From Patella Injury to Physical Therapy School

When Alexa Kopaska was 13 years old, she dislocated her kneecap while playing softball. A four-sport athlete in eighth grade, Kopaska missed the rest of the softball season and the beginning of volleyball season.

“I’m glad that injury happened when I was so young. I went through physical therapy for six months, which is when I got interested in it as a career path. I decided my end goal was to become a physical therapist.”

Months in physical therapy at a young age helped her become a better athlete, too. “I learned how to use my muscles better and to become more coordinated,” she says. “My physical therapist was great at explaining how muscles were interconnected – why my quads were important in stabilizing my knee. As a 13-year-old, my knee was just my knee, but she taught me that there’s more to it than that: there are many structures holding it in place.”

Fast-forward to today: Kopaska is majoring in Health and Human Performance: exercise science and is in her third year at Dordt University. She is currently taking an Anatomy and Physiology class, where they’re talking about—of all things—the knee.

“It’s a full circle moment for me, because in class we’re talking about how, if you want to move your knee, your rectus femoris needs to shorten at the distal end while lengthening at the proximal end. It reminds me of what got me interested in physical therapy in the first place.”

One of the reasons Kopaska chose to attend Dordt is because of the university’s incredible success rate for those interested in physical therapy (PT) school. “The national average for getting admitted to PT school is below 60%, whereas Dordt has a 100% success rate in getting pre-PT students into PT school,” she adds.

Kopaska is now well on her way to achieving her dream of attending PT school. She has already applied and been accepted to two physical therapy programs – a feat unheard of for most college juniors. She also plans to graduate an entire year early, having taken 18.5 credits every semester since her freshman year.

“I’ve always been very academically oriented; I work hard in class, and I really, really want to go to physical therapy school,” she says.

Every step along the way—from eye-opening internships to thought-provoking classes—has confirmed her call to physical therapy. She recalls how, in Core 100 while writing her “My Story inside God’s Story” essays, she felt convicted by the idea of someone’s calling being “where your skills meet up with the needs of the world.”

“God has given me an empathetic heart for children, especially those with disabilities. I also have the academic skill to get into PT school,” she says. “Core 100 helped me answer the question, ‘Why do I want to do this?’ It’s always felt a calling, but I never had the words to describe why I felt called to be a PT, before I came to Dordt.”

Ever the athlete, Kopaska balances her academic ambitions with being a pitcher for the Defender softball team. “Without a doubt, you must be mentally tough in both softball and in pre-physical therapy. You have to be hyper-focused in academics, and you need to pay attention to all the details when you’re pitching—how to spin the ball in a particular way, where to aim for.”

That attention to detail has also served Kopaska well in the lab – another reason why she decided to attend Dordt.

“You could argue that Dordt has one of the best academic experiences for undergraduates preparing to go into the medical field, because, as undergraduates, we have access to a cadaver lab,” she says. “Not only have I learned about the rectus femoris in class, but in the cadaver lab, I’ve seen the four quadricep muscles up close. I can see how the muscle fibers come to a convergence in the middle of the quadricep tendon and what a pennate muscle looks like. That’s incredible. I know of very few other schools in the nation that allow undergrads to do this type of work; my cadaver lab experience is something I brought up in my physical therapy school interviews, because it’s so unique.”

Kopaska is grateful for her time at Dordt – not only because of the academic rigor and the athletic opportunities, but for the Christian friends she’s made along the way.

“Having attended a public high school, I have never experienced how powerful it is to have Christian friends around all the time, and to have your entire environment filled with faith and a focus on Christ. I wouldn’t trade this experience of having Christian friends and professors – people who not only see me as a student or an athlete but as a daughter of Christ. It’s hard to put into words what it’s like to be surrounded by that community. I get to achieve my dream of going into physical therapy, and I get to have lifelong community with it. I’m so thankful.”