Second-Year PT Students Pin Class of 2012

By Purnell T. Cropper | May 11, 2010

The second-year Physical Therapy students welcomed the new class and “pinned” the 55 first-year students in the Class of 2012 on Friday, May 7, at a ceremony in the Spruance Fine Arts Center MainStage Theater. The new students also took the Oath of the Physical Therapist.”

Dr. Aaron Thrush ’09 D.P.T. addressed the students about the importance of the American Physical Therapy Association core values: accountability, altruism, compassion and caring, excellence, integrity, professional duty, and societal responsibility. He talked about “ways to learn them, and ways to practice them,” noting that physical therapists “find ourselves in positions where we have ethical decisions to make,” and the core values are “a foundation to guide us.”

Membership in APTA “has been an important resource for me in my first year as a clinician,” said Thrush. “I stumbled upon the cross-cultural and international specialist interest group, and now I’m a part of this community.” He noted that the group is now formulating recommendations for responses from the profession to the post-earthquake needs in Haiti.

Dr. Rebecca Craik, Professor and Chair of Physical Therapy, challenged the Class of 2012 to come up with their own legacy to make the department better, noting that the Class of 2011 will present their legacy in February at the research day.