Ashley Hellwig

SEP 25 Journals

1. August 1, 2014: Im excited to start these journals and be able to reflect the time
ive had with my paper, shadowing, and the portfolio. Today the annotated
bibliography was due today and I wasn't quite sure on how long the annotations
were supposed to be so I am a little stressed about that. Ive actually been very
stressed lately. Moving to a new school and starting something completely new
like SEP is a lot to take in. Ive talked to people who have graduated already and
they said its not to hard, however, it is very stressful with all the deadlines. I am
ready for my senior year though and cant wait to experience it.
2. August 5, 2014: I have already turned in my annotated bibliography and I felt
pretty good about it. However the notes that were due today are a bit of work and
knowing that im going to need 75 more of them is a bit nerve racking. My critical
issue is on sequestration in the Military. I have always been fascinated with the
Air Force and I am planning on joining and being a physical therapist while in the
service. These notes are also giving me intel on the problems that the Military
deals with. I am looking forward to finishing my SEP and graduating knowing that
I know what I want to do with my life and how to do it.
3. August 13, 2014: Today the final 100 notes were due and let me tell you, they
were not easy. After a while I felt like things were repeating themselves but 100
notes are needed for a 7-8 page paper. You need facts and details to back your
paper up. I feel the past few weeks have been a lot and a little overwhelming and

Ashley Hellwig

I know that it is going to be this way my whole senior year and I should just get
ready for it. However, I can not wait for my SEP paper to be finished.
4. August 14, 2014: SEP has really been a struggle for me. As I expect its been a
struggle for everyone, however, moving to a new state and a new school hits
pretty hard when something very unexpected comes with it. SEP is very new to
me. I have never been to the west coast and im realizing that that is why i
haven't heard of it. I believe that SEP has a good reasoning behind it and it has
opened my eyes to many opportunities.
5. August 16, 2014: Ive always thought of an outline for a paper as being really
short and just a overview of what my paper will look like. However, the outline for
this paper has to be the same length as the final paper which means I have to
put almost all the information in to my outline. I feel this will be the hardest part of
the paper process because you are basically writing the paper if you do that. It
will help me write my rough draft a lot faster though.
6. August 22, 2014: In 3 days, our first draft is due and im actually really nervous
about it. Ive never been that great at writing papers but I have been getting a lot
better over the years. The outline helped tremendously and set up my paper so
nicely. I am going to have to add another paragraph in however because it isnt
as long as I thought it would be. My critical issue is very broad which also helps a
lot. It also makes me realize how troubled the government is when it comes to
finances and how much should go to what problem.
7. September 5, 2014: Its a good thing that my SEP advisor is also my anatomy
teacher. It helps when I have quick questions and I can just ask him on the way

Ashley Hellwig

in or out of class. I had my first actual conference with him today and we got to
talk about a lot of things. I need to find an SEP mentor and I need to keep up on
the due dates for some of the things. Some people had the chance to finish their
shadowing over the summer but when I moved here over the summer, I hadnt
even realized that SEP was a things and that I needed to find a mentor.
However, I am finding a physical therapist on base to shadow and can't wait to
get started.
8. September 11, 2014: SEP has been going ok lately because its not so cramped
right now. The paper is almost over and all ive had to focus on is turning in
papers to mr.Farr. However, my interview that was supposed to be highlighted in
my paper was not highlighted so I got points deducted because it took me awhile
to get around to it. Working while SEP is so busy is also hard because I really
have to manage my time. This will help me in the long run and thats how I try to
think about it. I cant wait for college and the years to come now.
9. September 12, 2014: I turned in my mentor confirmation form today and had a
one of my conferences today with Mr.Farr. I did forget to tell Col. Blowers to
email him however so my grade did go down for that. I am also trying to start my
shadowing but I have to finish all of the procedures before I can start. I have
been feeling really stressed lately and most of it is due to SEP. I see how it can
benefit us but I don't know why we have to go through this all year. We still have
classes just like any other school and thats already stressful as is.
10. September 15, 2014: On the 18th , our guest edit is due for our paper and I am
more than grateful that I have a mom that is good at writing papers and that she

