After hustling down to Charlottesville the following week to participate in tryouts, Rollins went on to become a four-year performer and captain of the UVA Dance Team. The experience she gained within that program is still benefitting her six years later, in two major ways.
Rollins is now a veteran member of the Washington Wizards dance team, and she’s close to becoming a fully certified speech language pathologist.
The latter role, which is being developed during Rollins’ clinical fellowship at The Speech Space in Washington, was first introduced to her as a possibility while at UVA. Several of her dance teammates and a coach were enrolled in the speech communication disorders program within UVA’s School of Education and Human Development.
“I wanted to know what was up with this speech thing and why everyone was doing it,” Rollins said. “My major was undecided at the time, and they told me, ‘I think you’d good be really good at speech. You should look into it.’”
Rollins declared speech communications disorders as her major as a second-year student and graduated from the program in 2021. She’s since received her master’s degree in speech language pathology from George Washington University and has been with The Speech Space, a pediatric speech therapy and occupational therapy practice, for the past nine months.
It’s been a steady, rewarding rise into a profession that is celebrated Saturday, National Speech and Language Pathologist Appreciation Day.
“I love my job,” Rollins said. “I’m so grateful it turned out the way it did.”
Rollins’ life now is not all that different from when she was at UVA. During the day, she’s sharpening her skills as a speech pathologist. And at night, during the NBA season, she’s contributing as a member of a dance team.
The schedule can be overwhelming if you’re not used to it.
“Virginia Dance Team made me better with time management,” Rollins said. “Because if you weren’t five minutes early (to practice), you were late and running or doing push-ups or something. So, it taught me to be disciplined. I cared enough to make it work.
“I was able to do both (speech language pathologist training and dance team) in college, which helped me to be able to do both out in the real world.”
At The Speech Space, her clients range from 18 months to 9 years old, an age group that gives Rollins – a self-admitted “child forever in my heart” – tremendous joy. She treats speech, language, social communication and cognitive communication disorders with a creative approach. It’s not unusual for Rollins to spend her day playing a card game like “UNO” with an older child or a board game such as “Hoot Owl Hoot” with a younger child.
“It’s a cooperative game,” Rollins said of “Hoot Owl Hoot.” “So, we’re working together to get the owls home before the sun comes up.
“And a lot of times I’m just doing speech sounds with that. It’s usually with neurotypical kids, just working on articulation, whether it’s ‘th’ or ‘s’ or whatever their sound may be. That’s just a good way to keep them engaged while we’re practicing our sounds.”
Working with children can be draining, Rollins admitted, but can also provide her with an injection of life and energy.
