There’s classroom learning. Then there are clinical rotations. And then there’s the kind of experience University of Hartford physical therapy graduate students had this summer.
Four students pursuing their doctorate of physical therapy, along with Assistant Professor TJ Bellama, traveled across the globe to Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands to help fill the gap in physical therapy care by treating patients of all ages while living in their community for a month. Residents of the under-resourced region often have unique needs compared to those in the United States, and lack access to many types of medical treatment.
“The fact that we even got to be in a different part of the world and work with diagnoses you wouldn’t typically see, or probably never would see in the U.S., that’s incredible,” said Emily Steele DPT’24, who traveled with fellow students Jasmine Streeter DPT’24, Tricia Hamilton DPT’24, and Rachel Card DPT’24. “We had a lot of autonomy and Dr. Bellama gave advice as we went along.”