Madison Pedlar

Narrative Self-Assessment: Year 2

When reflecting on the way in which I navigated my way through the second year of this
program, I am very proud of the person I have become both personally and professionally. I
have created personal friendships with my peers, professional relationships with faculty and
community members, and memories that I will cherish for a lifetime.
In terms of personal development, I have learned to appreciate the people that are in
my life and to be thankful for all that I have. Throughout this past year, I have gained many new
friends within the program, but I have also strengthened many previous relationships outside
as well. While I may not have a lot of free time as I would like, I have learned to embrace the
time I do have and spend it with the people I love. From a professional standpoint, I believe
that I have been continuing to gain confidence both academically and clinically. I have
experienced some academic challenges throughout my time in this program, however, each
time I learn something new, and it motivates me to work even harder, in which my academic
performance is positively reflecting that. Clinically, I feel that I am also gaining knowledge as I
continue to put myself into situations that will allow me to gain experience and interact with
real-world scenarios.
I feel that the materials I have chosen to include in my portfolio represent my learning
and developmental growth throughout this year well. I was able to continue to participate in
many extracurricular events, take on leadership roles, and gain clinical experience all while
continuing to maintain good academic standing. My portfolio contains materials from my first
clinical rotation, on- and off-campus events that I participated in, as well as my academic
achievements, in which all reflect on the type of person and student I represent.
I believe that my first clinical rotation played a huge role in facilitating my learning and
overall development in this program. This experience allowed me to gain clinical knowledge
and build my confidence as a future physical therapist. I was able to gain hands-on experience,
interact with patients and other health professionals, and reflect on my own personal and
professional growth.
Something that I thought constrained my learning and development was the amount of
time that is needed to be put into this program alone. While I know it was something that I had
to be mentally prepared for, I found it challenging to always find the motivation to stay on the
weekends or devote my time solely to school. I found myself feeling homesick often, in which
was a difficult thing for me to handle.
While I feel that I have gained significantly more confidence both practically and
academically, there is always room for improvement. I continue to learn from my mistakes,
whether that be from a written test, patient simulation lab, or following a real-world
experience. To facilitate my further development, I will continue to seek out opportunities to
gain clinical experience and sharpen my academic knowledge to ensure that I am prepared to
take on my last year of clinical rotations and preparing for the NPTE to the best of my ability
both personally and professionally.