In Dr. Erin Wentzell's "Interprofessional Community Practicum," small teams of physical therapy doctoral students collaborate with senior wellness centers and adaptive sports programs to help create spaces for all community members to be active and healthy.
Dr. Wentzell connects students to her long-standing partners, including Community of Hope, Catalyst Adaptive Sports, Our Stomping Ground, and the Foggy Bottom West End Senior Village, and the National Parks Service. These organizations identify appropriate projects to engage students with the communities they serve.
For information about Community Engaged Scholarship at GW: https://go.gwu.edu/cesc
Semester Reports
Summer 2024
Professor: Erin Wentzell
Students Reporting: 46
Time Reported: 335 hours
Examples of Student Reported Projects:
MedStar NRH United Wheelchair Rugby Team: Students assisted with practice sessions, helping players with transfers, equipment setup, and participating in scrimmages. They also developed a shoulder health exercise program for the team.
GWPT DC Falls Recovery Classes: Students developed and presented fall prevention and recovery classes at senior centers across DC wards, creating informational materials and delivering interactive sessions.
National Student Leadership Conference: Students planned and executed educational sessions on physical therapy for high school students, including presentations and interactive activities.
Smithsonian Morning at the Museum: Students volunteered at accessibility-focused events at Smithsonian museums, including developing social narratives and assisting with sensory-friendly activities at the National Zoo.
Kids in Action Yoga: Students helped lead adaptive yoga sessions for children at Children's National Medical Center, developing activities and providing one-on-one assistance.
Biking Buddies Clinic: Students assisted with a program teaching children with disabilities how to ride bicycles, leading warm-ups and providing individualized support.
NRH Adaptive Fitness Program: Students helped participants with spinal cord injuries and stroke in adaptive fitness classes, assisting with exercises and equipment.
Our Stomping Ground: Students engaged with adults with disabilities through social events and developed adaptive fitness classes for the community.
Walk With a Future Doc: Students worked to establish a GW chapter of this program, partnering with the Foggy Bottom West End Village to organize community health walks.
Student Comments:
"The experience gave me invaluable insights into the neuro population, specifically spinal cord injuries, and the accommodations in their daily lives. I gained a deeper understanding of their injuries as well as their rehabilitation process, both good and bad times."
"I gained experience in communicating with the members of the OSG community with disabilities that I had no prior education or experience with. I listened to their stories and was struck by the ways some people outside the OSG community in the public had wrongly treated them for who they are and it meant a lot to me to see how happy they were that strangers outside the community came up and talked to them."
"It was really cool to see the team compete against another WC rugby team. We were able to perform a lot more 2-person dependent transfers, and learned more about each individual's WC set-up since they had different needs. It was overall a really fun experience!"
"I learned how to interact with high-school level students to teach them basic information about physical therapy. I learned how to keep a session engaging and interactive to be most effective for the students."
Summer 2023
Professor: Erin Wentzell
Students Reporting: 44
Time Reported: 519 hours
Students worked with Premier Pediatric Therapy Source's Biking Buddies Clinic, an OT clinic that works to help children with disabilities learn how to ride a bike. Students developed materials for families and future volunteers to support physical activity and adapting bike riding to met the needs of children with disabilities.
Students worked with Bridge to Care's student run pro-bono clinic, attending evening clinics to conduct needs assessments and look at opportunities for PT students to participate in the clinic. Students also developed PT educational materials and flyers to hand out to patients.
Students worked with Catalyst Sports Adaptive Climbing, an organization that offers adaptive climbs at Sport Rock in Alexandria VA, to attend and assist in climbs as well as create educational materials and videos for volunteers about assisting adaptive climbers.
Students worked with Community of Hope's Fam Club and The Bridge, which provides services to underserved and house insecure families in DC. Students volunteered to run community events for Community of Hope and developed resources for future volunteers on engaging with adults experiencing homelessness.
Students worked with Fit4Work Youth Health and Fitness, which aims to promote health and fitness for youth with disabilities to increase vocational opportunities. Students focused on creating movement opportunities to improve physical and mental health, creating one pagers that can be posted around a school with images and videos of activity.
Students worked with Foggy Bottom West End Village to develop a summer activity series for older adults that incorporates balance and strength training, bringing in topics like Tai Chi and other trends in exercise that impact aging.
Students worked with HSC Kids in Action, an adaptive sports and social activities program for children and young adults with disabilities and their families. Students assisted with the Healthy You program that focuses on health through physical activity, healthy eating and goal setting.
Students worked with Medstar NRH United Wheelchair Rugby Team to provide program and PT support to the United Wheelchair Rugby Team.
Students worked with The National Student Leadership Conference (NSLC) Medicine Intensive program that encourages students to explore their interests in the medical field. Students ran two sessions for the Medical Intensive students introducing them to the profession of physical therapy.
Students worked with Our Stomping Ground, an organization that aims to build inclusive communities and strengthen neighborhoods through diverse programming, sustainable, affordable housing and social spaces for people of all abilities. Students conducted a needs assessment to gauge how PT students and professionals can support the organization.
Students worked with Rock Creek Conservancy to assist with their Summer in the Parks by creating maps and resources that can be shared with medical providers as part of their Park RX programming (prescribing nature and physical activity outdoors in Rock Creek Park).
The Cathedral of St. Matthews the Apostle in Washington DC hosts a yearly Health and Wellness Fair in the fall that offers free screenings for the community. Students conducted a needs assessment with the organization and attended Monday Breakfasts to get to know some of the communities that are served.
Student Comments
"Working with this organization not only shed light on the importance of environment conservation efforts but also how powerful nature can be in facilitating personal growth and community bonding."
