Alexandra Malvey

- Student; On Campus

 

If a child is going into surgery or dealing with an illness, I help.

 

 

Alexandra Malvey spent her young life at her home in Norwalk, Conn., surrounded by kids; now she wants to spend her professional life the same way.

“My mom had in-home child care, and I was with them the entire day,” she says. “I’ve been around children all my life.”

As a child development major in SNHU’s School of Education, Alexandra has set her sights on becoming a child life specialist.

“I researched it and brought it to the dean,” says the senior, the first SNHU student to be accepted into the child life specialist internship program at Boston Medical Center.

Alexandra must complete a 480-hour hospital internship and pass a certifying exam. The work demands knowledge and sensitivity.

 “If a child is going into surgery or dealing with an illness, I help them cope,” Alexandra says.

In the future, Alexandra wants to extend her reach, helping greater numbers of children.

“I want to get experience and eventually become a coordinator of child life, get a master’s and after, a Ph.D.,” she says.

Thanks to the opportunities she has found at SNHU, Alexandra is headed in that direction.

“I worked really hard for it, and it finally paid off,” she says.