Devan Brown

CIS 110-022
10/16/15
Social Network Interview

Kiersten Davis is a Peer Mentor in my residence hall. Some of the students in this
residence hall belong to a program called the Kinesiology and Health Promotion
Living Learning Program. It is a program where you live with fellow peers that share
the same major as yourself. In this program, you have meetings and learn more
about opportunities within your field of interest and it helps you get a head start in
your career by providing you with tools and necessary resources to help you
become as successful as you can in your future. I chose to interview Kiersten,
because she is a junior and has more experience with this major.
1. Why did you choose this career?
a. I have always had a passion in physical therapy and the most common
route for undergrad is to major in kinesiology. There are other routes I
could have chosen, but I believed khp would best prepare me for PT
school.
2. Who/What influenced your decision on your career choice? How?
a. Like most students in this field, I was injured participating in sports and
while going through the rehabilitation process I was able to talk to
several different physical therapists. The input I received from them
while volunteering at their clinics solidified my choice in doing some
type of physical therapy route.
3. What field do you want to go into within this career?
a. Specifically I am unsure of what I want to do or with what age group Id
like to work with. It changes every once in a while. For instance,
sometimes I think I want to be a personal physical therapist/ athletic
trainer for a professional sports team or certain college and other
times I want to open my own practice with a chiropractor and have a
wide range of patients.
4. Do you want to work with kids, young adults or the elderly? Why?
a. As stated above, I am still undecided on exactly what age group I want
to be involved with. If anything it would be kids/ young adults because
I would want them to be rehabilitated as soon as possible in order to
live the rest of their life as pain free as possible.
5. What short-term goals do you have set to achieve a job within this career?
a. Pass all of my classes with at least a B, graduate a year early, get into
a great physical therapy program where I can learn from the best and
incorporate what they teach me into my own life.
6. What long-term goals do you have set to achieve a job within this career?

a. Do well in and graduate from physical therapy school. Have a job set
up for me before I graduate so I am not stressing about money and
providing for my future family.
7. Do you think that internships and job shadows are necessary for a head start
in this career? Why or why not?
a. I think shadowing is absolutely critical. Not only is it great to help make
sure that is the career you want to do for the rest of your life, but also
there are so many different divisions you could go into that need to be
experienced. For example there is work with neurology, pediatrics, and
womens health. Shadowing also gets your name into the community if
you stay in one place for a while and build relationships with the
people you would work for and work with. You never know who will
come in to be a patient that you can shadow with or intern with and it
could open doors for you that you never thought possible.
8. Have you had any injuries in your lifetime? If so, what?
a. I was a gymnast for 6 years so I have had my fair share of
twisted/sprained/strained ankles, strained wrists, I have dislocated
both my shoulders, broken my foot on my 4th metatarsal, and broken
my back in two places.
9. Do you feel like college is preparing you well enough to pursue your career of
choice?
a. So far I believe college is preparing me well enough for grad school.
Once I get there, Im excited to see what path I will take in my life.
10.What advice would you give someone coming into college who is a
Kinesiology major, but doesnt know what field to go into?
a. VOLUNTEER everywhere and anywhere they can. If there is some
aspect the student doesnt like about one field, there are dozens and
dozens of others they can go to. Also, talk with people in different
fields to see if what they have to say interests you then go more in
depth and try to do studies/ shadow.