At A Crossroads – Episode 18
Posted on: August 11, 2010
Episode 18 features Samantha Gennuso, who hails from New Jersey. Sam came to a workshop I facilitated at the 2010 NSA conference about change. Afterward, we talked about how we have experienced many of the same things in our personal journeys.
Sam just completed her graduate studies in Mass Communications at Boston University. She wrote a wonderful article for BU’s graduate magazine about her stuttering, called “What It’s Like To Forget Your Name”. She did her undergraduate work at NYU in anthropology and gender studies. Sam believes she is at an exciting, fun, but also scary crossroads in her life.
Listen in as we chat about a number of things, including effective therapy. She shares about her experiences at AIS, the American Institute for Stuttering. We also talk about career choices, job interviews and disclosure, acceptance, and stuttering as a social filter.
Sam also shares about how the NSA has helped her and how she feels strongly about “giving back” to young people who stutter. Sam likens it to “talking to her 17-year-old self”. Watch for Sam in the future as she crafts a career out of her passion for music.
The musical clip used in this episode is called “Echo” and is podcast safe music under Creative Commons Licensing.
Please feel free to leave comments or questions for Sam and Pam here on the blog. Your feedback is valuable!
Make Room For The Stuttering 
August 11, 2010 at 11:05 AM
When Sam said, I wonder if I didn’t get the job because I stutter, I immediately thought of something my Dad said to me. After I had an interview, my Dad comes up to me and said, do you think you didn’t get the job because you stutter? I said, of course, but if that’s the case I wouldn’t want to work there anyway. I really enjoyed listening to conversation.
Sam, I thought the article you wrote was awesome!
August 24, 2010 at 11:19 AM
Thanks for the feedback! This is a very fine line for me (regarding not getting a job because of the fact that I stutter). In one respect, I agree that I wouldn’t want to work for a person who doesn’t think stutterers are as capable as fluent speakers, but at the same time, I do understand that many people are totally uneducated about stuttering AND many stutterers are not confident about their speaking abilities. This is just a fact. So I try to advocate for myself as best I can on interviews, and if they STILL hold on to their misconceptions, then I question how confidently I came across and if I would want to hire me…and if I find that I did everything I possibly could to give other people the benefit of the doubt, THEN I say “f- em” haha. We could easily go through life not putting forth all that effort, and just say “people should accept me for who I am”, but people don’t so I’d rather put forth a little effort and get the job, than sit on my high horse and not get it.
I’m glad you liked my essay :).