Kasee Hildenbrand, AT program director, with 2010 graduates.

Hats (and mortarboards) off to our Athletic Training Education Program.  It’s been a truly stellar academic year,  as you can tell from these student highlights shared by program director Kasee Hildenbrand:

•    The Northwest Athletic Trainers Association District 10 gives out four undergraduate scholarships each year and, this spring, WSU students Yoko Jingi and Lee Martin were recipients.
•    Jamie Jolliffe was selected as the winner of the Bobby Gunn Scholarship to attend the National Athletic Trainers Association’s meeting in San Antonio.
•    A WSU student was selected to attend the Collegiate Sports Medicine Foundation Student Leadership workshop in Florida for each of the past two years (Omar Fercha and Josh Emery), with both going on to leadership positions–Omar as WSU Athletic Training Club president and Josh as District 10 student vice president.
•    Also at the district meeting, two groups presented case studies during the Undergraduate Student Forum.  One group, which did a case study on Acute Compartment Syndrome, won the presentation portion of the program and was able to present the topic to the certified members the next day. Group members were Omar Fercha, Emily Clarke, Josh Williams, Shelby Witschen, and Daisuke Yamada.
•    Daisuke Yamada was selected for the Professional Baseball Athletic Trainers Society program and will intern with the Seattle Mariners for this summer.
•    Ten of the 13 graduating seniors graduated with Honor cords (above 3.5 gpa)
•    Nationally, only 43.3 percent of those who take the exam to become certified athletic trainers pass on the first try.   Ten WSU students took the exam in April with a first-time passing rate of 90 percent.
•    Student Lee Martin was awarded an National Athletic Trainers Foundation Scholarship and will be recognized at the national meeting in Philadelphia this June.

On top of all that, the Athletic Training Club was very active. Members raised awareness and money to fight cancer by sponsoring a Relay for Life team; provided volunteer medical assistance for sports and recreation events; and, with their annual Halloween food drive, scared up  more than a ton of donations for the Pullman food bank.