Meet Our Majors COVID-19 Edition: Michael Romanowski

Calvin alumn, Michael Romanowski, has found new and creative ways to adapt to the COVID-19 situation as a speech pathologist in South Carolina. Romanowski tells of his experiences and how both the Calvin community and his current community have come together in difficult times.

What you would be doing under normal circumstances, and how that has changed.

 I am a speech-language pathologist for the School District of Oconee County located in upstate South Carolina. This is the third school year that I have been working for the school district. Under normal circumstances, I would be providing speech and language services to my students in the therapy room at school. Now, I rely on technology to connect with my students and parents remotely, providing services through teletherapy when possible. Teletherapy is essentially using a secured platform similar to FaceTime or Skype to provide a two-way benefit for me and my students. I am able to see and hear my students so that I can provide feedback in real time to help them improve upon whatever targeted skill we are working on.

What people and experiences at Calvin prepared you for a career in speech pathology, especially to apply it during this unprecedented time of pandemic?

 All of the faculty and staff in the SPAUD department were incredibly supportive of my academic and clinical experience at Calvin. Their guidance and wisdom helped me gain the skills that I would need to become a confident professional after graduation. Being prepared to face whatever is thrown at me has helped enormously in being able to understand and take ownership of my role during these uncertain times.

Why did you choose to major in speech pathology? How has that played out during this pandemic?

I chose the major seeking professional work involving a skill set with which I have had success in the past. During this pandemic, I have been able to apply this skill set to many of my students remotely via teletherapy. Our school district has expanded Wi-Fi coverage to include parking lots of schools, churches, firehouses, etc. in the area so that families without internet access at home can seek additional options to complete school work or speech and language services. So far, I have been impressed by the diligence of some of my students’ parents. I have been able to do teletherapy with some students outside of the typical school day (8am-3:30pm) to accommodate parent work schedules. And I have even done teletherapy with students while they are sitting on the lap of one of their parents in the car looking at a computer or tablet while accessing the Wi-Fi in one of the available parking lots.

What’s one thing you would want to tell someone starting their journey toward becoming a Speech Pathologist… feel free to apply it to the current pandemic situation.

Be ready to adapt and be stretched outside of your comfort zone. You will learn that there are always new things developing and you are never going to have all of the answers in whatever path you decide to pursue with your degree. While the current pandemic is certainly a reminder of this, I have found this to be true even in some of the best of times. The bottom line is that it is perfectly okay to feel somewhat uncertain at times as you continue to grow and develop in your profession.

How did Calvin prepare you to meet the various challenges that have come up during this pandemic?

At Calvin, I had the support of the faculty and staff who encouraged me to be innovative when providing speech and language services and to never stop learning and growing. Because I was prepared to think outside the box, this has helped me to feel more confident while providing services during this pandemic. Providing services remotely is certainly not ideal for anyone working in a school district, but I continue to take one day at a time and try to help my students continue to improve and make progress the best that I am able. I am thankful for my time and experience at Calvin knowing that it has helped me develop a growth mindset, which allows me to stay positive on a personal level and relevant on a professional level during these uncertain times.

How has your faith grown during this time?

As if the COVID-19 pandemic wasn’t bad enough, the city of Seneca in Oconee County was badly struck by a tornado in the early morning hours of the Monday that followed Easter Sunday. Many of our families experienced varying degrees of damage to their homes, some of whom faced the worst-case scenario of their homes being completely destroyed by the tornado. To deal with the areas affected by the tornado, the community in Seneca came together in inspiring ways. Parents, children, local business owners, etc. were all outside during the following week to help those clean up debris and deal with the burdens of the tornado’s devastating effects. People have been setting up fundraisers or ways to donate supplies to those affected by the tornado. It has been a nightmare within a nightmare. But yet, despite everything, people came together to pitch in and help out without hesitation or asking for anything in return. My faith has grown in terms of how I have seen God working through people even in the most devastating or trying of times. It only strengthens my belief that Jesus was the son of God who came to rescue the world from sin and eternal damnation. I feel beyond blessed to be a part of a community that goes out to support one another out of the goodness in their hearts, which comes from the Lord.

 Describe Calvin in three words.

Challenging, motivating, inspiring