![\"\"](\"http:\/\/forum.belmont.edu\/health\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Jessica-Smith.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nJessica Smith, a current 3rd<\/sup> year student in the Belmont Physical Therapy program, has been awarded the Belmont University Graduate Student Scholarship Award. The Award recognizes an exceptional student within all Belmont University graduate programs distinguished through outstanding academic performance as demonstrated through a consistent pattern of academic success coupled with the production of original scholarly research, writing, creative output and\/or performance, as appropriate to the student\u2019s discipline and graduate degree. This award is conferred in recognition of the recipient\u2019s capacity to engage with insight, integrity, diligence, creativity, and reflection in professional activity relevant to the graduate degree sought, while demonstrating habits of mind reflective of open-mindedness, maturity, and generosity essential to becoming an inspiring professional in his or her chosen career path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jessica has gone above and beyond in her research efforts, and has served as a leader and inspiration in the area of scholarship within the DPT program. As part of the requirements for the physical therapy program, students are placed in groups of 4-5 to conduct their research. The students then develop their review of literature, research question(s), determine the best methods to address their question(s), collect and analyze their data and then present their data at our research symposium, held in the fall semester of their third year. All of this work has to be performed at the same time the students are taking their course work (average of 20 hours per semester) throughout the program. Students are connected with a faculty research mentor for their projects, and in this case, Smith worked extensively with Dr. Kevin Robinson, PT, DSc, OCS, on data collection related to the Nashville Ballet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Robinson notes, \u201cI have been working with the Nashville Ballet for the past 6 years, studying ways to identify performers who are at risk for musculoskeletal injuries during the course of their season. Jess was the lead member of her group. As the lead member, she took on the responsibilities of coordinating the data collection with the dancers and the Ballet staff, analyzing the 3 dimensional data and strength data that was collected, and she was the lead editor of the group paper.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n Despite being a team leader, Robinson goes on to mention, \u201cDuring the review of literature process, Jess came to me and stated that she wanted to investigate another question regarding these performing artist. She wanted to look at the dancers performing fundamental dance tasks and see if fatigue would show a difference in the kinematics of these tasks. I explained to her that this would be a separate project from her group project and that this project would be a considerable amount of work for one person. However, Jess was so enthusiastic about this idea that she wanted to proceed. Jess proceeded with her plan and simultaneously collected data for both projects.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a result of Jessica\u2019s leadership efforts, both projects were completed and were presented at the physical therapy program\u2019s research symposium. Additionally, both projects were submitted to be presented at the Combined Sections Meeting (CSM) for the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA). This is by far the largest meeting held annually for physical therapist (17,000+ attending). Both projects were accepted for poster presentations at CSM which is being held February, 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Smith also submitted her individual project to the Performing Arts Medical Association meeting that is held in June of each year, and decided to apply for the Alice G. Brandfonbrener Young Investigator Award, where she is currently a finalist, and has been invited to present her findings at their upcoming meeting being held the Weil Cornell Medical School in New York in June, 2021. Lastly, Smith has submitted her project, “A Kinematic Analysis of Non-Injured and Injured Professional Ballet Dancers Performing Fundamental Dance Tasks”, for publication and is awaiting acceptance of this paper later this summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jessica Smith, a current 3rd year student in the Belmont Physical Therapy program, has been awarded the Belmont University Graduate Student Scholarship Award. The Award recognizes an exceptional student within all Belmont University graduate programs distinguished through outstanding academic performance … Continue reading