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Matt Pulisic '87: "I want any student interested in
physical therapy to have the same opportunity that I had." |
Matt Pulisic ’87 always had an interest in anatomy and sports medicine, but he didn’t know until his senior year at R-MC where those interests would take him. “During my senior year I did an internship in an outpatient orthopedic and sports physical therapy clinic,” he says. “During the internship I realized what career path I wanted to follow. I had a great experience, went on to physical therapy school, and worked for 10 years in the same clinic in which I did my internship before opening my own office.”
Pulisic, a Long Island, New York native, now owns Richmond Physical Therapy and Ashland Physical Therapy.
Pulisic, who majored in
biology at R-MC, is a 1990 graduate of the School of Physical Therapy at the Medical College of Virginia (MCV). He earned board certification in orthopedic physical therapy from the American Board of Physical Therapy Specialties in 1996 and in 2002 he earned his master's degree in orthopedic physical therapy from MCV. He earned his doctorate in physical therapy from MCV in 2010.
Pulisic has been working with R-MC students as interns for the past 20 years. “It is a great experience for me,” he says. “I enjoy seeing students get excited about the future and the career path they are choosing. It is stressful for them to figure out what they want to do and how to go about it. Because I have been through it, it is so easy for me to help them. The
internship program helped me get where I am today and I want any student interested in physical therapy to have the same opportunity that I had.”
Many of the students who have interned with Pulisic have gone on to be physical therapists. “Aaron Perkins ’01 did his internship with me, and now I am very fortunate to have him working as a physical therapist in the Ashland office,” he says. “We are now booked with two student-interns for each semester through January Term 2011.”
Pulisic choose to attend R-MC because of its location and its healthy
soccer program. “I wanted to go to a small liberal arts college in the south and play soccer,” he says. “I played four years for Coach Werner, who had a big impact on me at the time. We were a Top 10 Division II team back then.”
Pulisic stays connected to R-MC in many ways. “I have volunteered my time for the past 20 years with the R-MC sports medicine staff and have been on the sidelines of
football games all those years,” he says. “I am a member of the
Yellow Jacket Club, which supports the athletic department. I also have lectured and given presentations in the biology department, as well as assisted biology students with their capstone projects on a regular basis. I try to attend as many events on campus as possible…my family has basically grown up on the R-MC campus.”
Read about R-MC’s BS/MD Joint-degree program and Pre-med program.