Thomas Janicky is a candidate for director on the Student Assembly Board of Directors.
Physical therapy is a career built upon the idea that hard work, dedication, and willingness for success can provide excellent outcomes when it comes to maintaining optimal health and wellness. It would only make sense that we as students of physical therapy all live and breathe these qualities. It was made apparent to me from members of the current SABoD that, whether we like it or not, we all possess leadership qualities such as these, but it is up to each individual to act upon them. It was by enveloping myself in the professional physical therapy community that I have found my passion for advocating on behalf of my classmates, fellow students, and the physical therapy profession and for ensuring that our future patients receive the quality services that we all know they deserve. I am out to prove that we all have a voice and that we can create endless possibilities for the physical therapy profession when we take advantage of each opportunity to be a leader.
Running for the position of director on the Student Assembly Board of Directors is a decision I did not make lightly; it was a decision made from a genuine passion to be a voice for the students. I believe that throughout my short time as a DPT student, I have developed the desire and the need to ensure that we as students play a major role in the advancement of the physical therapy profession. After attending NSC, CSM, and especially the Federal Advocacy Forum this year and being surrounded by physical therapists who demonstrate such enthusiasm for what they do, it became hard to ignore the need to share this passion with my fellow students. It was this passion that sparked my interest in running for a position on the Student Assembly Board.
In my short career as a physical therapy student, I have made it a point to develop myself on both a professional level and on a personal level, and I owe a great deal of this growth to the student and professional community for showing me the way. As a candidate for Student Assembly director, I bring to the table qualities that I believe will best help to serve the student population and are qualities that I will further develop to carry on to professional involvement in APTA. My most highlighted quality, I believe, is my ability to take initiative. If elected to the position of director, I plan to uphold the high standards of the SABoD and promote increased student awareness and involvement within APTA and the Student Assembly. I plan to bring awareness to benefits of membership in APTA and the various sections through social media outlets and the Student Assembly newsletter. I plan to bring to light the importance of advocating on behalf of the profession and taking advantage of these learning experiences while we are still students, so that we are best prepared to take action in regards to physical therapy when we take that step into the professional world. Finally, I plan to bring the student and professional physical therapy communities even closer together for the purposes of generating ideas and promoting the positive growth and development of physical therapy and health care.