Ashley Hellwig

is willing to help me. I got a 78 on my rough draft and I am determined to move it

up to an A. We were not supposed to use personal pronouns in our paper and I
thought I hadnt used them but Mrs. Duron found two of them and I got deducted
points so I could have prevented that. She also did not see my that my interview
was cited in my paper so I was deducted 5 points for that to. I fixed both of those
problems and changed around some things and im hoping for a good grade on
my final paper.
11. October 10, 2014: I had an interview with Joel Bernazzani for the interview
portion of SEP. He is a A-10 pilot and also went to the Air Force Academy so he
came in to the air force as an officer. The transcript of our questions and the
answers are due today to our SEP advisor and I thought it was due a long time
ago so I had already turned it in. I am also starting to notice that many of the SEP
advisors dont get told much about anything. They go off the small information
that they are given and I feel like that affects our work in the end. Ive been doing
okay so far but im worried for later on when other things are going to be due.
12. October 13, 2014: The final draft is due today and im actually pretty excited
about it. I feel like it turned out very good and my mom and I made a lot of
changes to my paper that hopefully pay off. It is very relieving to finally have the
paper completely done. It took a lot of late nights and good time management to
get everything done well and turned in on time. Now I have to look forward to the
next part of SEP which is the portfolio. This year they are starting a new online
portfolio which Mr.Farr is trying out. I like what they are trying to do but Im not so

Ashley Hellwig

certain about the website thing. Im not a big technical person and hope that its
not as frustrating as I think its going to be.
13. October 16, 2014: Today I had another conference with Mr.Farr and we talked
about how SEP is going and so far everything is ok. Im about to start shadowing
finally and I can wait. Ill finally get to see what its like to be a physical therapist.
When I was younger I wanted to be a vet and realized I can't see animals hurt,
because they can't tell me how they feel and I need that reassurance. I started to
think of something I could do where im still helping people and then I thought of
physical therapy. Its a way to help someone and also be able to hear how I can
help them. Im really looking forward to starting my career now and cant wait for
college.
14. October 21, 2014: Today was my first day of shadowing and I got to see what I
would be watching for the next few weeks. Col. Blowers showed me around and I
met Elisa, Sydney, and Gary who are the physical therapy assistants. It was a
pretty interesting day because I got to see someone run on the anti-gravity
treadmill which is really amusing to watch. I followed Sydney around most of the
day and got to watch her work on a patient's ankle. I thought it would be pretty
boring because I was just going to sit here the whole time, but I actually got to
move around and watch different patients and different things that they do. I have
to say that the anti-gravity treadmill is probably the most interesting of the
equipment.
15. October 22, 2014: Today was my second day of shadowing and I found out some
interesting things about stretching. They have a circular block that patients

Ashley Hellwig

usually use to loosen their leg muscles up by rolling over it with their leg for a few
seconds. Some patients like it and some hate it because it tends to hurt a little
bit.They also use a softball to loosen the muscles. They stand up against the wall
and put the ball between them and the wall and roll it around. I did seem to notice
however, that some of the patients do not like the exercises because they are
sort of difficult. Some examples are the inchworms and lunges while twisting the
torso. The patients are usually pretty winded after a few sets of these.
16. October 28, 2014: Lately ive been really stressed about shadowing because I
realize I need to get it done and sometimes im too busy to go. However, I make
time in my schedule to go because I know how important it is to get done.Today I
made time to go to shadowing but was a little late due to other factors. I followed
Gary most of the day and his routine does not change much. He always has
warm ups for the patient and afterwards they do similar things. Sydney on the
other hand, she gets straight to the problem and evaluates it. She had a patient
today that got a surgery done on his ankle 2 months ago and is not getting better.
There is scar tissue underneath the skin that she had to rub and massage to help
it from progressing.
17. October 29, 2014: Today was one of the most interesting days ive had so far. I
got to watch dry-needling which is a type of acupuncture but has a different
meaning. I was very dehydrated today so while he was showing me how to stick
the needle in, I almost passed out. I wasn't sure if the needle added to the
nausea but needles do not usually make me feel sick. I plan to watch it again so
that I know for sure it wasn't the needle going into the skin that made me feel

