Name: Jacey Riley
Hometown: New Haven, CT
College and Major: UCONN, A double major in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences and Sociology
Tutoring Site: Science Park
Club: Movie Club and Drama
Favorite Childhood Book: I’ll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson
While going through my sophomore year of college, I realized that I was interested in pursuing a
career path in speech pathology. Despite pursuing different classes and volunteer opportunities I never found anything close that would give me an experience similar to a speech pathologist’s career. I searched through various volunteer opportunities, talked with different mentors, and even explore different resources, but nothing came close to the career path of speech pathology until I found New Haven Reads. New Haven Promise sent me a list of different internships that I could apply to for the summer, but once I saw New Haven Reads I knew that’s what I wanted to do.
Despite knowing the organization, I didn’t quite know the specifics and how much everyone truly does
here. During our first few training sessions, so much information was punched in and we experienced a bird’s eye view of everything New Haven Reads truly does. Upon seeing that, I fell in love. I knew from simply attending the training sessions I was going to experience so much joy and excitement from attending my internship every day. Every day, through every tutor and club session, you truly cannot predict what kind of day you will have and exactly how the session will go. Throughout my first few tutoring sessions, I’ve had a whirlwind of different experiences that have shaped my experience as an intern.
Every Wednesday, a young girl comes in with her brother ready to be tutored. In comparison to her brother, she is a woman of few words and has a more timid demeanor. Initially, I was nervous to be her tutor because I didn’t want to make her nervous or overwhelm her in any way. I can tell she noticed my nervousness and we both expressed a lot of patience with each other. That patience showed brightly during the Lexia and workbook portion of the tutoring hour. Throughout watching how she interacted with the work and seeing how the gears turn in her mind, I realized different techniques I can use to help her improve! While our sessions are still an ongoing process and were still trying various techniques, I can tell she’s a smart girl with a bright future!
While I am still in the early stages of my internship, what I have done so far I genuinely enjoyed! I’ve begun to make connections with some of the children, I have a great site staff, been provided with many literacy tools, and all in all, I’m in an environment that encourages me to be great. I am grateful to the KeyBank Foundation and Ms. Hayley for providing me with the opportunity to pursue this internship, and I can’t wait to see how the rest of the summer goes!