"Working with FBWEV was a fantastic experience. It was wonderful getting to know everyone, and I learned so much about community engagement and collaboration."
"It was amazing being able to help and learn more about the participants and their lives."
"This ICP experience had an immense impact on me as I learned how we can serve as service-oriented clinicians in our future careers as PTs. I learned how important it is to build relationships with community members and see in what ways we can help them if they have any needs."
"Understanding the immediate and long term effects that exercise has on kids that may have some mental or physical health challenges is so important. I plan on using the research we performed to continue to promote exercise as I do want to work with patients among this age group."
Summer 2022
Professor: Erin Wentzell
Students Reporting: 38
Time Reported: 354 hours
Students worked with Access Housing Inc., an organization advocating for and assisting housing insecure veterans to find employment and permanent housing, conducting foot screenings for veterans experiencing homelessness.
Students worked with Catalyst Sports, a chapter based, volunteer run, 501c3 non-profit organization that acts as an agent of change in the lives of people with physical disabilities and our communities. Students supported Catalyst Sport's summer adventure sports programs which include activities such as rock climbing and zip-lining among others.
Students worked with Little Workers of the Sacred Hearts, an apostolic organization working on health equity in DC, to work in their pro-bono clinic.
Students worked with Medstar NRH United Wheelchair Rugby Team to provide program and PT support to the United Wheelchair Rugby Team.
Students worked with the MOCO Movement Center, a fully inclusive pediatric therapy practice and athletic movement center. Students supported movement classes for children and provided therapy services to support their function.
Students worked with Premier Pediatric Therapy Source, an organization providing pediatric occupational therapy services to children and families, to conduct PT workshops and program support.
Student Comments
"It was really great to see my group members and I putting on our "PT brains" during this project and finding ways to adapt an activity so that everyone of all abilities are able to participate in it!"
"I learned a lot about how to serve the visually impaired community better and how great just getting outside with the community can be for people, myself included."
"Working with Catalyst was an extremely positive experience. We were able to use our skills as PT students to record transfer videos and learn about the most effective ways for communicating to others through video. I also gained even more insight on how to better support climbers physically."
"It was really amazing helping and getting to know all the athletes and really adding a new perspective to how some people that are in wheelchairs have found a way to be involved in a sport."
"I learned about the importance of play and celebration for all individuals, contributing to social, emotional, and mental health. I had a wonderful time each week volunteering with the kids."
Summer 2021
Professor: Erin Wentzell
Students Reporting: 28
Time Reported: 327 hours
Serving virtually this year, students researched relevant issues for their partners and created materials for distribution. For example, exercise videos tailored to children in the Northern Virginia Riding Program, infographics explaining exercises for older adults that can be done from home, and social media templates for the Capital Area National Park Service on the health benefits of spending time outdoors. One team identified a need for injury prevention for Special Olympics athletes and create instructional videos for warm-ups and stretching for their most popular sports.
Community Partners
| Community Organization | Students | Projects |
| Kids in Action | 8 | Created 2 videos, an infographic, and a membership booklet |
| Northern Virginia Mutiny Wheelchair Rugby | 8 | Prepared presentation/project for NVMR about the role of NVRM for participants |
| Northern Virginia Therapeutic Riding Program | 6 | Created series of exercise videos for kids and adults to use at the organization's facility and at home. |
| Park Rx | 6 | Researched various health benefits of spending time in nature and created a series of social media templates to circulate this information in attention-grabbing, ADA compliant, easy-to-understand terms. The templates can be used both here in the Capital Area Region as well as across several partner sites nationwide. |
| Fit4Work | 5 | Learn more about a population with disabilities and just how helpful power training can be for this group. Research and then create fun and interesting infographics for them. |
| Washington Senior Wellness Center | 4 | Developed exercises and infographics to accompany them which could be done at home for seniors during covid |
| Special Olympics | 3 | Identified need for injury prevention, warm-up, and stretching information. Made instructional videos for some of the most popular sports that Special Olympics offers. |
| NRH Medstar Adaptive Sports and Fitness | 3 | Developed exercises and infographics to go with them for patients that could be done without going to the gym since NRH gym was closed for clients due to covid. |
| MoCo Movement Center | 1 | Provided a bibliography of relevant normative data related to pediatric physical therapy. |
Student Comments
“Helped to create five home exercise infographics designed specifically for neurologic patient populations served by MedStar NRH. These are designed to provide patients safe, effective exercises at home while the adapted gym at MedStar is closed to prevent the spread of COVID-19.”
“Met with members of the NOVA Mutiny Wheelchair Rugby team. Discussed how mentorship played a role in their recovery. Discussed the role that wheelchair rugby plays in their life currently (and how that looks different during quarantine). Examined how PTs can help promote adapted sports to patients”
“I really enjoyed working with Fit4Work and getting to know more about a population with disabilities and just how helpful power training can be for them! I had a lot of fun diving into the research and then creating fun and interesting infographics to present our information.”
“My group made videos introducing general and sport-specific stretching/warm-up techniques for Special Olympics that could be easy to follow for all ages. We focused on making warm-up videos for the six most popular sports: soccer, baseball, basketball, track, swimming, and bowling. Each of the videos were ~5 minutes in length, and we did real-time stretches, offering modifications for the stretch and indicating where the athlete should be feeling the stretch. Since some athletes participating in Special Olympics have impaired balance, coordination, or may be in a wheelchair, we created a compilation of modifications for the exercises seen in the six videos specific to sports to allow for these athletes to participate in the warm-ups.”
Learn more about Community Engaged Scholarship courses at GW.
