On April 1, 2022 the University of South Florida School of Physical Therapy held their annual Commitment to the Profession Ceremony for the Doctor of Physical Therapy Classes of 2023 & 2024. The ceremony marks the time in which the students are welcomed into the profession by receiving their first White Coat, and they take a special Oath of Professionalism that each class creates. The students are coated by faculty advisors and then presented a gift from the “Big” (an upper class student) within the program. This year the School was able to raise over $12,800 from 50+ donors to cover the full cost of the 95 coats with the remaining funds going to student scholarships.

Dr. Nicole Piemonte (pictured above), PhD Assistant Dean of Student Affairs, Peekie Nash Carpenter Endowed Chair in Medicine, Program Director, MA in Medical Humanities, School of Medicine, Creighton University was the keynote speaker.  She helped provide the students with concepts related to humanities in healthcare , the importance of humanities in rehabilitation, and welcomed them to the physical therapy and health care profession. During the ceremony the School also gave out various awards and scholarships to students to recognize them for their academic, professional, and clinical achievements.

The first award of the evening was the Spirit of Interprofessionlism award, which is presented to individuals who have promoted the role of physical therapists in the collaborative healthcare team within the academic, clinical, or research programs of USF Health. This year there were two well deserving recipients of this honor, the first being Dr. Joseph Puccio, MD – Director of USF Student Health Services for his support and guidance during the Covid19 pandemic. The second was Dr. Constance Visovsky, PhD, RN, ACNP, FAAN for her ongoing collaboration on research with various DPT faculty and our school.

The next award was the  Gregory R. Nicolosi Commitment to Professionalism Award. which this award goes to a second-year DPT student who is recognized by classmates as one who has consistently demonstrated the Core Values of Professionalism, including: Accountability, Altruism, Compassion & Caring, Excellence, Integrity, Professional Duty, and, Social Responsibility. This year we had two recipients, Giovanna Hoyos from the class of 2022 and Logan Brown (pictured above) from the class of 2022.

During the ceremony the school also awards it’s departmental scholarships to DPT students. The following are the 2022 recipients:

• Vorholy  Memorial Scholarship – Keschel Hernadez, Class of 2022
• Kurtzman Scholarship – Giovanna Hoyos, Class of 2022
• Future Professionals Scholarship – Kimberly McCoy, Class of 2023 (top right)
• CORA Scholarship – Kylie Unser, Class of 2023, (top right)
• Tiedemann Circle of Motion Scholarship – Nicole Lukinbeal, Class of 2024 (bottom left)
• Laura Lee “Dolly” Swisher Scholarship – Kennedy Day, Class of 2023 (bottom right)

Our last awards of the evening were the UnBULLieveable Awards which recognize clinical partners. The UnBULLieveable awards were created to recognize clinical and community partners who have stepped up and helped our school out. They were intended to be given out at our 2020 ceremony, but as we all know the pandemic  delayed many things, but it has also renewed and shown how important many of these partners are to our program and students. They have continued to support our program by taking on additional students for clinical education, partnering to be advisors for our DPT advisory board, and many have become friends of the program over the years. These recipients were nominated by the DPT Clinical Education Team, and then finalized by the school’s awards and scholarships committee. The following were our 2022 recipients:

• PT Solutions – Accepted by Chris Gai, USF DPT 2019 Graduate (top left)
• Lakeland Regional Health – Accepted by Jill Haladay (top right)
• BayCare St. Joseph’s Hospital – Accepted by Shaela Viars (middle left)
• Select Physical Therapy – Accepted by Amanda Lewandowski, USF DPT 2011 Graduate (middle right)
• James A. Haley VA – Accepted by Cynthia Barros (bottom left)
• Tampa General Hospital – Accepted by Jamie Dietrich (bottom right)

After the awards both classes were coated, recited their professional oath, and then finished up a small cookie reception.