College of Education and Behavioral Sciences News

Focused on a career as a speech-language pathologist (SLP), Emily Oden has shaped her Hilltopper Journey around opportunities for growth. Majoring in Communication Disorders, Oden left her hometown in Guthrie, focused on learning from each experience to be the best in her future career. 

“From a young age, I knew that I wanted to help people. In my senior year of high school, a close family friend asked me if I had ever considered speech-language pathology,” Oden said. Although she had not considered it before, she researched the career. “I would still have the opportunity to work in a school with younger kids, just in a different capacity [than teaching]. I realized that it was what I wanted to do because I would be challenged every day, and I would never stop growing.”

Through her classes at WKU, Oden learns about working with different populations of people, from K-12 to aging seniors. Last year, her clinical internship included a placement at Warren County Public Schools’ Early Learning Academy (ELA), the district’s first designated preschool center. 

“Every week, I went [to the ELA] for two hours and got hands-on clinical experiences. I started out just observing the SLP, and by the end of the internship, I was leading two therapy sessions a week. Out of all my classes, I think this one has made me feel the most prepared because I got real-world experience. I got to work with so many different students,” Oden said.

Through the service-learning project in her Aging in Communication Disorders class, Oden visits nursing homes to facilitate activities with the residents. 

“I have been able to apply the things I am learning in the classroom directly to the community of Bowling Green. I have learned so much about the aging population and the struggles they face with aging in communication breakdowns,” Oden said. “I am with a group of other students in my cohort, and together we plan our activities for each session based on a certain theme. Then, we go to the nursing facilities and get to know the residents and do activities like bingo and trivia. I have gotten to see what I have been learning firsthand and build new friendships with those in the aging population.” 

From the variety of experiences Oden receives through her coursework, she feels more prepared each semester for her career. 

“WKU has given me so many opportunities to prepare for my career,” Oden said.  

Those opportunities are what shifted her desire to come to WKU after high school.

 “I chose WKU because from the moment I stepped on campus, it felt like I was at home. Before my senior year of high school, I was determined to go out of state because I had lived all across the country. However, in my senior year, my perspective began to shift. I saw the opportunities that my classmates were having at this university, which was only an hour away from home,” Oden said.

For Oden, those opportunities included becoming part of the Mahurin Honors College, joining Kappa Delta Sorority and WKU Spirit Masters, and taking part in the inaugural class of the Downtown Ambassador Academy in Bowling Green. 

“My experience at WKU would not be the same without the organizations I am a part of. Kappa Delta was the first thing I was involved in on campus other than the honors college, and it has truly helped me grow in every single way. It gave me an immediate community at WKU. I had 150 other women that I could go to. And they were just so willing to get to know me and who I was and where I was from and what I wanted to do with my life. And, that was really encouraging to me,” Oden said. In Kappa Delta, Oden serves as the academic chair. She stays informed of scholarships and campus resources, such as individual tutoring and Peer Assisted Study Sessions (PASS) offered through The Learning Center.  

In addition to being a Mahurin Honors College student, Oden serves as a student advisor. “This has taught me so much because I started my freshman year [as a student worker] and have now moved up into a different position and have gotten to see the ins and outs of what an honors college looks like,” Oden said. “I feel like this really helped prepare me for the real world and having to work with people from all different walks of life with all different types of questions.”

Questions about the University, Oden can answer more easily due to her role as a Spirit Master. “This organization [Spirit Masters] has taught me so much about the university. I've gotten to work with so many prospective students as well as faculty and staff. I feel like each time I am doing a Spirit Master event, I learn something new about Bowling Green or the university, and it has been such an incredible experience,” Oden said. “I would also say that this organization has done the best job at preparing me for a professional career. So many of the events we do are with people who are very important, like the President of the University and Congressmen of Kentucky. I have learned what it's like to be in those types of settings and to be professional.”

Oden added, “It has also simply given me my best friends and my support system here at WKU. I know of the 31 other people, I could turn to any one of them, and they would have my back. And I just feel like that's a really special thing to have in an organization.”

Julia Jones, a Student Wellness Navigator in the College of Health and Human Services and advisor for Kappa Delta, said, “During her time at WKU, Emily has created a supportive and informed environment, empowering others to be the best they can be. Emily is very knowledgeable about resources on campus and in the Bowling Green community through her many leadership roles at WKU (two being Spirit Master and an Ambassador in the Downtown Ambassador program for the city of Bowling Green) and readily shares her knowledge with others.”  

As Jones reference, most recently, Oden participated in the inaugural class of the Downtown Ambassadors Academy in Bowling Green, which was open to all WKU students to learn about the community. “I got to learn so much about downtown Bowling Green and the businesses there, and kind of what makes our town so special,” Oden said. Through the Academy, she collaborated with other WKU students on a capstone service project to help downtown. “My group really wanted to add some color to downtown. I also really wanted to highlight how many amazing small businesses we have that are so accessible to the students at WKU. So, we are planning a mural to go in the windows of one of the downtown businesses with QR codes that take you to a website that highlights downtown businesses.”

Jones, who has worked with Oden since 2023 said, “Emily has grown into a thoughtful and dependable leader who consistently puts the success of others first.”

Oden’s involvement at WKU truly came from a desire to grow and learn, which was necessary as a first-generation college student. 

“Neither of my parents went to college, and my father did not even finish high school. So, throughout school, I was very intrinsically motivated, and I had to be on my own for most things,” Oden said. “I had to figure out how to afford college all on my own and how to apply even.” 

Oden is the oldest of five siblings and wants to be a good example for her brothers and sisters. She set out to learn about college and finances for college in order for her parents to focus more on taking care of her younger siblings.

“I have always believed that pushing yourself out of your comfort zone is when the most growth happens,” Oden said. “I think that in college, a lot of the time rejection is common, and we have to learn how to deal with that and move forward.”