Speaker: Natalie Pham, Speech Language Pathologist - FTE
Natalie Pham: Hi, my name is Natalie Pham. Hi, my name is Natalie Pham. I'm originally from Amarillo, Texas, now living in Falls Church, Virginia outside of DC, and I'm participating in the SLP pediatric residency in 2025. Can't wait.
Where did you go to school, and how long have you been with Ivy? We'd love to hear what initially brought you to join the Ivy team!
Natalie Pham: I did my undergraduate degree back in Texas at Texas A&M University. Gig 'em Aggies, and then I moved out to DC for what was supposed to be a gap year before I started graduate school, and here we are 10 years later. I can hardly believe that. But I came out here to be close to my siblings, ended up getting a small scholarship to George Washington University in DC and completed their 3-year master's Post-Bacc program. Working my way through graduate school. After that, I got a job in early intervention, right around the start of COVID, I thought I wanted to work with adults and fate had other plans, so I started doing early intervention. And then when COVID was over, I really wanted to get away from the virtual platform back to being in person with kids, that human connection was something that drove me to the field and something I desperately missed. So I got a job with an outpatient clinic over in Falls Church. Then at the time, we were with a different company. We were the Children's Therapy Center. Uh, and I'd been there about 2.5 years when our parent company decided to offload all their outpatient clinics, and, it had us join Ivy. So it was not my choice originally, but a happy accident that I ended up with Ivy and that they expanded into our region where they were not previously operating. And now I've been with Ivy again about 2.5 years. Um, so. It's been, it's flown by. It's been a great experience so far, and I can't wait to see what the next couple of years old.
What are you most excited about as you begin this residency program? What do you hope to accomplish during your time here?
Natalie Pham: I'm really excited to be starting residency because I already had such a passion for continuing education before I even knew the residency program existed. I'd been taking quite a few courses, um, on my own, and I think this is a way to continue that passion for learning that I was already, pursuing, but in a way that now I have community and support and people going, like through the process with me. I know my dad always mentioned the philosophy of "See one, do one, teach one" when he was in medical school, and I think this is really giving us the opportunity to do that in a way that many people in our therapeutic professions don't get the opportunity, uh, to do. So I'm excited to be learning some new skills, practicing them alongside my classmates, giving each other feedback, teaching others in my clinic what I'm learning, really to take my learning to the next level.
