Personal Narrative: A Career In Athletic Therapy

In regard to community, I have volunteered for my clubs, DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America), BPA (Business Professionals of America), NTHS (National Technical Honor Society), Cross Country and others. From helping the club itself to representing the club through charitable acts, such as making christmas a little better for military families, or helping at assisted living centers. My parents taught me at a young age how to be a considerate

I have chosen to study athletic training because it allows me to still participate and be involved in sports as well as be able to help athletes recover from injuries while gaining valuable clinical experience for physical therapy. Growing up I have always had a love for sports but I have not been graced with the abilities to become a professional athlete. With my love for sports as a youth I watched a lot on television with my father and I would see athletes get injured and medical personnel rush out to their aid. When I found out they were athletic trainers and physical therapists, I knew that is what I wanted to do when I grew up. All throughout high school I was involved in sports and unfortunately had an injury or two. Although our school did not have an athletic trainer, I went to many different specialists and

I currently do not volunteer at a particular place regularly, but volunteer at various places as much as I can and have accumulated over 250 hours while in high school. By volunteering, students get an opportunity to serve the community and provide help to those who need it, yet not expecting anything in return. For me, I have learned the value of hard work, especially when it makes other peoples’ lives better while volunteering.

My experience also enabled me to understand how an individual’s mentality, anatomy, and body movements can contribute to the overall progress of healing as it requires a lot of patience and motivation. Therefore, pursuing a degree in Kinesiology would be my greatest desire as I want to help individuals heal through methods of physical movements and because I believe it encompasses two of my favourite subjects, science and physical education. Throughout my experience in high school, my interest in health and physical activities has only grown stronger. As an illustration, over the past four years, I have been involved in various sports such as the varsity girl’s soccer team, varsity girl’s flag football team, and badminton

I continuously studied for test, and worked vigorously throughout my high school career. I volunteered at the local animal shelter, helped out in small children classrooms, and would volunteer with church activities.

I volunteered taking care of children, at a recreation center, where parents couldn’t afford expensive day care. I spent time at feral cat clinics to help reduce the overpopulation of cats. I began volunteering at three square and placing applications to help hospitals and soon plan to spend time with soup kitchens and homeless shelters. Through my community service I learned to communicate better, take on leadership roles and earned life changing opportunities along the way. Through volunteering I grew as a person, I matured, learned responsibility, and realized what I wanted to do with my life.

Over the past year, I have served my school and community in many different ways. Whether it be through volunteering or participating in organizations that work to make changes in the lives of others. I try to stay involved in my environment. Currently, I am a student at Rockford Lutheran High School. With the multitude of clubs, my school offers, I am able to interact with other club members to promote student participation. Every year we participate in drives and fundraisers. In Key Club, each year we put together solider boxes. We collect a variety of small items and send hand packaged boxes to our fighting soldiers, as a gift for christmas. Other drives that I partake in are the canned food drives for the local food pantries, and the clothing drives to give winter clothing to those less fortunate. This helps to provide this vulnerable population with warmth during the cold winter months.

I am a member of National Honor Society. We volunteer and help people in anyway we can. So far I have about 20 hrs of community service. I helped my teacher moved everything in his class during the summer. I helped an old woman raked leaves in her backyard. I volunteered to assist my high school's registration. I lend a hand to elementary school children and basically played and watched them. I assisted a youth wrestling tournament. There are many more services in which I hoped to help out.

During my Junior year at Colfax High School, I was recruited into a new program called Link Crew which is a freshman transition program that welcomes incoming freshmen and makes them feel comfortable and supported throughout the first year of high school. This program was not only a club but also a class called Wings in which we would precisely plan Academic Follow Up's (AFU) for the freshmen, and organize events such as a Haunted House and a Blood Drive for the whole school. Also during my Junior year, I joined the Leo's Club which is a student run club that's purpose is to perform service projects within our school and community. I was able to become a certified volunteer of Colfax and Meadow Vista once I had not only met, but exceeded the minimum of 35 hours of volunteer work. Outside of school, I became interested in snowboarding which allowed me to get a seasonal job at a Ski

I also volunteer throughout my community and with different organizations to give back to my community; I volunteered over three-hundred hours during my four years of high school. I have no preference on what the service opportunities or events are, whom I am volunteering with, and my tasks as a volunteer. I assisted in the

Everyone has something they’re talented at, and many people have to try multiple things before they find their talent(s) that they have. As a child, my parents like many others had me participate in multiple activities. For example, I took dance classes, played a great amount of sports, and was a participant in many plays. In my freshman year, I tried running track and field. During the course of it, I developed shin splints and I proceeded to go to the athletic trainer. The athletic trainer here, Todd Korabek, has a system that works for the whole program. New injuries will see an aide, and that aide will then write up a card for them which lists their name, sport, injury, and body part. The aide doesn’t write the injury because only the athletic trainer can diagnose. After the athletic trainer treats all old injuries, he evaluates the new injuries, which happened to be me at that moment. Watching the aides assist Mr. Korabek really inspired me and his profession intrigued me.

For as long as I can remember, my profession of choice has been an occupation in the healthcare field. My dad often reminisces on when I was three when he would ask me “What’s your name?” I would reply with “Dr. Peppers.” Well sixteen years later my dream of being a doctor no longer exists, however my goal to become one of the best athletic trainers in the country is burning with passion. Growing up I wanted to be several different occupations like a trauma nurse, an obstetrician, or a physical therapist, before realizing after two years of high school sports medicine that athletic training was my niche. In coming to better comprehend athletic training as a career, my experiences in my classes and clinical here at Winthrop along with my high school experience in sports medicine has shaped my understanding of the athletic training world.

Outside of school, I'm thoroughly involved in my community. I've already done one hundred and fifty-five hours of community service (and counting). I'm mainly involved with TCLBAF (Tri-Cities Lady Bulldogs Athletic Foundation) Inc., where our mission is to mentor youth in our community. We expose them to sports and

From this experience volunteering I will hopefully be able to continue tutoring or helping students who are struggling in school. I am going to remember this experience when I am a teacher and be able to pay more attention to the students who are struggling and try my hardest to make sure that no one falls too far behind. I will also make sure that all my students get the help that they need in order to succeed. Overall this experience has taught me a lot and enlightened me with new perspectives from where people come from and their home

While in high school, I have been able to give back to my community through my