Jeff Lou is a senior from China majoring in Human Health. He
works as a Certified Personal Trainer and is currently applying to Doctor of
Physical Therapy Programs.
We had a chance to sit down with Jeff
and ask him a few questions and talk about his pre-health journey.
What solidified physical therapy for you?
Well, there used to not be a formal role of a physical
therapist in Chinese healthcare. If a clinician performs surgery, then he is somewhat
responsible for the patient’s recovery as well. There is nothing like a
systematic physical therapy afterwards. But there has been some progress now. When
I was in high school, I had injuries on both elbows. I wasn’t able to study
continuously, and under a lot of pressure academically. So, I tried a combination
of medication and Chinese Traditional Medicine, like acupuncture, and things
started to turn up, which is what interested me in the first place.
When I came to the States as an undergrad, I learned about
physical therapy for the first time. It surprised me how non-surgical treatments
like movement can treat symptoms and illnesses. You don’t necessarily have to
perform surgery on a patient, and that just amazed me. It solidified my desire
to become a physical therapist instead of going into other fields.
Do you have any advice for Emory students interested in
physical therapy?
If you are interested in physical therapy, take the time to
learn more about the profession. I feel that not many undergraduates know well
about it. The Pre-Doctor of Physical Therapy Society that I am involved in is
helping to promote this allied health profession and helping interested
students learn more. Physical therapy is unique because you can work with many
different populations. You can work with active military, veterans, CVD
patients or athletes, just to name a few. So, I would advise students to spend
some time discovering the different settings you can work in as a physical
therapist.
What has been the biggest challenge for you during your
pre-physical therapy journey?
Academically, I would say the science courses can be really difficult.
You just get so much workload from lab. At some point, you might have to take
more than one science in the same semester which can be hard to balance. That
can be a lot of work and memorization, so figure out how you can best approach
those classes.
For extracurriculars, I would say that it’s hard to make
connections with physical therapists. I am fortunate that I met a physical
therapist who became a mentor of mine. She helped lead the way for me and
introduced me to different settings. However, there are people who struggle to
have those connections. And it’s hard to email every clinic or hospital to find
shadowing opportunities. I would
recommend keep on reaching out and finding a mentor to help guide you through
the process.
What is the best advice you can give to someone pursuing the same
track as you?
I would say start early and commit to it. It’s really
important to start making connections early. Really know what you’re going for
and be confident about it. Also, finish the prerequisites early. I wish I
finished my prerequisites early, so that I would have time to prepare my
application and my essays and not worry if I was going to finish biology or
observing hours or something like that.