Alumni Focus - Kathryn Mancewicz (Scislow '11)
Kathryn Mancewicz (Scislow ‘11) has an adventurous life most people only dream of. She works from home (which is often an RV) in a satisfying career she created herself, goes skiing, and is building an off-the-grid home in the beautiful Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Read about Kathryn’s roundabout way into providing speech therapy and how the pandemic prompted her to create a business completely online.
While at SCLA what were you involved in?
One of the best things about attending St. Croix was being able to participate in many different activities. I kept pretty busy in high school. I played soccer, basketball, and golf. I also participated in the National Honor Society, Oakdale Avenue Jazz Band, and Croixaliers.
What was your favorite memory at SCLA?
My favorite memories at St. Croix were playing soccer, especially my senior year when my younger sister Jennie Haugen (Scislow ‘14) was on the team with me and my dad was coaching. We had a great team with a lot of strong players, and I have a lot of great memories!
Post SCLA, what did your path look like?
My post-SCLA college experience was a bit of a journey. In high school, I always felt like if I wanted to prove I was “smart” I needed to go into engineering. So that’s what I figured I would do.
I started college at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Michigan, where I met my now husband, Joel Mancewicz. After just one semester, I realized engineering was NOT the field for me. So I transferred to Bethany Lutheran College in Mankato to take some general education classes closer to home and figure out what I wanted to do next. After deciding on the field of speech-language pathology, I transferred again to the University of Minnesota, Duluth. At UMD I double majored and graduated with degrees in Communication Sciences and Disorders and Hispanic Studies.
Right after college, in July 2015, Joel and I got married after having dated long-distance throughout college. Then, just a week after our honeymoon, we packed up all our belongings and moved halfway across the country to a place we knew absolutely no one so I could go to graduate school at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. I graduated with a bilingual emphasis and a Master’s of Science with Distinction in Speech-Language Pathology.
After graduating, I started working at an elementary school in Evanston, Wyoming. I worked there as a speech-language pathologist (SLP) helping kids improve their speech and language skills.
Two years later, I was feeling the need for a change, and so was Joel. So we bought an RV, sold most of our things, and I began working as a travel SLP while Joel continued to work remotely. I did this for about 9 months working in various hospitals across the country. That was until the pandemic began and many hospitals actually stopped taking travelers due to all the uncertainty initially. I was fortunate to secure a teletherapy contract to finish out the school year and then spent the next year working as a teletherapist for another school district in California. During this period, we spent time with family and did some traveling in the RV while waiting, like everyone else, to see what on earth would happen with the world.
About a year into the pandemic, when many schools started to return to in-person therapy, I realized just how cool it was to work remotely. That’s when I decided to start my own private practice, 100% virtually.
How did you end up starting your own speech therapy business?
I started my business part-time towards the end of the 2021 school year. After having a taste of location independence, I knew I couldn’t go back to working in person somewhere. We just love traveling too much! And since we already had the RV from my travel therapy days, it just made sense. On June 3, 2021, I went full time on my private practice.
I just celebrated my two-year business anniversary and things have never been better. In fact, business has been so great that Joel retired from his engineering job at the end of 2021 and now helps me with some aspects of the business. He has also been designing and will soon be building the interior of our new home not far from Houghton, Michigan where we first met. There have certainly been some challenges being a business owner, but growing up, my dad owned (and still owns) a small business, so I knew I could take on the challenge.
In my private practice, Moving Forward Speech Therapy, I serve kids of all ages and specialize in dyslexia and dysgraphia. I see kids who have more typical speech and language difficulties as well but I am especially passionate about literacy. To make things fun, I have lots of engaging activities, like digital board games, and -- my personal favorite for little kids-- a green screen. I believe that kids learn best when they are enjoying themselves, so I always try to make therapy as enjoyable as possible.
I love seeing kids of all ages. My youngest client is 3 and my oldest is actually 23. The variety of ages and things we are working on keeps things interesting. Getting to help kids learn to read, write, and communicate with ease is such a blessing.
I am so thankful for the roundabout path that led me to where I am today. It didn’t always feel like it, but looking back I can clearly see God leading me along every step of the way to where he knew I needed to be.
Tell us about your life living in an RV and traveling all around, all while working online!
We have been traveling full-time since 2019, and even though we are building a home in the Upper Peninsula, we still plan to travel semi-full-time once that is complete.
Joel and I live in a Class A motorhome with our sweet mini Aussie, Luna. Over the years, we have traveled to a lot of amazing places. Some of our favorites include Lake Tahoe, Crater Lake, the southern Oregon Coast, Big Sky, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, all around Lake Michigan, various areas in Southern Utah, especially Goosenecks State Park, and the Salt Lake City area.
Since I am able to work remotely, we pretty much always feel like we live on vacation!
What adventures do you and Joel seek out?
Joel and I are big-time skiers! So it’s no surprise that we like to spend the winters where we can ski. We have friends in the Salt Lake City area from when I worked in Evanston, Wyoming, and so we have spent several winters out there. My work schedule is also pretty fantastic as I have half days on Wednesdays and Fridays which means the afternoons are for adventures!
Besides skiing, we pretty much like to do anything outdoors with hiking being another personal favorite of mine. In the summers, when we are at our property near Lake Superior, I love to go rock-hounding. I could spend all day on the shores of Lake Superior and never get bored!
Since buying our property in 2021 we have also started developing it slowly but surely. Joel’s engineering skills have proved very useful time and time again during the process! So I’m glad one of us ended up becoming an engineer! Our property is completely off-grid and everything is powered with a solar power setup that Joel designed and installed. We have also done other work to the property like making an RV site with full hookups and planting a small fruit orchard and berry patches.
In just a few weeks, construction on our home is set to begin so we can’t wait to see that go up soon!
Anything else you want to share?
I would end by encouraging anyone who is reading this to take a chance and go after their dreams! Starting my own business involved taking a chance. But if there is anyone worth betting on, it’s you. I wouldn’t be where I am today, loving every single moment of my career and my life, without taking that chance. Just think about where you could be a few years from now!