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Shirley Kate Hamilton

Biography

According to her professors, Shirley Kate Hamilton seems hard-wired to do her best at everything she tackles-from sports to theater to demanding courses. In elementary school, she studied Spanish, art, and musical theater and that is where she began gymnastics. In high school she won three state championships.

"Gymnastics helped teach me to time manage, set and achieve goals, take care of my body, and put my full dedication into any commitment I make." With many career options before her, she chose physical therapy. As a volunteer in a camp for children with disabilities, she sees how non-clinical settings and activities such as acting in plays or in talent shows can give them not just physical therapy but confidence.

Shirley Kate relishes the growing independence and influence of physical therapy professionals, with more diagnostic and treatment tools for "patients with a wide variety of musculoskeletal and neuromuscular problems." She has pushed herself hard to get to the takeoff point of a doctorate degree, working two jobs, making top grades, and honing both her scholarly and athletic skills, including competing in a rock-climbing international match while studying in Spain. There, as in other parts of her life, she goes beyond the norm.

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