Speaker 1:

The views and opinions expressed in this podcast by the hosts and guests may or may not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Miami University.

Speaker 2:

Freshman year, I came in undecided.

Speaker 3:

I'm finance, entrepreneurship, anthropology.

Speaker 4:

I'm a senior architecture student.

Speaker 5:

I'm involved in the blockchain club here.

Speaker 6:

I'm very passionate about studying abroad.

Speaker 8:

Classes are going great.

Speaker 7:

And then obviously very involved with my sorority.

Speaker 9:

I'm thriving.

Meredith Aliff:

Hi, I'm Meredith and this is Major Insight. This is the podcast where we talk college life with amazing students about how to find your place and purpose on campus.

After finding her passion to connect with people from different backgrounds, victoria Lopez Rangle decided to study speech pathology and audiology and Spanish at Miami University where she is learning how to combine a love of languages with a career field that's greatly in need of more bilingual speech pathologists. She's also a recent recipient of the critical language scholarship for Portuguese. And on this episode, we'll talk more about exploring her interests in language travel and history, as well as overcoming the challenges of being a commuter student and more.

So, today on our podcast, we have somebody who has a very interesting Miami path that I cannot wait to hear about. So the very first question that I want to ask you is, who are you?

Victoria Lopez Rangel:

Wow. I feel like there's so many ways to answer that question. Typically, I would say I'm a first generation student, incoming senior. My mom is from Panama, my dad is from Dominican Republic, which is why I have so many different, I guess, passions.

Meredith Aliff:

So take me back to, where are you from and what kind of brought you here?

Victoria Lopez Rangel:

I was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. I went to Princeton High School. Loved my high school experience, loved my upbringing. There was a lot of bilingual kids at my school, too. I think it's one of the number one diverse schools in Ohio, which is really nice. I didn't notice it at the time, but now I'm like, "Wow, I'm really grateful for that experience." I didn't plan on coming to Miami.

Meredith Aliff:

Really?

Victoria Lopez Rangel:

Yeah, my dad was like, "You're going to Miami". I'm like, "I'm not going to Miami." But I think the more and more I applied to other schools, the more and more I realized how Miami was kind of a fit for me. And since I'm from Cincinnati, I didn't live on campus my first year. I've been commuting ever since, which that has been a challenge in itself. But yeah.

Meredith Aliff:

What do you think was it about Miami that you finally thought, "Okay, this could probably work out for me"?

Victoria Lopez Rangel:

Well, I didn't do the traditional campus tours where a bunch of families get into group and they tour campus. I just emailed professors directly at the university and was like, "Hey, could I come speak to you about your program? What you have to offer?" And they were like, "Oh yeah, sure." And then I remember going into the French department because I was interested in doing a French minor, or something with French. And they were super nice and super helpful and I really got a bit of insight of what the academics was like at Miami. Especially being a first generation student, I didn't know what to expect going into college. So, that was really helpful. Campus tours are pretty nice. You get the general information about that specific campus, but I feel like reaching out to professors directly was building connections before I went in.

Meredith Aliff:

And getting your own, what do you want to learn about this specifically and going after it yourself. You have a pretty extensive list of majors and minors. Do you want to talk a little bit about what those are and what gave you that combination of things to study?

Victoria Lopez Rangel:

So I'm studying speech pathology and then I'm doing the combined degree major in Spanish. And then I have three minors. And a lot of people, when I tell them that, they're like, "Oh my gosh, that's a lot." And I'm like, "Yeah, I know." But I just have so much passion for languages. So my minors are French, Lusophone studies, which is Portuguese, and then Latin American Studies. I came in as an international studies major and I don't know, I kind of switched to speech because I saw more opportunities within the field. Especially, there's a dire need for bilingual speech pathologist, which is why I have so many minors and a double major dedicated to languages. And also Latin American studies minor. It could double dip with the combined degree major in Spanish, which is why I decided to do all that. And I planned out my four years to make sure I would graduate on time.

Meredith Aliff:

Oh, good. What do you think drew you the most to language in general?

