THE MAGELLAN PROJECT

 About The Magellan:       
          The Magellan project is a project offered only at Washington and Jefferson College, allowing students to extend their learning outside of the walls of the college.  This project allows for students to self design their own project to study whatever they want wherever they want to study it, awarding students anywhere between $1,000-3,000 to complete their study. While most schools offer many study abroad programs with groups of students, this W&J exclusive project teaches students independence by forcing students to strategically plan and execute their very own project individually, including learning to budget everything themselves.  This project allows for students to study abroad or within the states, whichever the student prefers. With a little help from my peers and my professors, I was able to design my very own project. For my Magellan project, I chose to complete a study within the states.  My project was designed to study muscle fatigue on the Pacific Crest Trail in Southern California and then Shadow a Physical Therapist in the Los Angeles area. Feel free to read all about my study and whirlwind of adventures in my blog below!
-Enjoy
Grimmzlybear

Life After Magellan

Life after Magellan

                Many people ask me “Why?” Why would you hike 100 miles for fun? Why did you choose Southern California to do your Magellan? Why is your major Neuroscience if you’re interested in Physical Therapy? To these questions, I explain to them that I’m just trying to figure out what I would like to do with my future self by combining all of my interests.  We’re all trying to figure out what we want to do for the rest our lives. Isn’t this the question everyone searches to answer? The Magellan project provides us with a way to combine all of our interests and study something that is appealing to ourselves and I took advantage of just that.

For the first part of my Magellan project, I had the chance to hike a piece of the Pacific Crest Trail and talk with individuals about their muscle fatigue and study my own in the process of doing so.   After doing this, I would definitely like to do some sort of research with muscle fatigue in a lab possibly further down the line as well considering eccentric muscle contraction is a big area of research right now.  I can also see myself doing a larger hike perhaps on the Appalachian Trail after I graduate because I really did enjoy the challenge of hike and surviving in nature.  Although my project did not go exactly as planned, I am glad it went the way it did.  This project showed me how to truly roll with the punches thrown at me.  At the end of the day, not everything does go as planned. The forest fire closure and the extremely cold nights thrown at me on the trail, were unexpected, but I adapted. Overall, I ended up hiking around 50 miles on the trail and had the opportunity to talk to about 10-15 people about muscle fatigue and soreness. I found the results to be not really what I expected.  I found it was split up the middle on the soreness aspect, meaning that about half of the people found themselves to be sorer after walking uphill compared to downhill.  I expected it to be just the opposite with more people feeling sorer after a day of walking downhill, but you also have to weigh in the factor that some people don’t understand the difference between soreness and fatigue. Uphill would cause more fatigue and shortness of breath, but downhill should cause more soreness. The PT I shadowed, Dr. Guthrie, also found my results a bit curious, but agreed with the fact that some people don’t understand the difference between soreness and fatigue.  I told her that I had, in fact, felt much sorer after a day of walking downhill and she confirmed that this is normal.  When walking downhill with nearly 45 pounds on your back, your muscles are actively lengthening while you walk down the hill, whereas when walking uphill, your muscles are using more concentric contractions. Concentric contractions meaning that your muscles contract and then release, rather than actively lengthening. For example, doing a bicep curl.  When walking uphill, both types of contractions are occurring in the body, but more concentric than eccentric.

For the second part of my project, I had the chance to shadow Dr. Julie Guthrie, and after doing so, I feel this is truly the setting I can see myself taking on as a future PT.  The atmosphere in the setting was amazing, with every patient urging to better themselves.  I enjoyed how you could watch each patient progressively reaching to get to each of their own personal goals.  I enjoyed seeing such a diverse area, but could not see myself settling down in an area like that of Los Angeles. However, the project did open my eyes to other areas of the PT world.  I learned of the traveling physical therapist position, which allows you to sign a contract of about 13 weeks at each practice and then travel to another, which I could possibly see myself doing once I finish PT school.  I also had the chance to visit the University of Southern California, which is the number one school in the country for their DPT program.  After completion of this Magellan project, I see myself continuing to take the prerequisites for Physical Therapy school at Washington and Jefferson and preparing to take the GRE next summer.

