UPWARD MOBILITY By Laura Merisalo
Kelly Brush knows some of the most important learning in her doctoral physical therapy program takes place far beyond the classroom or late-night study sessions in the library. Brush, in her fifth year of the six-year program, is president of the Adaptive Abilities Club, which brings students together to help people with disabilities rock climb, water-ski, downhill ski, scuba dive, fish, cycle and play sports such as rugby, basketball and sled hockey. During the club’s first outdoor climb this year, people confined to wheelchairs scaled cliffs at Devil’s Lake State Park in Baraboo, Wis. On the weekend trip, Brush says Dr. Tina Stoeckmann, the club’s faculty adviser, told her, “I’m so happy you girls are out here for the weekend helping others and really learning about these people.” The origins of the club are organic. Stoeckmann, clinical associate professor of physical therapy, says some of her students learned of her volunteer work with adaptive abilities organizations a few years ago and wanted to get involved. She invited those who expressed interest to the events, and their interest ballooned into the club.
says, as it doesn’t sponsor events but supports outside organizations. Among them are Adaptive Adventures and Diveheart, a Chicago-based adaptive scuba organization that expanded its events to Milwaukee in 2016, at Marquette’s pools, because of the club. “This was their baby. They wrote the proposal. They got the pool. And they also provided deck help,” says Sarah Repka, an adaptive scuba instructor. “The (Adaptive) Abilities Club wrote the grant to pay for us to have three hours in the water. “It’s nice to be around dedicated, good people,” Repka says. Marquette’s physical therapy program is difficult to get into and to succeed in. It has as many as
“Everyone goes home happy, you’re re-energized when you’re done, and I think that’s what pulls people in.”
“Everyone goes home happy, you’re re-energized when you’re done, and I think that’s what pulls people in,” Stoeckmann says.
1,600 applicants annually for its 65 slots, and the average ACT score is 30.6, Stoeckmann says. Once enrolled in the program, she says, students are in class about 24 hours a week, and classes with labs often have written and oral exams, which can translate to as many as nine final exams a semester.
The Adaptive Abilities Club is open to all students, not just those in the physical therapy program. It differs from other student clubs, Stoeckmann
Brush and others, however, don’t see the club as extra work. They say it is fun, stressrelieving and invigorating.
upward mobility
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