So much has happened since that day in April when we graduated from Beloit. I taught children with learning and emotional problems for a number of years. I realized that that wasn’t my passion and that I could find my passion. I took my skills as a teacher, went back to school for physical therapy and found the profession meant for me.

I took my new position as a physical therapist first in a rehabilitation hospital working with people with spinal cord and/or brain injuries. I loved what I did and learned something new every day. Unfortunately when some physical problems I realized that I wasn’t physically safe doing some of the things needed for working with these problems. I true Beloit fashion I knew that another area of physical therapy would make itself known.

A couple of months after making the decision that I needed to look for something new in PT to focus on it presented itself. I began taking courses in pelvic floor dysfunction and almost immediately was offered a position at a different health system within Philadelphia. I jumped at the opportunity. A month after I started the new position they asked if I would also like to join their cancer rehabilitation team. So, specializing in treating people with pelvic floor dysfunctions and people with cancer opened the world to me. I began to meet people from around the world, to teach in the UK and to present t professional meetings in the US and the UK.

Since retiring in 2013 and being diagnosed with 2 primary blood cancers, I have used my time educating others with my types of cancer, becoming an advocate for people with cancer and a political liaison for an international cancer organization.

Beloit helped me to learn to not settle, but to know and seek what was best for me in life. I often jumped into the unknown and landed where I was happy and fulfilled.