Becca Pierce ’17 graduated summa cum laude this past May with her B.S. in Kinesiology from San Diego State University (SDSU) and is now a first-year Doctor of Physical Therapy student at SDSU. At commencement, she was chosen as the Outstanding Graduate to represent the Exercise and Nutritional Sciences department and was awarded the American Kinesiology Association Scholar award for her academic and research accomplishments. As an undergraduate student, Becca volunteered in a Sports Biomechanics lab using 3D motion capture for injury prevention in SDSU’s D1 basketball team, which led to her co-authoring a paper published in the academic journal Physical Therapy in Sport. She also worked as a research assistant on an National Institute of Health-funded study evaluating cognitive behavioral physical therapy for Latinos with chronic pain. Additionally, Becca has volunteered over 200 hours in specialty physical therapy settings such as the Naval Medical Center’s Comprehensive Combat and Complex Casualty Care Unit and Sharp’s Aquatic Physical Therapy. Shortly after graduating from OLP, Becca attended the Irish dance Riverdance Summer School and performed with the professional team in Ireland. In the future, she would love to work with dancers and can’t wait to help her patients accomplish their dreams through physical therapy, using movement as medicine.
