Molly Morris
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