December 16, 2025 | Erin Bluvas, bluvase@sc.edu

As a dual athlete (swimming and softball), Jill Smiley experienced her share of injuries while attending a small private school in the bustling city of Charleston. Her frequent trips to physical therapy clinics and orthopedic offices to repeatedly rehabilitate her shoulder helped her realize that a health-related career would allow her to stay connected to sports and help people in a familiar setting.

When USC recruited Smiley to join the Swimming and Diving team, the Palmetto Fellows scholar applied for acceptance into the B.S. in Exercise Science program – thinking she’d pursue a career in athletic training. Shortly after arriving, she shifted her goal to becoming a physical therapist and spent her freshman and sophomore years balancing her course load with 24 hours per week of conditioning, practicing and competing with her team.

When she retired from the sport in 2024 to focus on her career path, she landed a job at Carolina Physical Therapy as an aide. She will continue in this role until she begins her graduate studies back home at the Medical University of South Carolina in August.

“I’ve absolutely loved being a part of the SEC – both as a competing athlete and as a spectator – where the energy of any game is exactly what I expected college to be like,” Smiley says. “Columbia has so much charm, and there’s genuinely a lot to do. Plus, the campus is beautiful!”

During her undergraduate tenure, Smiley interned or shadowed at several physical therapy and other health care clinics – gaining insight into a variety settings and specialties. She also joined the Exercise Science Club and volunteered at local nonprofits focused on addressing food insecurity, such as FoodShare South Carolina, Transitions Homeless Shelter, Cuisine Rescue, and Holy City Missions.

Within her program, she valued the 300-hour practicum requirement, which allowed her to gain real-world experience at the Sigurd Center for Ortho and Neuro Rehab. The West Columbia-based Center asked Smiley to stay on as an as a physical therapist aide, so she’ll be working there as well for the next several months.

As Smiley takes her next steps toward her physical therapy career – likely with a focus on sports or neurology – she’s grateful for the foundation her exercise science program provided her. She calls the program tough and intense but 100% worth it.

“The material is fascinating, and your professors are passionate about their courses; they just want to share their knowledge with you,” Smiley says. “I always went to office hours after exams were graded to see what I got right/wrong, which I found helpful because I could think about the questions without the stress/mental fog of being mid-test and which tended to come in handy going into cumulative finals.”

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