My Story
I graduated from the University of Delaware with a B.S. in Exercise Science in December 2021. I have called Newark, Delaware home since I was five and am proud to be a Blue Hen! While I have lived in Delaware for most of my life and the University of Delaware has made contributions to my development even before I enrolled as an Undergraduate student in 2018, this e-portfolio serves as a tool to record, discuss, and narrate my leadership journey in the Blue Hen Leadership Program (BHLP) at the University of Delaware. As a student who engages in innovation, personal development, and heart, BHLP served as the medium for my leadership development and an opportunity to express my passions.
Continue scrolling to view my complete About Me.
Mission Statement
Through my values of advocacy, compassion, and equity, I will become a research physical therapist who challenges the status quo of current interdisciplinary practice conversations through the integration of the engineering and fashion design disciplines. I believe in physical therapy innovations that engage with the soul of clients, be it therapeutic devices adapted to a client’s condition or to a client’s desire for personal expression. Through my engagement in physical therapy research and acquiring skills in apparel design, I strive to employ my skills to allow individuals to express their personalities through their therapeutic devices.
Values
Actions that speak in favor of, recommends, argues for a cause, supports or defends, or pleads on behalf of others.
Empathetic understanding of a person's feelings, accompanied by altruism, or a desire to acton that person's behalf.
Recognizing that each person has different circumstances, thus individualizing the allocation of resources and opportunities to reach an equal outcome.
GOALS
Immediate Goals
BRANDING
My immediate goal is to be accepted into a Doctorate of Physical Therapy program at Rutgers University-Newark.
With my aspirations to become a physical therapist and a researcher, Rutgers-Newark will provide me with the three-year course load to complete my Doctorate of Physical Therapy (DPT) while completing courses necessary to initiate a three-year Doctor of Philosophy in Rehabilitative Sciences (PhD) program.
In order to become an academic leader with contributions to the field of Physical Therapy and Apparel Design, establishing my roots in an institution that can support me with achieving the qualifications necessary to teach, inspire, and innovate.
Since I graduated undergrad early, I plan on holding onto my involvement in the field of academia by engaging with Dr. Martha’s Hall lab at STAR Campus to acquire more apparel design skills, work part-time as a Physical Therapy Aide at a Rehab Clinic, and serve as a Teaching Assistant for BHLP’s Tier 3: Community Engagement Fellows.
The deadline for this goal will be January 15th, 2022 as that is when acceptances (deposits) are due for physical therapy programs.
A barrier of acquiring an acceptance would be competition from other students applying in this cycle of Physical Therapy programs but some students do not hear back from schools until hours before the January 15th Deadline.
Some advantages that will aid me in the wait to hear back from programs are my patience, support from friends and family, and the opportunities that I have established for myself to stay involved with academia and research.
STORYTELLING
Within the next 1-5 years, a short-term goal I can establish contingent with acceptance into Rutgers-Newark DPT would be to enroll in the Joint-DPT/PhD Program upon the start of my second-year at Rutgers-Newark.
The joint-degree program is important as it allows me to accomplish the accolades necessary within 6-years, with the theoretical course knowledge of physical therapy, experience in physical therapy clinical settings, and the research courses/experience appropriate for a career in Rehabilitative Science.
In order to get accepted into the joint-degree program, I plan on continuing my research with Developmental Motor Control Labs and with Dr. Martha Hall’s projects to showcase my strong interest in research. In order to focus on achieving high academics in the DPT degree, I plan on actually living on-campus, employ systems that will allow me to study and retain information, and to be involved with academic networking at Rutgers-Newark.
The deadline to apply and get accepted into the PhD track would be the start of the second-year of DPT in Fall 2023. The deadline for a 3-year PhD completion would be right after completing the three-year coursework of the DPT, thus 2028.
Barriers to achieving high academics during undergrad were spreading myself too thin with involvements and with taking care of my family which may or may not resurface during graduate school.
However, my advantages of being adaptable, having learned to budget my time and energy better, and my family understanding that I will need to focus on my studies during Graduate School will allow me to focus on academics.
DESIGN
In addition to my previously established goals to further my education in a joint-DPT/PhD program, what happens next for me further than 5-years into the future will be dependent on what I learned while enrolled in a DPT program and in the PhD track.
