COMD Graduate Students Place 3rd in San Francisco
Second-year Speech Language Pathology graduate students compete in the College Bowl at the California Speech Language Hearing Association convention in San Francisco.
Written by Gregory Ferraro for ProComm Magazine
As it ran in print
A group of second year Speech Language Pathology graduate students from Cal State Fullerton traveled to San Francisco for the California Speech Language Hearing Association Convergence Conference and College Bowl competition. Four students competed and several classmates attended as cheerleaders with signs and pom poms. The trip brought the cohort together in a setting where the work of the past two years showed up in real time. Dr. HyeKyeung Seung, chair of the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, said watching the students compete gave her a clear sense of their growth.
“I was amazed watching them,” Seung said. “Their growth and their enjoyment throughout the convention. Spending time with them outside the classroom was a very different experience.”
For the competitors the event was the first time they had answered questions under timed conditions in front of a statewide audience. Lauren Bagdonoff said the moment felt like a direct reflection of their training.
“Being on that stage felt like everything we have learned finally connected. Every class and every clinic hour and every late night study session,”
“Our hearts were racing the whole time but it made us realize how prepared we actually are.”
The team placed third against ten universities. They said the ranking mattered but the experience of competing mattered more. The questions moved quickly across topics and each one reminded them of specific lectures and clinical moments. Marissa Montanez said the range of questions made the field feel larger than it does in day to day coursework.
“All of our minds together were better than just one,” explained Montanez, “Every question reminded me of a different professor or class and it showed how broad our field is and how well we have been prepared at Cal State Fullerton.”
The competitors said the team dynamic shaped the way they handled the rounds. Each person had areas where they felt confident and areas where they relied on someone else. Emma Rose Gregory said the balance was clear as soon as the questions began.
“Everyone had different strengths. There were questions only one of us knew and without that person we would not have gotten it.” She said the support from their classmates helped steady them. “Our cohort showed up with pom poms and signs and it felt really heartwarming to look back and see all of them there. My health tracker even thought I was exercising because my stress was so high during the competition.”
The competitors prepared by meeting in their hotel rooms to run through practice questions. They said the studying felt collaborative rather than stressful. Each person brought something different and the group leaned on that. For some of them the moment connected back to earlier years in the program. Several had attended the convention as undergraduates and remembered watching the College Bowl from the audience. Bagdonoff said the shift felt surreal. Last year she watched the competition from the crowd. This year she was answering the questions. Montanez said she never expected to be on stage when she first saw the event as an undergrad.
Their classmates in the audience said the competition was just as intense from their side of the room. They brought Titan signs and pom poms and reacted to every correct answer. Jazareth Alanis Ponce said she could tell when the team had the right answer before it was announced. “Watching from the audience I could tell when our team got a question right before it was even announced. They would do these tiny celebrations and I would grab my pom poms and start cheering. I was so proud of them.”
Jessica Tran said the tension built as the rounds went on. “I have never been so nervous just watching something. When we saw they were tied for second we all screamed louder and shook the pom poms harder. Anything to push them forward. They did an incredible job against ten teams.” After the competition the group met with faculty for a debrief. Students said it was one of the most valuable parts of the trip because it gave them space to talk openly about the profession and the transition into clinical practice. They ended the night with dinner and karaoke which gave the cohort a rare chance to relax together after months of clinic work and classes.
After returning to CSUF, the group said they felt more confident in their training and more connected to their cohort. The College Bowl did not just test what they knew, it showed them how far they have come and how ready they are for the next step.