Meet the current cohort of student fellows!
Annemarie Lebron (mentored by Dr. Barrière)
Annemarie is a senior at Molloy University pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Speech Language Pathology and Audiology. During her time at Molloy she serves as treasurer for NSSLHA and ambassador of CSTEP.
She has always had an interest for language and culture as she obtained an associate’s degree in Education from Suffolk County Community College with plans of becoming a high school Spanish teacher. This quickly changed after her hands-on experiences as a caretaker for children with Autism. Watching her loved ones speech therapy sessions, she discovered the perfect career fulfilling all her interests of literacy, language, culture, psychology, and teaching!
As a native Dominican Spanish speaker who spent her early childhood placed in ESL classrooms she learned the importance of representation and value of voice. Annemarie is dedicated to serving and advocating for minority communities. With the help of this fellowship she aims to eliminate stigmas and fill the gaps of language science misinformation within the Latino community. She looks forward to building confidence and bringing families together through the power of language as a speech language pathologist. Her areas of interest include language acquisition, sociolinguistics, and neurology. Following this program, she plans to further her education and earn a masters degree in Speech Language Pathology with a bilingual extension. In her free time from academics you can find her by the beach, on a trail, or trying a new restaurant and always with a coffee in hand!
Ashley Beaujuin (mentored by Dr. Barrière)
Ashley Beaujuin is a junior at Molloy University majoring in Speech-Language Pathology. She comes from a Haitian background and is a first-generation American. At Molloy, Ashley is a member of CSTEP and Intervarsity. Outside of Molloy, she spends her time volunteering at her church youth ministry serving as a leader there to help mentor kids ranging from middle school to high school. She is passionate about working with children which is one of her drives to pursue a career in Speech-Language Pathology. She plans to become a speech-language pathologist to become an advocate for children with speech disorders.
Erin Foo (mentored by Dr. Erin Reilly)
Erin Foo is a senior in the Macaulay Honors program at Queens College. She majors in Communication Sciences and Disorders and minors in psychology. She comes from a Malaysian-Chinese background and speaks both English and Cantonese at home. She was inspired by her younger brother with autism to go into the field after he worked with a bilingual speech pathologist that understood his environment and provided the tools that he needed to communicate with his family. She loves to be active in her major’s cohort. Currently, she serves as the Vice President of NSSLHA at her home campus’s chapter. For fun, Erin enjoys doing yoga, journaling, and watching anime or Shark Tank. In the future, Erin hopes to attend graduate school and work toward becoming a bilingual SLP.
Harrison Fiumaro (mentored by Dr. Barriere)
Harrison is a junior at Molloy University pursuing a Bachelor’s in Speech and Language Pathology. Harrison comes from a mixed ethnic background, therefore he would love to work with culturally diverse students. He is hoping to be a Speech and Language Pathologist or Audiologist, helping students with speech and hearing related disorders. During his free time, he loves to listen to music and attending sporting events.
Kara Hurdle (mentored by Dr. Barriere)
Kara Hurdle is a sophomore pursuing a bachelors degree in speech language pathology and audiology at Molloy University. Her main aspiration is to become a speech language pathologist. However, she will always be open to many other possibilities regarding specialization in her degree, new learning opportunities, and career paths regarding communication sciences and disorders such as audiology and research. During her free-time she enjoys playing tennis in nice weather, trying new teas, buying candles, singing and writing.
Kenzo Kimura (mentored by Dr. Valerie Shafer)
Kenzo is a senior at New York University studying Communicative Sciences and Disorders with a focus on the pre-medical track.
Born in São Paulo, BR, and raised in South Florida and Tokyo, JP, Kenzo’s interests in language and identity extend throughout his academic career. At NYU, his research focuses on implicit bias in foreign-accented speech.
His experiences at Harvard Medical School, the National Institutes of Health, and the United Nations have inspired him to finish his undergraduate career as an ILLC fellow, pursuing external research to assist the diverse communities of New York.
In the future, Kenzo aspires to intersect his speech-language pathology foundation as a physician, leading a new generation of healthcare providers.
