{"id":3967,"date":"2015-10-26T12:50:27","date_gmt":"2015-10-26T18:50:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/?p=3967"},"modified":"2015-10-28T09:53:44","modified_gmt":"2015-10-28T15:53:44","slug":"school-of-physical-therapy-celebrates-15-years-of-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/2015\/10\/26\/school-of-physical-therapy-celebrates-15-years-of-family\/","title":{"rendered":"School of Physical Therapy Celebrates 15 Years of \u2018Family\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Garrett's<\/div>\n

More than 100 alumni return for reunion<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Belmont\u2019s School of Physical Therapy<\/a> celebrated its 15-year anniversary of DPT graduates this month with a first-ever reunion for the three-year doctoral program. In addition to networking\u00a0with one another and PT faculty and staff, the event allowed alumni to earn Continuing Education course credit\u00a0and\u00a0to provide support for a few special members.<\/p>\n

\"Physical<\/a>Assistant Professor of Physical Therapy Dr. Christi Williams is a 2005 alum of the program and co-chaired organizing the reunion with fellow 2005 alumna Dr. Kristi Roland, a physical therapist with U.S. HealthWorks in Madison, Tennessee. \u201cThe Belmont PT program is special,\u201d Williams\u00a0said. \u201cWe turn out highly educated students\u2026 It\u2019s a demanding program but no one who goes through it feels like they have to do it on their own.\u00a0There\u2019s very much a family feel among the students and faculty, and we\u2019re all in it for a bigger reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

That sentiment was driven home with Saturday morning\u2019s event, a one-mile walk held in honor of Garrett Sapp,\u00a0son of 2005 PT graduate Amber Sapp. Garrett was diagnosed five years ago with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a rare and fatal neuromuscular disorder. Garrett\u2019s Hero Run<\/a> was designed as a way to raise awareness and funds for Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy (PPMD), and with participants wearing costumes of their favorite superheroes, Garrett is given a sense of normalcy and fun. The hero run at the reunion brought in approximately\u00a0$15,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are the people who went through the fire with you and held your hand the whole way. These are the people I still want by my side.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Amber Sapp said, \u201cWhen I was in Physical Therapy school at Belmont, my classmates became my family. We were challenged to our breaking point and yet overcame so much together during our time there. When my son, Garrett, was diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy five years ago, one of the first calls I made was to a fellow alumni who I had done a clinical rotation with in pediatrics in the past. I knew her Belmont credentials alone were enough, but I also remember her friendship and kindness when I was a student. These are the types relationships that are built at Belmont. \u00a0 The reunion was such a special time to be able to reconnect with many of the people who had an impact on my life in some way or other. To remember the fun times and the tough times, to learn of the paths life has taken them all on\u2013these relationships are what gets you through the stuff of life. These are the people who went through the fire with you and held your hand the whole way. These are the people I still want by my side.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following Garrett\u2019s Hero Run, alumni enjoyed tours of McWhorter Hall, a charity fair and networking groups, including a time to discuss the advanced certifications individuals had received after graduating from Belmont. While specializations in orthopedics were clearly popular among the Belmont grads, others received advanced training in dry needling,\u00a0myofascial trigger points, aquatics, cardiac life support,\u00a0kinesio taping, athletic training and infant massage, among countless other specialties. Moreover, alumni came from all over the U.S., representing practices from\u00a0Florida\u00a0to Alaska. <\/strong>The physical therapy grads\u00a0are employed in a variety of settings from hospitals, home health organizations and rehabilitation centers to \u00a0universities and professional sports teams.<\/p>\n

\"Sara<\/a>Dr. David Greathouse, who founded Belmont\u2019s program, returned to campus for the reunion and co-taught\u00a0a continuing education anatomy course with Professor of Physical Therapy Dr. John Halle. Greathouse and Halle also spoke at the reunion\u2019s dinner reception Saturday night, which was led by current program chair\u00a0Dr. Renee Brown.\u00a0A highlight of the evening came from a talk given by Jody Pigg, the father of 2003 alumna Sara Walker, who died in 2012 from colon cancer. After sharing a bit of Sara\u2019s story<\/a> and her fight \u201cto find the extraordinary in an ordinary life,\u201d Pigg and the rest of Sara\u2019s family, including her sister Dinah Hall who is a 2006 Belmont PT alum, were presented with the establishment of a new scholarship named in honor of the Sara Walker Foundation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lexi Headen, a current third-year\u00a0year student in Belmont\u2019s PT program who volunteered for the reunion, noted\u00a0that a\u00a0resounding theme of the day\u00a0was the idea of a\u201dBelmont Family.\u201d \u201cThere is something different about Belmont PTs,\u201d she said, \u201cand while it may be a combination of things like intelligence, drive and innovation, it is our heart that ultimately separates us. It started with the teachers who put their students first, who take pride in training us as colleagues, not simply students. It is in the alumni and students who pull together to raise thousands of dollars for a classmate\u2019s child, who continue the tradition of service to those far less fortunate than ourselves. It is heart that keeps this \u2018family\u2019 close and gives Belmont PT the unique and wonderful experience that we all can share.\u201d<\/p>\n

Halle added, \u201cIt is gratifying to see so many of our graduates take the time to come back, reconnect and share the ways in which they are positively impacting their families and the communities that they live in. This group of graduates\u2013with their professional expertise and service to the community through entities like the Sarah Pigg Walker Foundation, PPMD, Canine Friends and many others\u2013allow us to proudly say that \u2018our graduates are our credentials.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Roland concluded, \u201cThis program is more than just graduating the next wave of physical therapists. Students entering this program are there to receive a top notch education so they can heal the masses\u2026 they leave with so much more.\u00a0 To be a Belmont School of Physical Therapy Graduate means you are a part of a family that supports you when you\u2019re down, connects you when you\u2019re lost, celebrates you when you succeed and honors you when you\u2019re gone. It was amazing to see both alumni and current students come together to create an event where the sum was so much greater than all its parts.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than 100 alumni return for reunion Belmont\u2019s School of Physical Therapy celebrated its 15-year anniversary of DPT graduates this month with a first-ever reunion for the three-year doctoral program. In addition to networking\u00a0with one another and PT faculty and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chs","category-physical-therapy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3967"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3973,"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3967\/revisions\/3973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}