Two years ago, a physical therapy program at Franklin Pierce University in Goodyear was merely a dream.
That dream became reality last week when 20 students attended their first doctorate of physical therapy class.
The university is planning to build a 20-acre campus near Estrella Parkway and Yuma Road. Until then, students of the private New Hampshire-based school attend classes at a temporary location at 140 N. Litchfield Road in Goodyear, said Andrea Brode, director of the Goodyear site.
"It's really exciting to have seen the first batch of students arrive a week ago," said Kristinn Heinrichs, associate program director. "We started with the plans on paper and the shell of a building and now we see our raison d'etre every day as we have the honor of educating these future physical therapists. In five years, we'll be able to look back at where we started and see the contributions of the university and its graduates to the community."
The doctorate program is two years of academic work followed by one year of clinical experiences, said Ann Greiner, program director for the New Hampshire-based location.
"Physical therapy was identified as one of the programs Franklin Pierce offers that would benefit the area," she said. "There is a need for health care providers in the West Valley."
Broad areas of study
Partnerships are being formed with the Cancer Treatment Centers of America-Western Region and the Goodyear Ballpark so students get hands-on experience with working professionals.
Heinrichs has 30 years of sports medicine experience and has provided care to athletes during three Olympic Games. Her experiences in international sports medicine will offer students more opportunities and different perspectives, she said.
"I think those kinds of things will bring added dimension to the program," she said. "We're allowing the students to really be exposed to a lot of different potentials and allow them to be creative in how they approach patients."
Students will also have an opportunity to assist Arizona State University's bioengineering program in taking sustainable rehabilitation devices to the people of the Republic of Malawi in southeastern Africa, Heinrichs said.
The partnership between ASU and the University of Malawi is in its third year. It functions via "distance linkages" with engineering students in the foreign country while providing local students with multidisciplinary work experience.
Other areas of study for students include performance analysis in sports using three-dimensional motion analyses with golfers and baseball batters to improve performance and research on ligament injuries of female adolescents, she said.
Students are accepted into the doctorate of physical therapy program each June. For information, visit www.franklinpierce.edu.
Sara Drew can be reached by e-mail
at sdrew@westvalleyview.com.
