Brandi Marticoff ’25 MSLP was planning to be a doctor when she enrolled at the University of Iowa as an undergraduate biology major. A type one diabetic, she wanted to be an endocrinologist – she loved hers growing up. But Marticoff was also fascinated by speech.
“My aunt is a speech language pathologist, so hearing her talk about her work always kind of intrigued me.” So, Marticoff decided to add communication sciences and disorders as a minor, an entry point to becoming a SLP. One of her classes assigned her to shadow a speech pathologist for the day. Her life trajectory changed.
“I fell in love,” Marticoff recalled. “I was like, ‘I could see myself doing this every day for the rest of my life.’ That's what got me hooked, and I switched it from my minor to my major.”
When it came time for Maticoff to select a Master of Speech Language Pathology program, she cast a wide net, applying to schools across the U.S. She hadn’t planned on staying in Iowa, but when she visited St. Ambrose, she knew the Davenport university was where she could become who she was meant to be.
“St. Ambrose was unlike any of the other universities I visited,” Marticoff reflected. “The others felt like undergrad for me, which was a big campus. I didn't really find a small community there. This felt smaller, more intimate, and more community based. I really fell in love with that.”
Marticoff said the MSLP program exceeded her expectations. She was able to study abroad, developed personal relationships with her professors and learned by doing, starting day one.
“A lot of the other schools that I was looking at for grad school, they did not offer hands-on clinicals until your second semester. Here you get in there, you get hands-on, you start your clinical experience right away, which was really nice because it made me so much more comfortable as a student clinician.”
MSLP students at St. Ambrose provide no-cost services to children and adults in the Quad Cities through the RiteCare Clinic, a teaching clinic operated by the MSLP program. Student clinicians are integrated into each client’s treatment under the supervision of a licensed SLP. It’s the only no-cost clinic in the state for people with communication and swallowing disorders.
Students also learn through the St. Çï¿ûÊÓƵ Interprofessional Health Clinic, a place that serves community members who have utilized all of their health care coverage for rehabilitation services, are underinsured, or have no insurance. MSLP students work alongside occupational therapy, physical therapy, and social work students learning to work as part of a health care team.
The MSLP program also partners with non-profit organizations in the community to provide no cost prevention, intervention, and assessment services.
"The foundation they gave us was superb,” Marticoff said about the first year of the program. “The background and the education that we got was amazing, and I really put it to use during my internships.”
Marticoff was also impressed by the opportunities she had in choosing an internship site. Students can intern anywhere, locally, nationally, or internationally, and complete their accompanying courses online. This flexibility is made possible by the dedication of the program’s clinical supervisors who contact the students’ preferred sites to see if they’re able to take students and establish contracts if ones aren’t already in place.
“It’s nice that it doesn't really fall on our shoulders,” Marticoff said. “These have to be set up ahead of time, so she’s pulling the strings and getting things set up, and we get to just focus on school.”
Though she could have gone anywhere to intern, Marticoff ultimately decided to stay in Davenport. She completed her internships at Adams Elementary School, MercyOne Genesis Davenport West Medical Center, and MercyOne Genesis Valley Fair Physical Therapy. Through these experiences, Marticoff built on the skills she’d learned in clinicals. She also learned new things like how to write and implement an Individualized Education Program (IEP), the differences between outpatient and inpatient rehab, and how SLPs can implement neurofeedback into their practice.
Marticoff’s internships helped her decide she wants to work in a medical setting, either inpatient or outpatient care. But long-term she has more lofty goals.
“After I get my full licensure, I’ll be applying to some PhD programs for speech and hearing,” Marticoff said. “I’m really interested in research, and I think there’s a need for research in the speech language pathology field.”
In October 2024, Marticoff and two of her classmates presented their graduate research project at the Iowa Speech and Language Hearing Association conference. Their project surveyed graduate students in SLP, OT, nursing, and social work to gauge their confidence in treating patients with aphasia.
“I really loved doing the research project,” Marticoff said. “I’ve always loved doing research. I started out as a biology major, and I always loved that part of it. When I got to do this project, I feel like my love for research came back.”
Marticoff’s professors supported her in learning more about SLP research as a career path, providing her a sounding board as she explored her future aspirations. It’s the type of support the program promised when she first visited campus. Coming from a large school, Marticoff was skeptical, but, she said, they lived up to their word.
“From day one here, literally, open door policy,” Marticoff raved. “I could just stop in and talk to any of them at any point in time and feel totally comfortable and supported. If I needed help on a homework assignment and the professor that teaches it was maybe gone that day, I could go to any other faculty member there and they would offer to help me as much as they could.”
“They were just always there and truly wanted you to succeed.”
Build the skills you need to become a Speech Language Pathologist in a supportive, hands-on environment. Explore St. Ambrose’s MSLP degree.