APEX was a great experience for me. I didn’t know much about APEX before I started but I had heard many great things about it. I was in the Exploration of Exercise and Sport Science strand and did a lot of cool projects and learned about careers in that field throughout the semester.

Going into APEX, I was strongly considering going into Physical Therapy as a profession but I didn’t entirely understand what it takes to become a Physical Therapist or even all the things they do. I had been injured and gone to one in the past, so I had a small comprehension of what they did. APEX really helped me to understand Physical Therapy and even more. Taking this APEX course has helped me prepare for my future greatly with all that I know now. I got to job shadow at Athletico Physical Therapy for over half of the semester. Getting valuable observation hours that I can use to hopefully get into Graduate School one day is something that I will be very thankful for. APEX offers valuable experiences that will help you greatly in the future.

We had various projects, speakers, and lessons throughout the class. I was involved in many different projects but the main project I was a part of was creating a Fitness Plan for a business partner who puts on Adventure Races. Adventure Races are outdoor races that involve a combination of biking, running/walking, and rowing. Some races are 8 hours and some extreme races can be a week long. My group of three was to create a Fitness Plan that would help prepare people physically for Adventure Races. As the team manager, I had the responsibility of emailing our client, overseeing the actual Fitness Plan, and giving certain tasks to my group. This project obviously doesn’t really involve Physical Therapy but it taught me so much about how to be a team leader and how to be accountable for real business partners in the real world. That is what is so great about APEX, you learn a variety of techniques and lessons that will benefit you as you transition to college and the real world.

APEX taught me so many professional skills and that is something I am very thankful for. I learned aspects about myself that are good and things I need to work on. For example, I felt I have always been an accountable and responsible person when meeting deadlines and things like that. That transitioned perfectly to APEX because meeting deadlines is so important. One aspect I need to work on is to be a better leader and taking charge making sure things get done. I have been good at getting things done for myself, but enforcing that on others was a struggle at first. Doing the Fitness Plan project gave me experience and it really helped me to improve in that way.

Overall, I’m so glad I decided to do APEX. At first, I didn’t really know what to expect. But as the class went on, I learned so much more than I thought I would. My experience is something I won’t forget and will value the time I got with APEX.