Department of Speech Language Pathology

More than just an education

A five-year-old boy on the autism spectrum who struggles to communicate. A young student who has difficulty with pronunciation. A 67-year-old stroke patient working to regain her ability to speak. These are just a few of the clients you’ll have the privilege to serve one day as a Speech Language Pathologist. Through the department of communicative sciences and disorders at Saint Mary’s, you’ll learn to assist others with speech, language, and hearing disorders and apply clinical activities to improve their skills.

  • 12weeks of undergraduate field work
  • 100% employed full-time or in graduate school[1]
  • 51% of all Saint Mary's students study abroad

A rigorous program and exceptional faculty

You will engage in an intensive study of the anatomy and physiology of speech, language, and hearing disorders – mild to severe, from infants to elderly populations. Here, your passion for both science and language will lead you to success. You will learn from experts in autism studies, child language disorders, and other fields as many of our faculty and visiting lecturers are known nationwide and are changing the face of speech language pathology.  

Kathleen Nester '17

“It's the perfect combination of science and serving people.”
—  Kathleen Nester ’17

>>Read More of Kathleen's Story

Learn and apply innovative approaches

Our undergraduate program teaches the current best practices such as Response To Intervention (RTI) which you will get to use right on campus. Working in our Early Childhood Development Center (ECDC), you’ll have the opportunity to address language and literacy issues for children ages two through kindergarten. Along with other on-campus clinical assignments, you will gain valuable experience that will help you enhance your resume or graduate school application. 

Customize your career path

With a bachelor’s degree you can immediately start working as a speech language pathologist aid or in deaf education. You can also broaden your career choices if you earn minors in early childhood education, gerontology, psychology, and others. Or you can continue on to get your masters degree in speech language pathology, occupational therapy, or go on to medical school. All of these options are available to you right here at Saint Mary's College!

Earn your master's degree on campus

Build on your bachelor's degree with a master of science in speech language pathology from Saint Mary's College. We offer a two-year, on-campus program that prepares students to become leaders in the field through experiential learning opportunities and work tirelessly to improve the lives of others.

1  Data was collected from an internal survey, sampling department students from the classes of 2003 through 2011 five years after graduation from Saint Mary's College.