Dr. Laura Wenger, PT, DPT, OCS, FAAOMPT
It’s no surprise that we love learning based on the advanced certifications that many of our clinicians have undertaken, are currently involved in, or plan to be involved in! Along the way, we have realized that part of being a good learner is also being a good educator, and we love having opportunities to educate students across multiple levels. At least three times a year, we act as clinical instructors for students undergoing Doctor of Physical Therapy training in universities from across the country. You may also notice that we have student interns from Fort Lewis College or other undergraduate programs participating in “shadow” internships where they get to learn more about the field and decide if they want to move into the physical therapy profession in the future. We also enjoy opportunities to share the love for our profession with even younger students in high school and middle school as they are starting to think about college and what types of educational tracks they want to go into. We even get opportunities to mentor each other in the clinic, with both myself and Dr. Ellen Tomsic, PT, OCS, FAAOMPT currently serving as mentors to our colleagues on weekly basis.
As the unofficial clinic director of all things educational, I recently had a great opportunity to share my love for the profession with 9th Grade Students at Animas High School through Durango’s Business Education Connection program. I always get invigorated about my profession and how lucky I am that I get to work with our community of patients every day when I participate in events such as this, especially when students ask great questions such as “What do you love most about your job?” and the path that I took to get to where I am today (which, admittedly, was a long and winding one). We look forward to more visits and opportunities with students at all levels in our clinic and community!
