Student Speak

Spring 2008

Name: Erin Rivers
Year: First-year doctoral student
Major: Exercise science
Hometown: Cheraw, S.C.

You're one of the first-place winners from this year's Graduate Student Day in early April, so congratulations! What was the theme of your presentation? I presented on the research we're conducting with chronic stroke clients in which we are trying to determine the effect of an intensive mobility intervention. We want to see if providing intense physical therapy for several consecutive days will improve their balance, their mobility, and their gait. In the past, the practice has been to give rehabilitation over a long period of time but not to expect any additional recovery after six to nine months. Now, we find that recovery of physical ability can happen years after [a stroke].

How did you become interested in this kind of research? Working with people with chronic neurological conditions--victims of stroke or people who have a spinal cord injury--requires you to be creative. You have to be patient, too. The rewarding part of it is that even small improvements in physical condition can make a big difference in their lives.

Is this similar to what you will focus on with your Ph.D.? I think I want to look at the population with incomplete spinal cord injuries to see what physiological changes they undergo as a result of intensive exercise. These are people who have some sensory and motor function below the site of their injury. At this point, I don't know what changes, if any, someone would experience from the intensive therapy.

What was it like to present at Graduate Student Day? Were you nervous? There was a pretty good crowd who attended, and this was good practice for presenting. I presented at the National Physical Therapy Association in Nashville back in February so it was pretty similar to that.

How long will it take you to complete your Ph.D.? That's a good question. I just finished my doctor of physical therapy degree here, so I'm on a fast track with the Ph.D.--about three years, I think. After that I want to work in a clinical setting for a while and then go into academia where I mainly want to teach and do some research. I'm working some weekends now at HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital here in Columbia.

4/08