August 6, 2025 | Erin Bluvas, bluvase@sc.edu

Although Alejandra Medina-Reyes’ high school soccer career resulted in only one injury that required physical therapy, she remembers many of her teammates experiencing long-term injuries, such as concussions and ACL tears, that led to months of treatment.

“Many of them talked about how much time they spent with their physical therapists, how they helped them with not only sports-related activities but also daily tasks, and how they kept encouraging and motivating them while on a long journey back to sports,” she says. “Once I dived deeper into physical therapy, I learned about how many different settings physical therapists could work in and was excited about all the different areas I could explore.”

Passionate about the amount of direct patient care and lasting impact she could make as a physical therapist, Medina-Reyes began looking at graduate programs after completing her bachelor’s degree in psychology at Emory University. She chose the Arnold School’s Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) program (housed in the Department of Exercise science) due to its small class/cohort size and opportunities to interact with faculty and staff. She particularly liked the balance the program afforded to clinical experience and research.

Medina-Reyes found mentors in clinical faculty Elizabeth Regan and Alicia Flach – both investigators with the department’s Rehab Lab. Regan encouraged her and her group members to submit their research to the American Physical Therapy Association’s annual conference, and Flach’s love of advocacy was inspiring.

“Without Dr. Regan’s encouragement, I would never have experienced that conference as a student and missed out on so many great experiences and learning opportunities,” Medina-Reyes says. “Dr. Flach was another mentor who was always encouraging and always there to answer any physical therapy and career questions. Both of them are also highly involved in the Gamecock Challenge and helped me and other committee members organize a fundraising challenge to raise money for the APTA scholarship fund.”

With interests in geriatrics and vestibular rehabilitation (i.e., treatment for disorders that cause dizziness, vertigo and balance problems), the Outstanding DPT Student of the Year Award winner will begin a Geriatrics Physical Therapy Residency providing treatment in these areas after graduating in August. She’ll miss USC football games and working for Campus Rec but is looking forward to full-time clinical work.

“There are so many options out there, so finding what you enjoy the most will make your experience that much better,” Medina-Reyes says of choosing an area of public health or physical therapy to study. “If you are interested in physical therapy in particular, try to shadow with as many different settings as possible and be open- minded. You never know when you may fall in love with a different setting you never expected. Many of us know what orthopedic physical therapy looks like but try to see acute care, pediatrics, neuro, home health, etc. I went into my program having no idea vestibular physical therapy existed but fell in love with it during one of my clinicals, and now that’s what I want to keep doing with my career.”

---