Student Spotlight of the Week
November 30, 2020 / Tags: Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Physical Therapy, DPT Student, Student Spotlight
This week’s Student Spotlight goes to Physical Therapy student, Ciera Howard. Ciera grew up in Fort Wayn, Indiana and moved to Estero in her later teens. She chose to pursue a career in Physical Therapy for many reasons. Ciera has been receiving physical therapy since she was a toddler so being in a PT setting seems like home to her in a way. Ciera says, “I have been through multiple health issues and have been placed in physical therapy for most of them. I did many sports growing up, so having medical issues while being physically active was bound to lead to physical therapy. A medical issue that most likely kept me in physical therapy the longest is Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (Hypermobile type). I’m hypermobile, so needed a great amount of strength training to participate in sports to be less prone to injury. Physical activity, for me, has increased my quality of life greatly. I used to have chronic pain and pretty bad morning stiffness in the winters. I quickly learned that doing intense physical activity was more painful during the moment but led to less pain overall throughout my day. Therefore, physical therapy has been a great outlet for me personally”. Ciera also knows a loved one who has the same hypermobility as her and Ciera wants to have the ability and qualifications to help treat her. She wants to have the same impact on future patients that her physical therapists had on her. Helping patients increase their quality of life is very rewarding for Ciera. She likes how this profession gets to spend real quality time with the patient. She also enjoys the flexibility of PT as a career as well. Due to her list of medical problems, she finds that having the PT education has also allowed her to have greater insight into her own challenges that she faces. As of now, Ciera is most interested in neurology. She finds the brain fascinating. Some of Ciera’s hobbies include hiking, photography/photo editing, creating art in various mediums, working out, and hanging out with family and friends. She also enjoys adding photography/art to a website she is working on. Ciera loves nature, stating “I usually center my photography and artwork around nature. I also like doing abstract photography and art as well.”
Share Post
