I became an audiologist to help people. Bottom line. As a young 18-year-old, I was searching for a major at the University of Maryland that was science/medical related and also had a patient interaction aspect. I quickly realized my Pre-Pharmacy major was not heading me in this direction. A friend’s mother suggested hearing and speech sciences because their next door neighbor was a reputable audiologist and practice owner, Dr. Craig Johnson. I decided to enroll in an introductory hearing and speech sciences class and the rest is really history. The class was challenging yet extremely intriguing. I immediately loved that the whole purpose of becoming an audiologist was to help people communicate more effectively, something that we rely on every day. During my summer breaks, I had the amazing opportunity to shadow Dr. Johnson at his office. I did this purely for the experience and did not receive any school credits or pay. Out of the hundreds of students studying hearing and speech sciences, only about 10% of the students choose to go on to an additional 4 years of graduate school to obtain a Doctorate in Audiology while the other 90% went on to obtain their Masters in Speech Pathology. I will admit at the time an additional 4 years of school sounded extremely daunting. I decided to apply to Towson University after hearing incredible things about their program. I was accepted to TU with 12 other women and formed a special bond with my classmates, this got us through the hard times with studying and projects and our thesis. Yes it was extremely challenging but my education prepared me for a fulfilling career as an audiologist.