A speech pathology and audiology student in the College of Health Sciences is on a journey to becoming a clinician who can treat people like herself.
Samantha Grivno was born with right ear atresia — a unilateral hearing loss condition —that went undiagnosed for three years. She didn’t receive a hearing aid until she was in the first grade.
Coming out of high school in Peachtree City, Georgia, Grivno says she was unsure about where to attend college and was initially hesitant to embrace Milwaukee’s colder weather.
“My tour guide, who happened to be a speech pathology and audiology student, made the difference,” Grivno says. “Marquette offers more clinical opportunities for students than other competing undergraduate programs, which I felt was right for me as someone who didn’t know if they wanted to go into audiology or speech pathology.”
Growing up, Grivno had a complicated relationship with her disability, which resulted in her only wearing her hearing aid intermittently until she began college.
“I wanted to feel like I was normal just like every kid does,” Grivno says. “My hearing aid is visible behind my ear and as a kid with thin hair, it was noticeable. Also, I didn’t think I needed it because I thought I heard just fine and did well in school.”
But it wasn’t until she shadowed one of her audiologists in high school that she realized she wanted to be an advocate for people with hearing loss.
“There was a 3-year-old girl who really stood out to me,” Grivno says. “She used sign language to communicate and after witnessing the way the audiologist interacted with her, I felt like I was headed to where I am meant to be.”
Grivno says she saw the value in a clinician having lived experiences that their patients can relate to.
Those feelings were solidified for Grivno when she attended the American Academy of Audiology conference earlier this year — a rare opportunity for an undergraduate student.
“I made it a priority to go to the deaf or hard-of-hearing audiologists subsection to see what it’s like to be an audiologist who has hearing loss and see how they advocated for themselves and their patients,” Grivno says. “I left feeling empowered.”
Now, Grivno is thriving in her academics, which includes completing the Summer Research Program in Dr. Jeff Berry’s research lab, as well as being named president of Marquette’s chapter of the National Student Speech Language Hearing Association.
Future clinicians like Grivno have a unique opportunity to establish a rapport with their patients, says Berry, a professor of speech and language pathology.
“It’s common for students to have the experience of learning a second language or be immersed, temporarily, in a part of the world where another language dominates,” Berry says. “These sorts of experiences certainly help them gain some sense of what it’s like to have limited communication abilities. Yet, fewer students have had lifelong experiences navigating the world without typical abilities.
“Samantha is a profoundly kind and conscientious person and is well-suited to be a clinical leader in the future.”
Looking ahead, Grivno will complete her undergraduate and graduate degrees before becoming a clinician but is excited to help future patients who experience the same struggles that she did. “Most hearing-loss patients are treated by a clinician without a hearing disability,” Grivno says. “So, while they may know that it’s hard for people like me to be able to hear in a crowded restaurant or need to be seated at the front of the classroom, I’m excited to be a clinician who can offer patients a variety of lived-experience solutions that improve their everyday life and help them advocate for themselves.”
