Jeffrey Chan is a candidate for SPT delegate on the Student Assembly Board of Directors.
"I think you could do well with the California Chapter," were the words I distinctly remember my mentor saying. My student involvement first began with the Pre-Physical therapy Club at San Jose State University (SJSU). I joined because I wanted to become a better candidate for physical therapy school. But I became more involved and took on larger roles and duties because I enjoyed it. By graduation, I had directed and produced advocacy videos, led student advocacy campaigns, conducted club and organization meetings, peer-advised pre-PT students, and volunteered for various organizations throughout the Bay area. It was these positive experiences, and the words of my mentor that motivated me to be involved. However, it was my experience at California’s Legislative Day last spring that motivated me to become your next student delegate.
Advocating for physical therapy at California’s Legislative Day helped me understand that we as individuals must be the vehicles of change. I visited office after office at the state capital campaigning with physical therapists for issues important to us in California, and I loved it. I was subsequently given the opportunity to go to Washington, DC, 2 weeks later to participate in APTA’s Federal Advocacy Forum, further solidifying my interest and desire to be involved in advocacy.
On top of my interests in policy, I continue to keep California PT students informed, through my role as a core ambassador and as my program’s APTA liaison. Furthermore, I continue to stay active with my undergrad’s Pre-PT club, offering peer-advising and occasionally writing newsletters.
My unique life experiences have shaped who I am today and the strengths that I possess. I hope to use these strengths to contribute to the many goals of the Student Assembly. I am open-minded, deliberative, and a problem solver. I believe these strengths will allow me to do well as your next student delegate, in understanding the entirety of issues, and acting with logical and rational decisions to further our profession and support our future patients. I possess a unique sense in understanding the big picture, but also have the empathy to understand individuals concerns.
As your next student delegate, I hope to increase student engagement and awareness of policy issues affecting our profession and collaboration between other student health professions. More specifically, I am interested in further empowering core ambassadors and state leaders in engaging individual students and pre-physical therapy students, either through action or awareness (at the very least). Last, I hope to increase advocacy efforts among students of other health professions to advocate for policy issues affecting our entire health care system. I believe that we as a collective body sometimes become so vested in fighting for our own issues, we forget that we can achieve greater good with interprofessional collaboration. We are all physical therapy students, but we are also ambassadors for health and wellness.
Thank you for your consideration and I ask for your vote.