All Aboard!
Skippers with disabilities show physical therapy students the ropes
By Lauren Comander
Photography by Joshua Prezant/University of Miami
Student Kendall Riley, left, high-fives Patrick LoDuca following their five-hour sailing trip.
When physical therapy student Kendall Riley signed up for the Integrated Sports and Leisure course at the Miller School, she was excited to learn how to sail. Six weeks later, she had learned so much more and made new friends for life.
At first, Riley was nervous to interact with the course skippers, who live with a range of physical disabilities, from spinal cord injuries, to deafness, to loss of both arms.
“I’ve never been exposed to a population like this before,” she said. “But they made me feel very comfortable, and from them sharing their stories, I have a new perspective from my new friends, and I will be able to understand patients coming in for therapy and relate to them more.”
Since its launch in 1990, the elective course in the Department of Physical Therapy has given nearly 1,000 students insight into the world of adaptive sports, communicating with people with disabilities and transitioning skills from the classroom to the real world. One of the course skippers, John Yount, who lost both his arms more than 40 years ago, is shown in top photo steering the sailboat with the tiller while students Megan Bougher, left, and Cassie Gouzos help with the sails.
“The skippers teach our students how to sail the same way physical therapists teach them as patients who are injured — by building trust and communicating,” said Robert Gailey, Ph.D., professor of physical therapy and co-creator of the course. “Students come out with the ability to listen and figure out how they can work together.”
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