When first explaining the Magellan to my family and peers, I was timid and my voice showed it. After completing my project, not only am I much more independent, but also a more confident individual.  After navigating not only through the wilderness, but also through one of the most diverse cities in the world, I feel I can handle almost any obstacle thrown my way.  I have learned how to make difficult decisions under immense pressure and learned how to handle stress when things do not go the way they are planned.  I feel I have become a much more diverse individual as well. After staying with a friend from Indonesia, I got a huge taste of culture shock, even though I were still in the United States. The neighborhood she lived in, Anaheim, was one of the most diverse places I have ever been. I didn’t even recognize half of the restaurants along the street and I surely felt like a fish out of water. After this experience, I think that I can relate better to those who come here from another country. Although I didn’t experience exactly that, I now know what they feel when everything around them is a literal whirlwind.  From language to food, I now realize how difficult it can be just to do something as simple as read a menu and order something.  Personally, this project has made me open my eyes to all the possibilities and different ideas in the world around me.  As an individual, I have learned to push myself above and beyond my expectations I once had for myself and have realized that something awesome is right on the other side of fear.

LAST DAY

Monday May 23th 2016

           Well, I never thought this trip would come, let alone already be over. On my last day here in SoCal, I decided to take a bus to Venice beach, only about 5 miles from my homestay.  Not too bad of a bus ride until a very smelly homeless man joined us. The stinky bus ride was well worth it though because the beach was gorgeous, one of my favorites I've seen here so far.  When you first walk up to it, you see a group of very tall palm trees stand before the beach. To the right and left of the palm trees are bathrooms and changing areas to utilize before going out on the beach. These were the first restrooms I saw that were not gender specific! Back off the beach, there was a rather long boardwalk with a plentitude of shops, with very neat souvenirs. I thought to myself how I wish I would have came here earlier :(.  Oh well.. I thought about renting a surfboard or skim board here because I have done both on the east coast, but figured I'd spare myself the embarrassment due to the massive waves and icy waters. Anyways, there was a man playing the piano extremely well along the board walk and many folks tipped him as they passed.  I had the chance to grab lunch with a perfect view of the boardwalk and got to take in some of the sights.  While eating my chicken wrap, I noticed just how different this setting was from any other I've ever been in before.  Almost all of the young men my age wore converse and vans and I quite frankly loved it. Those are 2 of my favorite types of shoes! Not many people at all wore sperry's like that of the east coast.   It is MUCH less common to see men wearing converse on the east coast. I loved the feeling I had from being out here, I don't know if its because of my style, or my way of thinking, but I definitely fit in with the stereotype out here (if we're stereotyping).

        After enjoying the beach for the day, because it was actually sunny, I ventured back on the bus to catch some flame broiler one last time before heading back to good ole PA.  Flame broiler is an amazing fast food restaurant out here that serves bowls of rice with either chicken or steak with vegetables.  This is my 3rd time having it because it is an actually reasonable price and it is delicious!
Tomorrow my flight leaves at 12pm and it will be a very long day of traveling due to my layover in PHX. I expect to arrive in PIT around midnight.
         To say the least, this trip has been amazing.  Not everything has been easy, but I figured it out. I'm so thankful that I had the opportunity to experience SoCal and share all my adventures with all of you.
-Stay tuned for my "Life After Magellan" post
Grimmzlybear

Trip to USC

Today, I took a bus to USC, figured I’d check out the campus and I’m glad I did. It was one of the prettiest college campuses I’ve ever been on to say the least.  All of the buildings were architecture so well.  There were pools and fountains around every corner. I checked out a lot of their sports facilities, (go figure). One thing I found really strange was the outdoor swimming pool, but then I remembered that I’m in California and that is normal.  Back in PA none of our pools for swimming are outdoors because it always snows, it never dawned on me that it is basically nice out all year round there, at least nice enough for them to swim outdoors in the winter at least! Anyway, I thought that was pretty cool.  After checking out the campus, I decided to play it safe with lunch at chipotle.  It was the first time I had it all trip and boy was I excited.  Surprisingly, there aren’t a lot of chipotles out here. And if there are, I haven’t seen them.  Right next to chipotle was my favorite ice cream place on the whole planet! Coldstone! You bet I had both! I was so full I thought I was going to explode. I was finally starting to get a hold of the bus system and it’s almost time to go now, funny how things work out. It was about a 40 minute bus ride to USC, but it was well worth it.  I’m so glad I had the chance to visit.
-Winding down
Grimmzlybear

