The Blaine Block Institute for Voice Analysis and Rehabilitation (BBIVAR) offers a highly competitive and intensive internship program for 2nd year graduate level speech pathology students interested in pursuing a career in voice, upper airway, and swallowing disorders. Interns maintain a full-time internship/practicum experience for ten to fifteen weeks in a busy, private clinical practice setting.

Due to the intensive nature of the BBIVAR internship, interested students should be prepared to undergo an initial phone or virtual interview. The final candidates may be invited for an on-site interview. If accepted as a BBIVAR intern, students will be expected to increase the depth of their knowledge related to voice, voice disorders, swallowing, and swallowing disorders through independent required readings, videos, and materials related to relevant research. At the conclusion of the internship, students will give a presentation to the BBIVAR staff on a relevant research topic. Pitch matching skills, confidence, and a general eagerness to learn are positive attributes when considering a BBIVAR internship.

Students who complete an internship at BBIVAR will be competent in:

• Taking patient histories

• Performing and rating rigid stroboscopic examinations

• Completing and analyzing aerodynamic and acoustic measures

• Independently writing clinical evaluations, progress notes, letters of medical necessity, and letters to physicians

• Completing and documenting clinical evaluation of swallowing

• Assisting with, rating, and writing reports for FEES examinations

• Appropriate documentation for compliance with insurance companies

• Learning, refining, and teaching a wide variety of evidenced-based, therapeutic interventions for dysphonia,  dysphagia, and vocal cord dysfunction

Additionally, students may have exposure to many other aspects of swallowing disorders and voice pathology including:

• Observation of Botox injections for treatment of Spasmodic Dysphonia

• Sizing, changing and assessing voice prostheses in laryngectomee patients

• Attending patient support group meetings, clinical rounds and strobe review

Applicants are encouraged to apply as early as possible, as applications are reviewed on an ongoing basis.