Alumni Spotlight: Kelli Barton Schneider, PT, DPT, OCS

UC enabled me to follow my passions and gain experience working with a niche population that isn't typically covered in a PT school curriculum - performing arts. Early on in my PT school career, I gained exposure to this population through a teaching assistant role in the Musculoskeletal Anatomy for Dancers course as well as providing care to the ballet majors at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. For my final clinical rotation, I was placed with a dance-specific physical therapist at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center which was a dream come true and really catapulted me into working with performing artists immediately after graduation. I truly felt supported by UC in forging my own path from the very beginning.

Building meaningful relationships and being a part of my patient's long-term journey is the most rewarding part of my job. I love pushing them to achieve their full potential, providing hope when things are tough, and celebrating the small victories along the way. It’s amazing to me that as physical therapists, we have the power to dramatically change a patient’s mindset and perspective, not by what we provide to them but how we provide it to them. And that our work doesn’t just stop at the patient. By giving a patient the gift of function, we allow them to better participate in the world around them and to be more connected with the people around them. We truly have the power to make the world a better place.

If you’re considering starting your own physical therapy practice, don’t wait until you “have it all figured out” before taking the leap. For your first job after PT school, seek out a clinic that has similar values and has people who are willing to help you learn. Next, search for “your people” – the patients that give you energy and the patients that your skillset can help the most. Finally, align your prospective practice to serve “your people” and make the patient experience the focus of every decision you make along the way. To me – this is the magic recipe.