My Long-Term Life Goal would be earning my PhD in Rehabilitation Sciences in 2028 and serving as a faculty member in a research institution that will not only make contributions to the world of physical therapy and adaptive clothing but also as an advocate and supporter of undergraduate students in their personal and professional development.
These accolades are important to me as they intersect my identity as a researcher and mentor.
My plan to complete this goal of attaining a faculty position and working in undergraduate development after earning my PhD will include involving myself with the current faculty at Rutgers-Newark, networking and ensuring I keep my connections with my research mentors at the University of Delaware, and to continue giving support as an active citizen.
The barriers that will impede my journey will be student burn-out due to the heavy coursework, student debt, and uncertainty if the PhD program provides me healthcare benefits.
The advantages I have would be that my parents plan on paying off accrued interest of my student loans and the fact that I will virtually have no student debt from undergrad due to being an in-state commuter at the University of Delaware.
Immediate Goal (within 1 Year)
Short-Term Goal
(within 1-5 Years)
Long-Term Goal
(5+ years)
Skills & Competencies
My time in the Blue Hen Leadership Program allowed me to learn not only executive leadership skills but also facilitation skills required to establish trust within relationships and organizations. These skills, however, are not developed unless one can understand what works and what does not work as these skills are honed. BHLP taught me that while one can move-and-shake the world with their actions, the stillness in one's thoughts brings forth true development.
psychological safety
Psychological Safety is when people feel comfortable in the organization to advocate for themselves and the comfort is established through engaging with the hearts and thoughts of people within your team and establishing trust. Throughout my training as a Peer Mentor and as a BHLP Presentation Team Intern, I have developed facilitation skills as a guiding tool to engage with workshop attendees, QUEST mentees, and with individuals I delegate responsibilities to. In addition, I learned that empathetic listening is more valuable than active listening as repeating back what an individual says is not enough, but getting to the heart of one's person's words and extrapolating intention and connecting their meanings to learning outcomes.
Reflection
As a first-year student coming into the University of Delaware, the opportunities for on-campus involvement allowed me to stay involved despite my commuter status. At the end of every BHLP workshop, we were asked reflection questions to solidify our learning. I have come a long way since being an 18-year old who jumped at the first opportunity be it a new job, a new organization to involve myself with, or a new research position. Through the power of reflection and honesty of my finite resources of time & energy, I was able to prioritize the things that mattered most to me: my involvement with research & serving as a peer mentor for first-year students.
project organization
Throughout the tiered advancement of the Blue Hen Leadership Program, Tier 2 and Tier 3 challenged students with project organization and team dynamics. Long-vision scheduling, team check-ins, psychological safety, and proactivity were all skills that developed as I grew more adept with Project Organization. In Tier 1, I had my first taste of Project Organization as I was the Executive Organizer for a project that we developed and planned over the course of two-months. In Tier 2, our team developed a team charter, organized service visits with our non-profit partner, and upheld team morale. In Tier 3, our team developed a SWOT analysis, weekly team dashboards, a project pitch, and the implementation of our project pitch. The long-range planning, the accountability, and team support contributes to effective project organization.
Growth
2018-2021
I am so happy to not be the person I was back in 2018, but I cannot be the present 2021 version of myself without having been my 2018 version. Growth was a theme for me in 2018. Reading through my QUEST application, I recognized that I projected confidence because it was expected of me in high school. We had to fight for recognition and for relevance in school, hopping onto the next big opportunity to stand out among your peers. Now, I recognize that the mentality to compete against peers is elementary and does not align with my current values. I practice abundance, a mindset that was mirrored in my original application and a mindset that I believe that I am excelling in today.
I originally stated that the characteristic I associate leaders with was taking the extra mile and creating new standards for character and success. It is humorous how Challenging the Process was an Exemplary Practice of Leadership that I internalized and embody even before formal theoretical learning of MICEE.
How does abundance and taking the extra mile connect? Those mindsets connect on the basis that there is always something to improve upon and there is infinite of time and energy to devote. Justin Jones Fosu, in his sociological research, discovered that people engage in One's and Two's. One's is "how is your day", Two's is "how is your day" and then "oh, my day was fine, too", showing that conversations end once you make it about yourself. Three's combine another concept of his of be interested, not interesting in which you engage past social niceties and take complete interest in somebody and asking further questions. We practice abundance by devoting time and heart and we take the extra mile through complete, genuine engagement.
