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Sports Medicine student Sasha Tolliver in a hands-on class with Program Director Mary Murray

Sports Medicine student Sasha Tolliver in a hands-on class with Program Director Mary Murray 

Nearly forty years ago, the University of Pittsburgh began a world class Sports Medicine program for students interested in sports injury prevention and research. Since then, it has never stopped evolving to meet the ever-changing needs of athletes, military personnel and everyday people or setting the standards for sports medicine research. Program Director Mary Murray explains, “When we began, most people came in with a background in athletic training. Now they have various goals and come from kinesiology, exercise science, exercise physiology and bioengineering. The faculty have more diverse backgrounds, too.” She continues, “The program benefits a variety of students. Some want a foundation in the sports medicine field to continue to physical therapy or physician assistant programs, medical school or another area of health care.” Still others have their goals as athletic trainers for elite athletes or to bring the joy of exercise and healthy lifestyles to underserved communities. No matter their end game, the Pitt Sports Medicine program is their gateway to a world of opportunities. 

Why Pitt Sports Medicine 

One of the program’s strengths, explains Murray, is its flexibility for students to personalize their graduate program. She says, “Pitt Sports Medicine is unique in that we make the program so specialized. We work with students individually to talk to them about what they want to do in the program and afterward. We help guide them, to take electives related to their research interests or their goals after graduation.”  

The program’s small size makes it ideal for students to work closely with School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences (SHRS) faculty and researchers. The average class size is 12 students and the program has the benefit of owning its own lab equipment and study aids that are not shared among other programs. The idea of a master’s thesis can be intimidating if students don’t come from a research background. However, the program is prepared to guide them through the process. Murray says, “We have faculty who help students formulate a research question, guide them to develop methodologies, and provide opportunities for students to use state-of-the-art science equipment within the Neuromuscular Research Laboratory (NMRL).”  

Sports Medicine students at the NMRL sweat and hydration laboratory

Sports Medicine students at the NMRL sweat and hydration laboratory 

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) is a world renown facility in the practice and research of sports medicine and is a close partner of the Pitt Sports Medicine program. The UPMC physicians and orthopedic surgeons come into SHRS to teach classes and take on students for clinical internships. Sasha Tolliver, a second-year Sports Medicine student, is currently doing such an internship with Dr. Volker Musahl, the clinical director of Sports Medicine at the UPMC Freddie Fu Sports Medicine Complex. She shadows Musahl and two other physicians and is immersed in all the responsibilities and challenges that a sports medicine physician encounters every day. Tolliver says, “This internship allows me to apply everything that I have learned in class to real life patient issues that come into the clinic.”   

Opportunities to broaden the academic experience with hands-on experiences abound within the Pitt Sports Medicine program. Course electives can include teaching assistantships where students are paired with a faculty mentor to gain experience in instruction and assessment. Students can take part in an independent study elective to focus on thesis research at the NMRL. Second-year Sports Medicine student Jamie Flynn is taking advantage of everything the program offers to make the most of her graduate experience. “The thing about the program is there are opportunities all around. It's just a matter of who to talk to and who to ask,” she says.

Experiential Opportunities

Murray and the other faculty have cultivated relationships with partners at Pitt and in the local community to offer four, two-year Experiential Opportunity positions with tuition scholarships to qualified students each year. She is most proud of these unique, hands-on experiences that really prepare the students for their careers in sports medicine. Murray says, “It’s important to me that students--not just athletic trainers--get work experience so that when they graduate from this program they can say, ‘I’ve had two years’ of work experience while obtaining a master’s degree. I’ve learned specific skills and I’ve networked with professionals in the field.’” 

Sports Medicine students learning hands-on techniques from a guest instructor

Sports Medicine students learning hands-on techniques from a guest instructor

Tolliver and Flynn are both in Experiential Opportunity positions that are exposing them to valuable real-world experiences throughout their time in the Sports Medicine program. Tolliver is currently completing her two-year position as the first Community Engagement Fellow at the SHRS Wellness Pavilion in the Homewood neighborhood of Pittsburgh, which has included outreach and developing exercise and health education programs for children and adults. Flynn has a dream to support athletes at the Olympic Games as an athletic trainer. She works as the athletic trainer for Pitt’s 40 club sports, and it has given her the experience she sought, even sealing her professional reputation to be called up to help with the Pitt Athletics teams.

A brand-new Experiential Opportunity position that Murray is eager to place for 2023-2024 is the Exercise Specialist at the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center. The center’s Wellness and Integrative Oncology Program provides holistic care to cancer patients, including nutrition education, mindfulness practice, massage therapy and acupuncture treatment. The Sports Medicine student will work with the center’s program director to develop exercise programs that address their patients’ symptoms and improve their quality of life. “I’m so excited about this,” beams Murray. “I hope we can find the perfect student for this position.” 

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Applications for the 2023-2024 Wellness Pavilion Community Engagement Fellow and Hillman Cancer Center Exercise Specialist experiential positions have been extended! Please contact Mary Murray for details on the positions and applying to the program before the March 15 deadline. 

For more information about the program, please visit our website or talk to one of our Enrollment Specialists at enroll@shrs.pitt.edu

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Stay tuned for parts two and three of our Sports Medicine series that will include blogs on students Sasha Tolliver and Jamie Flynn talking about how the program and Experiential Opportunities are helping them reach their goals.

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Published February 15, 2023