Study abroad experience helps student master skills

March 14, 2025 — DENTON — Texas Woman’s graduate student Martha Cruz was looking to add more tools to her speech therapy toolbelt when she traveled to Dominica on a week-long study abroad trip in early January. 

Cruz, a first-year speech-language pathology master’s student, did more than just learn new skills. She also learned to be resourceful; something that will help with her current job as a speech-language pathology assistant and down the road when she becomes a licensed SLP. 

“We did speech therapy with very minimal equipment,” Cruz said. “We had to think on the spot. Definitely, your clinical skills were put on the spot, but in the best ways.”

Cruz also grew personally. She traveled internationally for the first time without her family.  She experienced a new culture, ate new foods and went snorkeling in the Caribbean Sea. 

“I would definitely do it again,” Cruz said. “ It was such an enriching experience and it was so fun to just experience everything. I would definitely recommend it to someone else.”

Cruz was one of 15 SLP students that took part in the study abroad trip. With a combination of first- and second-year graduate SLP students as well as master’s students from the distance-education program, the all-female group formed new friendships and strengthened existing ones.  

“I think they found the power in teamwork,” said Kimberly Mory, a clinical professor in the School of Communication Sciences and Oral Health. “And, that it is okay to ask for help from a colleague. Because the result is stronger and better for the client.”

Mory, PhD, CCC-SLP organized the faculty-led trip through TWU’s Education Abroad and partnered with Therapy Abroad, an organization that designs programs for service-oriented fields. This was the first time the master’s SLP program organized a learning experience on its own. 

“It’s something that I have wanted to do for a long time,” Mory said. “For speech pathology, going to a different country, you have to be very careful. If you don’t speak the language you are pretty limited in what you can do.”

English is the official language in Dominica, an island nation located in the Caribbean with a population of 66,000 people. The island has several hospitals, including one main hospital in the capital, but no licensed SLPs. 

The TWU students earned clinical hours through a wide variety of experiences. They conducted language and speech screenings at local schools, visited patients in their homes, and spent time at a clinic that was similar to a nursing home. Students, overseen by Mory and Rebecca Jimenez, CCC-SLP, helped feed patients during the morning rounds at the clinic.

SLP students learn about dysphagia or swallowing disorders during the second semester of their master’s program. Cruz, about to start her second semester, learned right there in the field about strategies to help patients swallow more safely. That experience was one of the trip highlights. 

“I think, overall, I learned to think on my feet very fast,” Cruz said. 

Cruz’s career goal is to work in a hospital setting and help patients with swallowing disorders. 

“I would say, it was something that I didn’t know that speech therapists could work in,” Cruz said.  “I think feeding is just really interesting because it has to do a lot with anatomy and you need to know all these cranial nerves. It’s just more intense.”

Her hands-on experience in Dominica only increased Cruz’s desire to continue down that career path. 

“Eating is something that a lot of us don’t think about,” Cruz said. “It’s something we naturally do.”

The trip was so successful that Mory is already planning another one. One big takeaway for her was how the experience taught students how much they can help a person with limited resources. 

“They don’t have to have all the flashcards and workbooks and iPads in order to help someone or a family with communication or swallowing,” Mory said. “I think that’s important for them to learn. You can do a lot with very little when it comes to helping someone. It teaches them that very early on in their career.”