For as long as she can remember, Ashley Arends’ goal has been to leave this world a better place than she found it. She has been fortunate enough to integrate that goal into her love of language.

Even as a young child, she was interested in language studies, which was reinforced at the summer language camps she attended. In ninth grade, it became a serious interest for her when she started taking Spanish and French classes. “For the first time, I found myself challenged, and I liked that feeling.”

She discovered linguistics while doing research for an informative speech for the speech forensics team. Because of the interesting things she learned, she started to seriously consider linguistics as a career.

Arends’ ambition is to be a speech pathologist, a career that requires additional schooling at the graduate level. Speech pathologists work in schools with students who have speech impediments or with people of any age who have difficulties with speech due to a medical condition, such as a stroke or a disease that affects the vocal apparatus. It’s a role that makes a tremendous difference in the lives of people who work with them.

“Seeing my parents go out of their way to help people impacted me,” says Arends. “For me, the most meaningful thing would be to help someone else.”

To increase her marketability, she is also obtaining an education degree in teaching English as a second language. If she works in the school system, many schools don’t have funding to hire both a speech pathologist and English as a second language teacher.

Time management has been one of Arends’ biggest challenges in college. One of her assumptions about college had been that with less time in the classroom, she would have more time for extracurricular activities. Instead, she found that with keeping up with a job, class work, and clubs, she has to be careful about the things she commits to.

“There are a lot of really good groups that I am interested in, but I couldn’t say yes to all of them because I wasn’t able to give 100 percent to the things I cared about.”

Her commitment to always doing her best has allowed her to maintain a 4.0 GPA. “When I have moments when I am tempted to not study and relax, I am reminded that the work I put out is a reflection of who I am,” says Arends.

During Arends’ semester studying at the University of Valparaiso in Chile, she was able to further exemplify those ideals in her interactions. Because she stood out, people would stare and want to practice their English skills on her. What was initially a challenge, turned into an opportunity as she recognized that for many of these people, she was the first person from the United States they had come in contact with. “I realized that what I said about my country was going to be taken as truth, so I tried to be objective and reinforce that my opinions of the U.S. are not the same as others’.”

“As a result of this trip, I found it easier to speak out and make myself heard for the things that are important,” she says.

Arends advises high school students to seek out the things they are interested in and not be afraid to explore different avenues to learn where their heart is at.