Ashley Hellwig

sick. I cant wait for the rest of my days to shadow. Everything is getting so much
more interesting.
18. October 31, 2014: Lately SEP hasnt been too busy. Ive only had to focus on the
conferences with Mr. Farr. It is very helpful having an advisor that is also a
teacher for your paws period. I dont have to take time out of my day to go see
him because I see him almost everyday. Im glad that he knows everything that is
going on as well. He has all the information and is always there to help. The only
thing I wish could have been different is that he would have chose to do the
paper portfolio instead of the the online portfolio.
19. November 5, 2014: Shadowing has been going really good lately and I cant wait
to finally do this as a career. I went for an hour and a half today and Col.
Shumway did some more dry needling and I did not get nauseous so I feel a lot
better about that only because I would love to learn how to do that later on during
training. I also got to observe a few breathing techniques that Col. Shumway
uses to relax his patients. It was quite mind blowing what he did. He would
situate the patients legs a certain way then have then breath in then have them
blow really hard like blowing in a straw and then he would apply pressure to their
chest to get all the air out. It was fascinating because afterwards the patient
would be able to stretch farther and more efficient.
20. November 6, 2014: I went to another shadowing session today and learned some
new things. I followed Gary around most of the day and watched how every
patient would do the same various exercises such as high knees and lateral
shuffles, and they all had different injuries. They do this because when someone

Ashley Hellwig

is hurt, they need to build up strength in every possible way and warm ups like
those help with gaining that strength back. I also talked to Col. Blowers about
when and if I join the military and do physical therapy, is there a way I could work
with veterans that have been injured in war? I found out that it depends on where
I get stationed and how qualified I am.
21. November 14, 2014: Today I had a conference with Mr. Farr because of the
portfolio and the parent contact grade. I asked him about what I should do for the
online portfolio because I have never made a website before and I dont even
know where to start. He gave us a website that we can use to start our website
and I started looking but I still don't know where to start. Im not to worried about it
however because I have people who can help me navigate it and give me ideas.
I also had to ask him about the parent contact because I didnt know what it was
but come to find out, my mom had already responded so everything was okay.
22. November 18, 2014: I am almost done with shadowing and its kind of sad but
also a blessing because ive been so busy and I don't have the time for it. I went
to shadowing and followed Elisa more today. I got see her work on a patient's
shoulder and got to see a new piece of equipment. Its called a body blade and
the purpose of it is to build strength in the arm and shoulder. You grip the middle
of the body blade and wiggle it slightly up and down or side to side. I got to try it
and it is actually really fun to do. However, it does get tiring depending on how
you're holding it. I watched Col. Shumway do some more dry needling again and
this patient did not like it as much. He found it very uncomfortable but he felt a

Ashley Hellwig

difference afterwards. Col. Shumway will even stick the needle in different parts
of his body and walk around the room to freak people out. It is very funny.
23. November 24, 2014: I have to come to shadowing today and tuesday because
they have a training day wednesday and thanksgiving it thursday. So today I got
to take most of my pictures for the portfolio and I never realized how much
equipment there was until I had to take pictures of it. Gary is always scared of me
taking videos or pictures because of HIPPA and I completely understand. I did
however get to take a video of Elisa taping my ankle for the demonstration
portion of the portfolio and it turned out very good. I have gotten pretty close to
Elisa and I told her about my acceptance to a college and how school is going.
24. November 25, 2014: Surprisingly today was my last day of shadowing and it was
a little sad. I got really close with some of the PTAs and Col. Blowers was
always busy so I never really got to see him. I learned so much from them and
cant thank them enough for the opportunity. I followed Elisa most of the day
today and she had the same patient that Sydney had the first day I started
shadowing and he really seemed to have progressed over this month. He could
use the elliptical more efficiently and it did not hurt him as much as it did the first
day he started physical therapy.
25. November 30,2014: This is my last journal and its crazy to think that these
journals covered almost 3 months. On December 5th, my portfolio is due and I
am still working on it. I have to turn in my shadowing logs, the final mentor
shadowing log, the portfolio, and the reflective journals which is a lot but I am
determined to get it done. SEP is kind of a journey if you think about it. You really

Ashley Hellwig

have to keep an eye on it and make sure to keep up with the dates. I am glad I
got the chance to participate in SEP because I know have an idea of what my
career field will be like.