Victoria Lopez Rangel:

My family. My background is coming from such a bilingual, bicultural background, my dad was like, "Oh, yeah, you don't need to learn Spanish." But my mom was on top of me like, "You're going to learn Spanish." So Spanish was actually my first language and then I learned English at the daycare. I think English is my dominant language now, but I think getting my combined degree major in Spanish now, I feel like I do dominate Spanish a lot more. I can give a full presentation in Spanish. I would consider myself a heritage speaker.

So yeah, mainly family, friends who I could speak a bit of Spanglish with. And then I remember when I was little, I was really into Madeline.

Meredith Aliff:

Oh.

Victoria Lopez Rangel:

So yeah, I had a Madeline theme birthday party and everything. And I don't know, I was just so interested in French culture and I was like, "I need to learn French." So when I got into middle school I was like, "Oh, I'm going to learn French." I've been learning it since middle school and I went to France. When you learn a language, you learn a different side of yourself. You learn a different part of the world and you learn to appreciate everyone in the world around you. And I think that just grows day and day with me. And then with Portuguese, I got into soccer. And at the time the World Cup was in Brazil, I'm like, "Wow, Portuguese is such a beautiful language. I want to learn it." And then I learned it when I was 14 and then I'm into Korean now. I want to learn that. I want to learn Arabic, I want to learn German. So yeah, the list goes on and on. Yeah.

Meredith Aliff:

That's amazing. That's really cool. And they're all such unique ways that you found the different languages that you're now interested in, which is really cool. And I'm pretty sure I read on your questionnaire that you have studied abroad. Do you want to talk a little bit about that experience, what it did with your major, things like that?

Victoria Lopez Rangel:

Yeah, so I went to Spain and the reason why I went to Spain is to get credits for my combined degree major. But I'm so glad I went because not only for my major purposes, but also I got to connect with so many people who went to Miami. I feel like as a commuter you kind of lose that connection, getting to know people. I remember as a freshman I was like, "Wow, I'm missing out on so much." Because I feel like club meetings were so late at night that I couldn't attend since I would commute and I was so sad and so depressed freshman year. But Spain was amazing. Not only did I again get credit for my major, but I got to meet people here at Miami. It was amazing because we traveled all over Spain.

Meredith Aliff:

Right. You totally immerse yourself.

Victoria Lopez Rangel:

Yeah, it was amazing. Food culture wise, culture activities that we did. There's so many cities that we went to. We went northeast, southwest, everywhere. It was really fun.

Meredith Aliff:

That is really fun. And then you said, a little bit, something about organizations, not really being able to do them. Have there been organizations on campus that you have been able to interact with up to this point?

Victoria Lopez Rangel:

I wouldn't necessarily say a definite yes. I would say I'm mostly involved in the National Student Speech Language Hearing Association, which is the Latino club here on campus or NSSLHA, which is the speech pathology club. But I wouldn't really say I'm very, very involved because obviously academics kind of get in the way and also time commuting, too.

Meredith Aliff:

Right. Well, when you've got all those majors and minors, it totally makes sense that you might be a little bit busy. If you could go back to yourself coming in as a freshman, what would you tell yourself? What would be some pieces of advice to give yourself? Like, hey, it's all good, because you get to right here.

Victoria Lopez Rangel:

There is a lot I would say to myself. I don't know, I've just learned so much. My older sister told me at the time when I was a freshman, like, "Hey, you're 18. You don't need to be so hard on yourself. You don't need to have your future figured out. You're just becoming an adult now.' And that really stuck with me. And if I were to go back and tell myself, I'd just be like, "Hey, you've got this. It's okay to feel a bit overwhelmed, but you're going to find the right people and you're on the right path. It's okay. Don't give up. You're going to make it through it."

Meredith Aliff:

Definitely. You're on the right track because you made it here. So going back to your majors, I want to give you an opportunity to maybe shout out a class, a professor, somebody who's maybe been really influential. Is there anything that really sticks out to you?