Another Day at the Office

Well, today was the last day of my shadowing and much was the same all week; new professional athletes in and out receiving treatment. Much of the same patients from day 1 were there with Dr. Guthrie throughout the week. I’ve learned so much in such a short period of time, it makes me sad that I don’t get to stay any longer. This shadowing experience has helped broaden my knowledge of all the different ways Physical Therapy can branch.  From neuro to orthopedics, I’m excited to experience it all in my clinicals one day.  Today I learned that Dr. Guthrie had the chance to evaluate the US women’s soccer team (unfortunately not while I was there)! She also told me she doesn’t prefer to work with professional athletes anymore because of the way they treat their bodies. “All the coaches just want you to do what you can to put them back out on the field, rather than take care of their body for years to come,” and because of this she says she’d prefer not to work with them.

                On a different note, one of the other therapists began to teach me about the 3 planes of motion, which was pretty cool.  We went over a bunch of different stretches as well & she even gave me a packet full of PT terms to learn and take with me. Overall, my time at Synergie PT has been well taken advantage of.

Pleasant Surprise

Tuesday June 7^th 2016

                Today was my first day of shadowing with Dr. Julie Guthrie at Synergie PT & IT WAS A BLAST. 

Trying to find the place was a bit confusing, but eventually I found it tucked between bed bath & beyond & city bank.

There are three different practices within the shared space, which was really cool because I got to meet all the other therapists and spend some time with them, including a neuro PT practice. What was even cooler was professional athletes were rehabbing right in front of my eyes! I got to meet Anthony Davis from the New Orleans Pelicans basketball team and two of his teammates as well.  Michigan State’s star basketball player Denzel Valentine was also there, who is predicted to be a number 1 NBA draft pick this year (AWESOME). Two pro tennis players and 3 pro hockey players were there too.  I definitely was not expecting to get such an experience, but it was amazing! The equipment that they have is state of the art stuff. 

They even have a gait analysis machine with a computer program that analyzes what is causing pain when you walk.  What’s even better is that I got to work with the program!

I was able to take screenshots of the EMG’s and paste them into an excel spreadsheet. They hooked up electrodes to the gluteus maximus and medius and recorded EMG’s to see which of the muscles were firing and when they were. Another girl my age was there, who I later found out it was her first day as well, but she was working there for the whole summer (I’m jealous).  Dr. Guthrie had 2 patients with pelvic floor dysfunction and 2 knee injuries.  It was cool to learn about pelvic floor dysfunction because I haven’t heard much of it before.  Overall, it was a fantastic day & I can’t wait for tomorrow!

-Things are looking up.

Grimmzlybear

Urban Idiot

Monday June 6^th 2015

                Yesterday evening I moved in with the host family Deb & Paul, who are extremely caring and helpful people.  Their son and daughter in law just had their first child a day before we moved in, so they were both excited & exhausted when I arrived. Deb had a list of all things within walking distance for us, as well as information of bus routes. The beach is about 2.5 miles from us, which I decided to run last night- not bad at all after walking 10-15 miles a day with a 45 lb pack on my back. 

Playa Del Rey Beach

Due to a conflict at the office & with her childcare schedule, I was unable to go into shadow Dr. Guthrie today. So, I decided to take full advantage of the day off in cali by going to check out the Santa Monica pier.  This included trying to learn the bus transportation system for the first time. Keep in my mind how my luck has already been on this trip so far. To start the day off, I got onto the wrong bus which took me into downtown LA. I realized I was on the wrong bus as I watched a bus on the opposite side of the road drive by with the words “Downtown Santa Monica” across the front of it.  Luckily, there was a girl on the side of the road at the station that was willing to help me out.  Finally, I got onto the right bus & arrived in Santa Monica about an hour later.  In downtown Santa Monica, there was a multitude of shops, where I was able to pick up some souvenirs for the family.   I was even able to hang at the beach for a few hours and ride the Farris wheel on the pier, showing a spectacular view.  Unfortunately, while on the beach, I stepped in some sort of black tar, which seemed to stick to the bottom of my foot as bad as gum sticks in hair. I instantly reached down to remove it & it quickly branched onto my fingers.  SO, not only did I have black tar on my foot, but now all over my hands! I couldn’t even touch anything! I had to get a cup of ice in order to freeze it to scrape it off.  After hours of effort, the tar finally came off.

-Life was much easier on the trail.