Jarred Nauls, 27, at the FPTA 2019 Student Conclave at the University of Miami.
Photo courtesy Jarred Nauls.
Leadership, networking and team-building are a few of the skills that the president of the 2020 graduate class of physical therapy must exemplify. Students in this program are currently led by Jarred Nauls, a native of the small town of Missouri City, Texas. Nauls, 27, is a class of 2020 doctoral student in the physical therapy program in FAMU’s School of Allied Health & Health Sciences.
Since the class of 2018, the graduate PT program’s passing rate for the National Physical Therapy Exam, or NPTE, has been on the rise. Nauls said the previous class brought up the program’s first-time passing rate for the exam to 95 percent.
As the president for the upcoming graduating group, Nauls had a lot to live up to expectation-wise from his peers and professors.
Nauls outlines his impact upon the program with constant acknowledgement of the strength of his executive board members and support from professors.
Recently returning from the 2019 Florida Physical Therapy Association student conclave, Nauls and a group of his class members networked at the University of Miami with different students and professionals from all around the state. At the conference, for the first time in FAMU’s history, the university won the bid to host the 2020 FPTA student conclave.
“We won the bid to host it,” Nauls said. “My role is to just keep things going.”
While Nauls may portray his impact as minuscule to the bigger accomplishments, the students and administration of the physical therapy program describe almost the complete opposite and are excited to talk about Nauls as a leader.
The senior secretary and academic advisor of the School of Allied Health, John Harris, said Nauls’ current skills as a leader will help him be successful as a physical therapist in the near future. Given the hypothetical of a patient in pain, Harris described the social traits Nauls exemplifies beyond intelligence that gives him an upper hand.
“They’re going to need someone that’s going to challenge them and encourage them and know how to be compassionate enough to get them to a place to want to get up and go through, even when they don’t feel like it."
“He’s definitely a go-getter and has follow-through,” said Harris.
Nauls said: “My class is about culture. We want unity and to network. We try to instill that type of hard work and that drive and that unity in the classes below us.”
Nauls and his class uphold the agenda of the PT program by staying active within the program, within the community and within the state — which helps reap benefits for more than just the students. Nauls oversees the class’ mentorship program with the next graduating group, community service events and pushes hard for fundraising to ease the load off of current and future students.
Dawn Brown-Cross, director of the physical therapy division, said the program has wanted to host the FPTA student conclave.
“That’s been one of the things we’ve been hoping for since year one. That was totally because of the students’ professionalism and how they present themselves when they’re out in the community and within the professional association,” Brown-Cross said.
“Because of Jarred, I think his class kind of took that to heart and exemplify everything that we hope to accomplish in terms of meeting the agenda of the program.”
Nauls aspires to eventually create a self-sufficient brand and open his own private practice.
Brown-Cross said, “He puts a lot of energy and thought to the things he wants to accomplish, and I think he can accomplish all of those things.”