Kineiosology & Applied Physiology

B.S. in Exercise Science/Disability Studies

Class of 2019

“At Brandywine Occupation Therapy at Wellspring Farm, Dr. Anjana Bhat is doing a project where she studies smiling and communication while children are doing hippotherapy. This research has made me become more of an advocate for my field. It’s one thing to be in your profession, but it’s another to actually want to make a difference in it. Working with these children and families made me realize that I need to be an advocate for them. I do the video recording, so I come here once a week and work with the child for either an hour or half an hour. I take that video back to the lab and I code it for how many times they made eye contact or how many times they smile, things like that. And then we compile that to see the progress over the eight weeks. We have videos to see their progress made because of the therapy.

All of the children love the horses. They have a complete character change as soon as they get on them. Sometimes they're more shy when they start, but as soon as they get on the horse, their whole attitude and mood changes. The horse behind me is Dan - all the kids love Dan. He is super fun and very friendly. The kids that can communicate always love saying his name.

I major in exercise science and I minor in disability studies. I picked exercise science because my cousin was in a car accident. He is an amputee now and also a pro golfer. Seeing him go through the physical therapy process and his recovery is when I knew I wanted to be a physical therapist. When I got into school, I heard of the disability studies minor and it was something I was really drawn toward.

My ‘ah-ha’ moments are mostly being in the lab and working with the children. I realize how big of an impact that I can actually have. It’s much more than just the book work. You realize what you’re doing, what you’re studying, and I love every minute of it.”