Pre-PT Club Ideas

[skiflutept]

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I'm president of the undergrad e-board of the physical therapy student association at my school and I need some ideas for things that we could do/discuss at our meetings. The previous e-boards didn't do very much (our bimonthly meetings were literally 5 minutes long) so I don't really have much to go on besides my/the eboard's ideas. This year, our meetings have been longer, and each meeting has a specific purpose, but I'm starting to run out of ideas. So far we've had a couple guest speakers (the president of the Connecticut PTA gave a guest lecture about APTA involvement, a paraplegic and his guide from Achilles International, and I'm working on someone coming to talk about volunteering with an adaptive ski program for kids), I started a mentor program, and we had a meeting where we talked about National PT month. I tried to put together a toy drive for the local children's hospital for the holidays, but I was having trouble getting in touch with the right person at the hospital. What else could we do at meetings? Having admissions reps from PT programs coming to talk about PT school admissions isn't really relevant because my program is a BS/DPT program, and even though every year some kids do apply to other DPT programs, its only a select few. Also, mostly undergrads attend the meetings so I'm trying to gear the meetings towards them.

Another question: what do your pre-PT clubs do for fundraisers? My group has done bakesales and fundraisers at restaurants like Sweet Frog and Chipotle in the past, but we're looking to change it up a bit and hopefully find a way to make a but more money than we have been.

 

[laurog1]

My school had a Red Cross club, so once a semester our pre-PT club would sponsor a blood drive for them. We also did trips to ACSM conferences as some of our bigger events

 

[psugirl11]

I've been struggling to think of meeting topics as well but here is the ideal schedule for my club:

September: first meeting - order shirts, pay dues, go over officers, club objectives, see what they want from the club.
October: Grad school fair - bring in at least one school rep to talk about their school (usually we have philly schools do that).
November: Pizza social - students can hang out, eat pizza, and pick up the t-shirt they ordered from the first meeting.
January: Internship/observation hour guidance - PT/club advisor will come in and give a presentation on what internship and observation sites are in the area and looking for students.
February: Senior panel - seniors will sit as a panel and tell the members about their interviews (what they were asked, laid back or grilling, what to wear, etc.)
March: GRE/resume/personal statement workshop - presented by someone from the Career Center from the university.
April: PTCAS instruction - someone that has already applied to grad school will go over PTCAS and give helpful tips and advice.

Hope this helps!!

 

[starrsgirl]

What about adding a big service project to the mix? Some ideas: Special Olympics coaching or similar all inclusive sports (softball, cheerleading, gymnastics). Get involved with a wellness group....maybe for Parkinsons, cancer survivors, muscular dystrophy and such. A lot of communities have exercise/wellness groups like that that meet...they could possibly use volunteers to facilitate classes or provide hands on stretching, or even just put on a breakfast or something. Can you get involved in local schools after school programs? Veteran's center?

You could also ask local PTs to come talk about 1 area of expertise. Maybe someone could give a 30 min presentation on hand therapy, or peds, or women's health. Very short talk, great exposure for you, helps students make connections for shadowing and is good business for the PT (consider tapping into your DPT program's alumni network for that one).

 

[turtlot]

One of the things you could do is see how many of your members would be interested in getting CPR/AED certified. If you have a larger number, you can possibly have a class for the students and officers. My organization also held a lot of community service activities such as going to local food banks. You can also ask a representative from the ALS Association to come talk to students about how physical therapy affects patients. I hope this helps!