Hi, friends. This week we have a campus celebrity coming to us that has quite the extensive background in working with people with disabilities. He has helped countless people, touched a lot of hearts, and made a big difference – and he’s only a junior in college! Meet Jesse Phalanukorn, a Health Promotion and Wellness Management major at Rowan University.
Jesse has quite the loaded plate. Other than being a full time student – which we all know is a grueling task all its own – he is also am Admissions Ambassador, an Academic Coach, a Peer Mentor, A Partner for Unified Sports, a Personal Trainer, Treasurer for the newly petitioned Secondary Education club, AND the President for the newly petitioning NutrAblities club! Wow Jesse, way to kill it!
Jesse got involved as an Admissions Ambassador almost as soon as he started at Rowan. He came on tours and he saw the great work the students did and wanted to be a part of it. Now, he thinks it is the best job on campus – he absolutely loves it! Through the entire journey, there isn’t anything he would change; he has made lots of friends, loves that there is lots of energy in the group.
One of his fellow ambassadors saw how much of a hard worker Jesse was and thought he would make a great Academic Coach for the Academic Success Center. Jesse took the opportunity and trained with Academic Success Center. Now he meets with his student regularly, and it makes him feel good to see him succeed.
Once again, his natural ability to give his all made fellow ambassador and previous campus celebrity Nicole Wyglendowski think that Jesse would make a great mentor. So, Jesse joined the Harley Flack Mentoring Program! Even though it is his first year, he already has two mentees and loves getting to know them both. He’s grown very close to them, and finds it very easy to be friends with them. He also loves the connection he has formed with his professional mentor Dr. Carl Tobey Oxholm. He finds Dr. Oxholm to be a great resource, and thinks it has been a great opportunity to work with him.
As a health promotion wellness management major, Jesse was immediately attracted to the prospect of partnering with Unified Sports, the special Olympics program on campus. His experience has been great so far, and he loves the bond he forms with the students and athletes; they’re all great people to be around. Through Unfied, he also got involved in the Get Fit Program, for which he is a personal trainer. The experience so far has allowed him to work with students with special needs, and it has been a great way to help Jesse grow. He has to tailor workouts to the specific needs of his clients, which only help him build skills, character, and repertoire. His constant work with people with disabiltiies has helped him with his career and educational goals; Jesse wants to go to graduate school for physical therapy.
In his first year of college, Jesse originally intended to be a bio major, with aspirations to go into neurology. To gain experience, he started volunteering in a hospital his sophomore year but he found that this wasn’t the career for him. But the volunteer office at the medical center was very accommodating, and allowed him to transfer into the physical therapy department. On his first day, Jesse knew that was for him; he loved working with patients and seeing their growth “you can see their progress every day,” he said. One story Jesse shared was his experience with one client in specific. There was a woman had beat breast cancer, but was very weak due to the effects of chemotherapy. Her weakness prevented her from successfully climbing a flight of stairs. After working with the PT team and after several months, Jesse saw her grow to a stage where she could walk up and down the steps at an easy pace, excitedly striving to hit her goal on her newly purchased Fitbit. The two grew very close together and on their last day together, Jesse convinced her to take off her head wrap that she wore because she was embarrassed of having a shaved head. But he convinced her to embrace it, show her excitement, and proudly show that she BEAT CANCER. She was very thankful for Jesse, who could not help but cry at the sentiments.
To continue his involvement with the special needs population and physical therapy, Jesse started a club that would teach them the importance of proper nutrition along with physical exercise. This club was newly accepted to petition on November 23rd’s senate meeting. He thinks it is a great resource to help people with special needs expand their knowledge on nutrition, and give them the life skills that they’ll need even once they’re done the program.
But, if you think all Jesse does is physical therapy and work with people with disabilities, you would be mistake. Jesse also strives to help out his friends. One of his friends was trying to start a secondary education club on campus, and needed representation. Jesse willingly stepped up to the responsibilities, and is now an eboard member of a club that got its petition on the same night as NutrAbilities!
As Jesse continues his time at Rowan, he is hoping to continue shadowing and is looking into internships.
He parted with telling the readers: “Keep on pushing, don’t let things get you down. Things happen for a reason, and you can’t let the negative things get in the way of your success and get in the way of what you want to do. You may not success on your first try, but down the road you will find something better. Stay positive, be who you are, do what you want to do and what you love and you’re going to succeed no matter what.” Great words, Jesse!