Victoria Lopez Rangel:

There is a lot. I'm extremely grateful to everyone. Every faculty member, every professor that I've just come in contact with. I would definitely say Dr. Franklin in the speech pathology program. I remember I went to her and I was like, "Hey, I kind of want to switch my major to speech." And she told me a bit more about the program and I was just kind of doubting whether or not I so switch to my major. But then after talking to her I was like, "Yeah, I think this is a good program for me."

Also, professors in the Spanish and Portuguese department, they're amazing, wonderful people. French department. I would like to list names, but I would just say the department as a whole, both of them, French and Portuguese and Spanish. They're amazing, yeah.

Meredith Aliff:

That's awesome. And it's funny that you say Professor Franklin because the exact same thing happened to me. I was deciding whether or not to switch. I found her, talked to her and afterwards it was like, no brainer. I have to switch to speech pathology. So, she's amazing. We looked back for a little bit to our past selves. Where do you see yourself? Do you even have that answer yet?

Victoria Lopez Rangel:

I think something that I've come to learn is multitasking isn't always the best. If you multitask, you're not going to give a hundred percent into each thing that you do. Even with all my majors and minors, that's something that I've learned on my journey and I think that's something that I'm going to apply in the future. So I'm not really thinking too far ahead in the future. I know I'm going to apply to graduate school. I would like to go to graduate school for speech, but I know if I have to take a gap year, I'm more than willing to take that. It's good to take a step back and rest a bit from school.

Meredith Aliff:

As you enter the time to start thinking about applying to colleges again, obviously you said you went to a ton of different schools when you were looking at colleges. And what were you expecting out of college? And how has that kind of changed now that you've gone through it quite a bit?

Victoria Lopez Rangel:

I feel like I didn't know what to expect in college, but I felt like I was just so hard on myself. I was like, "wow, I need to have a polished resume. I need to join different clubs. I need to try to be the best of the best and get involved, show that I have leadership skills and all that. I was just being so hard on myself and now I realized I'm kind of happy that I didn't accomplish certain things because I've accomplished way more than I thought I could. And everything happens for a reason. Timing was perfect.

So I think now, I think I'm more like go with the flow. That's something that I learned on my study abroad trip is that you can't really control things sometimes. And I know that's kind of like, duh, you can't control things. But sometimes I feel like we just become so attached to something we want it to be, make the outcome, have it our way basically. So I feel like now I'm more chill, I guess. Laid back, trying to think about, it's okay, I don't have to be so hard on myself. Things will happen for a reason. Things will come into my life. Things will go out of my life for a reason. So, yeah.

Meredith Aliff:

Well kind of going off of that, can you identify any moments in your college experience that you were like, "Okay, this was a little bit of a setback." And then how did you overcome, get past that, a little bit?

Victoria Lopez Rangel:

I think everything goes back to freshman year. I think a lot of people would say the time during COVID where we had online classes, but honestly that was just a nice break for me not having to commute to school. So freshman year, having to commute to school, learning the gist of college in general. Also, my mentality being so hard on myself. I was just setting myself back my first year, which is, I don't even know. I look back and I'm like, "Wow, why was I like that?" But I feel like I was that in high school, which is why I was able to succeed I guess in high school. So I kind of had that same expectation for college.

Meredith Aliff:

It is a totally different vibe that you have to go with when you're coming into college. And one thing that I was talking about with somebody the other day was coming into college and having to do it on your own. Was that ever something that really crossed your mind? Because I know when I got to school I thought, oh, things have been laid out in front of me, like these opportunities in high school. And you kind of have to immediately find your own and immediately you're doing your own thing. Was that ever anything that you thought about? I mean, you said you were a planner, so I'm sure to some extent that is true. But-

Victoria Lopez Rangel:

Yeah, I would definitely say I felt like I've had to make decisions on my own, especially with my parents, not knowing how to help me because they've never been to such a big institution before. But yeah, I definitely experienced that and I don't know, I definitely didn't expect it. Like you said, I'm very much a planner. So I guess I was expecting to expect something that I didn't expect, if that makes any sense. So I would also question like, "Oh am I making the right decision?" I felt so much pressure like, oh, this could affect my future, my potential career path. I was just, again, being so hard on myself trying to make the right decision, what I thought would be during the right time, basically.