Marly Farag (mentored by Dr. Hia Datta)
Marly is a senior undergraduate student at Molloy University where she is pursuing a degree in Speech Language Pathology. Marly shares a passion for speech science and specifically second language acquisition. She is currently on the E-board as historian for the NSSLHA club at Molloy university, starting this fall semester, Marly will be participating at Molloy’s speech clinic. She currently works at a children’s athletic training center in Rockville Centre as well as occasionally being an assistant teacher at this company that offers mommy and me classes aimed to help children’s language development through play, singing, and sensory experiences. Being born and raised in Egypt and moving to the U.S at the age of eight, she became an ESL student in elementary school. Fortunately, Marly was taught by an exceptional teacher Mrs. Anna and this is what later on inspired her passion for sequential Bilingualism. Outside of school, Marly has many different interests including cooking, staying active, traveling and music. Once she completes her Masters Degree, Marly hopes to work either in early intervention, or as a travel Speech Language Pathologist, so that she can persue her passion for traveling while also working.
Marta Musungu Yenge (mentored by Dr. Barrière)
Marta Musungu Yenge is a senior at Brooklyn College, and is currently pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in both Communication Sciences and Disorders, as well as, Linguistics. She also previously obtained a Master’s Degree in Psychology from Jagiellonian University in Poland. Her past research addressed the influence of bilingualism on the relationship between task difficulty and executive control performance. She was a research assistant for the psychology department’s linguistics research group Langusta, and researcher for the international COST Action project, which aimed at profiling bilingual specific language impairment in children. As a self-proclaimed language nerd, with a particular interest in bilingualism and language acquisition, she hopes to combine her experience from all three of these fields to better help and advocate for bilingual/multilingual children in the NYC area. In between her work for ILLC, you can catch her on Duolingo or spending time with her daughter!
Maryam Shaukat (mentored by Dr. Baigorri)
Maryam Shaukat is a third year Macaulay Honors student at Brooklyn College, studying Communication Sciences + Disorders and Linguistics. Maryam has been a member of The Opportunity Network since high school, an organization that is dedicated to supporting high schoolers until college, playing a pivotal role in realizing her dreams. Since arriving at Brooklyn College, Maryam has decided to pursue her dreams of becoming a Speech Language Pathologist and hopes to also work towards a MS/PhD. On campus, she is involved in the initiative Muslims Giving Back, and is the event manager within her school’s NSSLHA chapter. She loves learning about new cultures and languages and is excited to perform academic research with her mentor!
Rafelina Pallero (mentored by Dr. Moody)
Rafelina is a senior at Queens College, where she plans to obtain her Bachelor’s Degree in General Linguistics. Born in Queens and raised in the Bronx, she speaks English and Spanish along with its particular variations such as Caribbean Spanish. Moreover, she is a fellow code-switcher of “Spanglish.” With her research interest in Sociolinguistics, she plans to dive into the world of linguistic profiling within the education system and workplace in order to tackle primed perceptions and promote an open mind to linguistic diversity.
Sara Haridy (they/them) (mentored by Dr. Marisa Nagano)
Sara Haridy is an undergraduate at Brooklyn College, pursuing a BA in linguistics. Born in New York to North African immigrants, Sara grew up as a heritage speaker of Moroccan darija (a language variety native to northwestern Africa) and Egyptian Arabic, and learned Modern Standard Arabic in their early school years.
Because of this bilingual background, Sara became curious about the workings of language at a young age. They are now invested in diversifying linguistics research, especially research on their own heritage languages, in hopes of giving back to their community. They plan to continue this work at the graduate level and beyond.
Sara’s passions also extend beyond the academic sphere: they wish to contribute to linguistics communication efforts, sharing the value of linguistics with everyday people and combating misinformation and language discrimination. Sara believes that an education in linguistics is crucial to building understanding and compassion between members of any society.
In their free time, Sara enjoys poetry (reading and writing), anime, web design, and the very occasional horseback ride.
Sara Miranda (she/her) (mentored by Dr. Moya-Gale)
Sara is an undergraduate student at New York University majoring in Communicative Sciences and Disorders and minoring in Child and Adolescent Mental Health studies.
Sara was born in Peru and moved to Texas at age 7 with her family. Passionate about language learning, Sara is fluent in Spanish, English and French with some familiarity in Quechua, an indiginous language spoken in her native Peru.
She currently works as a research assistant at NYU’s Motor Speech Lab where her research focuses on children with Childhood Apraxia of Speech. Sara is equally curious about bilingualism in speech disorders.
Following her undergraduate degree, Sara hopes to get her Master’s in Speech Language Pathology and continue working with people of all different backgrounds. She hopes to promote more diversity to the field of Speech Pathology and offer support to underrepresented groups in academia through mentoring.
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