Names: Robert Sweitzer and Emily Harvey Major: Physical Therapist Assistant
Q & A
Being an ACM Allied Health student isn’t easy but our instructors are here to help.
In your experience, what are the “superpowers” that make a great instructor stand
out?
Robert - So, for our instructors in the PTA program I would definitely say that it’s their
ability to just get us out of our shells and their enthusiasm, it kind of motivates
us to work a little harder.
Emily - The ability to pull everyone together and really create the sense of comradery
between everyone, ability to have very fine attention to detail. They care sincerely
about the way that we learn, how we learn, the speed in which we learn and I feel
that’s a fantastic attribute to have.
Has there been a moment in class or an interaction with an instructor or staff member
that stands out to you? Tell us about it.
Robert - So, our instructor, Karin Savage, she’s always cross referencing making sure we
have the most up-to-date information that way we’re up to date in our clinics and
we can inform them of what’s going on and what’s new.
Emily - One of our instructors, clinical coordinator Jeremy Oldham, has made it very easy
to get in touch with him, anytime that we need him. He sends us out to our clinical
rotations and we may not be back on campus within like a week, and if we any information,
if we need help, we need just any type of guidance he makes it very easy for us to
get ahold of him. And he is always available for extra help outside of the classroom.
What’s been your superpower that’s made you a great Allied Health student?
Robert - I would say the ability to multi task, that’s super important. Leadership that’s
super important too, gets you working with your classmates and just makes everything
run easier.
Emily - I would say coming into my experience here I have had some background in the medical
field so far, so I have been able to take all of my combined experience that I have
as a rehab technician, as a CAN, even as some of my experience as a receptionist and
I have been able to bring that information and all the things that I have learned
to help shape myself as a student and I like to think that my classmates can come
to me if they ever had any questions.
What’s your favorite piece of technology at school or work?
Robert - The anatomage table that we have in down in the technology building. It allows
us to look at the body, look at all the different layers, the skin, the muscles, the
bone, and allows us to go really in depth.
Emily - I would say having our computers. Having individual laptops that we can use every
single day at our disposal which we can use to now, to access what’s called the Physio
U it’s a really great resource that we have to help kind of cement in all the information
we learn from class.
What 3 things do you like (or love, we’ll always take love) about the courses in your
major?
Robert - A lot of our courses are primarily hands-on, we get to collaborate with our classmates
all the time with group projects, and then our clinical classes teach us what we are
going to be doing out in the real world once we graduate.
Emily - I love the hands-on clinical experience that we get, it is fantastic to take the
information we are learning in class and put it to practical use. I would say that
I really enjoy, again I mentioned earlier Physio U, having that resource available
to us, it’s an online app or something that we can use on the computer and we can
follow up on any questions we have on things that we learned. I would like to say
our instructors just ability to pay attention to the way that we learn. So having
different ways of learning information whether its visual, auditory or kinesthetic
learning.
What experience (or class) at ACM surprised you the most?
Robert - Our clinical experiences – we go to all these different areas and they are more
then happy to teach us, show us new things and just help us become the best PTA we
can be.
Emily - I would say how easy it is to make sure you can pay for your classes. It is very
important to make sure you even have the money to attend these courses. The communication
that there is between departments of financial aid, admissions, administration, all
those things make it very easy for us to make sure that we can pay out of money or
with whatever source of money you have for these courses.