Meredith Aliff:

Right and it's all completely unknown. You just have to go with the flow, which you said is something you picked up. So obviously, that's a good thing. So, if you were to talk to... If a student were to listen to this podcast and they have already picked the majors that you've picked and they're just starting out, what would your advice be to them?

Victoria Lopez Rangel:

I would definitely say, that's really good. Speech pathology is definitely... We need more people in the field, but at the same time you're going to learn things in college. You know, life experiences, and friendships, and classes, and all that. You're going to learn along your college journey so don't be so hard on yourself. You might have a major picked out, but it's okay if you end up wanting to switch because you might take a class and you know might like it and you might try to make a career path out of it. So, I would say that it's okay if you do have a plan, do come in with a major in mind, but also just try to be open minded. It's okay to have some changes.

Meredith Aliff:

That's a good answer. And I'm going to backtrack a little bit, because I meant to ask this earlier and then we just kind of kept going. Tell me about what brought your parents to Cincinnati?

Victoria Lopez Rangel:

Wow. Oh gosh, I know this story. So my mom, she originally went to Toledo, Ohio and then she came to Cincinnati because she knew other Panamanians. So that's why. And then my dad was originally in New York City with his family and then he came to Cincinnati because he just didn't like the city life over there. It's just hectic, busy. That's why they came to Cincinnati. I had never really thought about that. Why Cincinnati? But that's something I also ask my international friends like, "Oh, why would you come to Miami or Cincinnati?" But I guess that happened to my parents, too.

Meredith Aliff:

Right.

Victoria Lopez Rangel:

Yeah. Especially since Oxford, it's really small. I don't know. Cincinnati isn't big compared to other cities, but I don't know. Ohio, I love Ohio. Born and raised. But yeah, you just kind of find a home, I guess, here.

Meredith Aliff:

You absolutely do. That's one thing about Oxford. It is very community based, I feel like, because it is so small and I feel like that's something that really drew me in.

So, is there anything else that you would like to add that you hope people know about you or your experience here? Any advice that you want to give?

Victoria Lopez Rangel:

I would definitely say it's okay to have questions. It's okay to have doubts. It's okay to feel a bit down because it's just part of life. You're going to go through things that you didn't expect and that's okay because it's going to shape you into the person that you'll eventually become. You're going to grow and learn to love the people around you, the journey that you're on. For me personally, I'm really grateful for the opportunities that I've had, just being able to study abroad, which I never thought I'd do. I also applied for the critical language scholarship in Brazil studying Portuguese. And that was through the help of Carla in the Global Initiatives department.

So, being able to read emails, reading emails is very important, because you never know. There might be some opportunity in your inbox that you may not have known about. I know departments typically try to send out like, "Oh hey, here's an internship opportunity." Definitely talk with your advisor. I have Dr. Franklin as my advisor and she's the reason why I also did an internship during the summer of 2021, as well. So keeping all that in mind. And it's okay to take a few steps back, too.

Meredith Aliff:

Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you so, so much for coming onto the podcast. You have a really incredible take on the college experience and it was really great to hear everything from you.

Victoria Lopez Rangel:

Yeah. Thank you so much for the opportunity and I hope I, kind, of planted some seeds of some words of encouragement to others listening, so yeah.

Meredith Aliff:

Absolutely. I'm sure you did. Thank you so much.

Victoria Lopez Rangel:

Thank you.

Meredith Aliff:

Victoria Lopez Rangle is a senior studying speech pathology and audiology and Spanish. After graduation, she plans on attending graduate school and serving underrepresented populations as a bilingual speech language pathologist. And thank you for listening to Major Insight. If you enjoyed this podcast, share with your friends or anyone interested in navigating college life. Many more episodes are now available wherever podcasts are found.