Blake Stephens
Mayo School of Health Sciences
Legos, still my favorite toy, symbolizes my enjoyment of building, fixing, and reorganizing whatever I imagine. Physical therapy, politics, and legislation are analogous to Legos for me. They are built, reorganized, and fixed to create something worthwhile. My intention to run for the SPT delegate comes amid my fascination and passion for cultivating new ideas and evolving what has already been established. Whether it is policy, program development, social marketing, or financial affairs, I enjoy the challenge of constructing ideas into reality. This passion is what fuels my desire to run for office.
I am well-accustomed to leadership and its responsibilities. I held lead positions on my boxing and hockey teams, was the director for a college peer-mentor program, and currently serve as vice president of my physical therapy class. In all of these positions, I challenged myself to analyze the organization’s methods, policies, and goals, seeking ways to make them better. These improvements go beyond making sense of what is wrong, it involves establishing a premise and reason for change in order to meet the needs, goals, and visions of the organization and the population it represents. Whether pitching a proposal to buy newer, safer equipment to the owner of my junior hockey team, or launching a campaign to improve alumni retention to my PT program director, I always used the goals and visions of those I represented as my map to improvement.
Policy is what drives law, decision, and ultimately societal perception. Goals create a direction in which we can focus. Stewardship is what allows for the existence of both. Leadership is required in every Student Assembly position. To hold that position, we need a person who is meticulous, ethical, but also innovative and flexible. I am that person. My mantra, “Be Progressive, Be Innovative,” stems from my ideology of how we evolve personally and professionally. I envision myself serving you as a leader who takes the Student Assembly broader in perspective and scope.
If elected I will:
Cultivate greater legislative support for the Physical Therapist Student Repayment Act, providing debt relief options for graduates.
Develop and implement methods of communication that reduce the intimidation and lack of clarity of politics so our constituency will be better informed and therefore more likely to be involved.
Design and deploy, in concert with first-year PT/PTA students and those new to the field, a “rookie” resource guide specifically targeted toward easing the transition from student to professional.
It will be these goals and those voiced by you, the students, that guide my time and energy, and ultimately form the new map to improvement. As your delegate, I believe that my propensity to question, improve, and develop policies will not only benefit the Student Assembly’s place within APTA, but also will help initiate similar desires among my peers and colleagues. I hope to create a place of opportunity to encompass a myriad of ideas that unite our profession, strengthen our industry infrastructure, and pave the way for future great minds.