Learning Outside of the Classroom

Ciara Pickles, a senior Kinesiological Sciences major, was enrolled in KNES 386, Experiential Learning Through Community Kinections, under Dr. Marvin Scott last spring.

The Community Kinections program is a community service program in the Kinesiology department comprised of academic, student organization and community partnership components.

As a part of her work in the class, Pickles volunteered at Riderwood Retirement Living in Silver Spring, and, unlike most of her classmates, she continued to volunteer after the course ended.

When Pickles started at Riderwood she shadowed physical therapists on staff, but she eventually began conducting sessions on her own with a specific resident.

She now visits Riderwood two times a week for about an hour to conduct the therapy sessions she began in the spring.

The resident she meets with suffers from Parkinson’s disease and has a lot of difficulty standing or walking. Because of that, most of the therapy is conducted from a seated position, she said.

As for the workouts, Pickles tries to tailor them to how the resident is feeling that day, she said.

“Overall, we just focus on the things that he doesn’t normally use,” she said.

That usually includes a warm-up followed by exercises for the hamstrings, quads and hip flexor muscles, she said.

Pickles said she values the experience she has gotten working with a population in the local community that she wouldn’t normally have access to.

“Seeing the effects of diseases like Parkinson’s definitely gives you a different perspective,” she said.

Those experiences have encouraged her to explore different areas of physical therapy, like working with children, which she didn’t think she had interest in before, she said.

“It’s not just helping other people, it’s helping yourself,” she said. “So it’s mutually beneficial.”

Besides the work experience, Pickles said she has also benefitted from the relationship she formed with the resident and his family.

“They’re just really grateful, and they try to communicate that to me,” she said.

The family has taken an interest in Pickles’ life as well, and they ask to be updated on how her classes are going and what she has been up to, she said.

“It helps because you get a better understanding of what they’re feeling physically because they’re more open to sharing what’s going on with you,” she said.

Pickles said she plans to continue volunteering at Riderwood for as long as she can, and hopes to build on what she’s learned about physical therapy in a graduate program after graduation.

“It’s something that I really like, so I’d just like to keep doing it,” she said.