News from The Mahurin Honors College

“I feel like I’m in the right place,” says Audrey Clark reflecting on her transition from WKU to Duke University. A 2025 graduate, Audrey is currently a Doctorate of Physical Therapy student at Duke University. The program is three years long, and Audrey has plans to start practicing after graduating in May of 2028. Audrey reflects on how this journey was made possible by building a foundation of exploration and learning in her undergraduate years.  

Growing up in Hendersonville, Tennessee, Audrey’s interest in physical therapy was first sparked in a dance class. Paired with an interest in science and math during high school, Audrey’s 15 year dance career allowed her to be “always fascinated by movement.” These passions would combine into an interest in physical therapy after a licensed physical therapist came to present at Audrey’s dance studio in high school. “We had a family friend, a local PT, come into our studio one time to do an injury prevention class for us… She was showing us different things that we could do preventatively so that we wouldn’t get hurt as often or not as severe. And I was like, this is cool!” 

Making her way to WKU, Audrey majored in exercise science with a pre physical therapy concentration. While pursuing her undergraduate degree, Audrey was involved in HonorsToppers and WKU Peer Tutoring. Her time on campus helped prepare her for diving into difficult content in her physical therapy program.

Audrey’s work as a tutor helped her learn how to tackle new information. “You take something really big and overwhelming, and you break it down. I learned how to do that even more than I already knew how, like in tutoring, and that helps me understand it better,” she explained.  

Her undergraduate degree program also helped prepare her for her next steps. In completing a required internship course for the exercise science program, Audrey got to reconnect with the physical therapist that first led her to be interested in the field. Completing 150 hours in the clinic the summer after her freshman year, Audrey reveals how this solidified her desire to continue in the program. Audrey said that after her internship she knew, “This is where I want to be. This is what I want to do.”  

Getting hands on experience remained an important part of Audrey’s undergraduate experience. Audrey got to connect dance back to her studies with her thesis project. “I did a thesis on the interplay of mobility and strength as factors related to injury risk in college dancers. I worked with dance majors and a couple dance team members at Western’s campus,” Audrey explained.

Like other involvement on WKU’s campus and the Mahurin Honors College, the thesis project was more than just a part of her resume. “The skills I took away from that are way more useful and beneficial than just the line item on a paper,” Audrey said. The thesis allowed her to hone skills like time management, data collection, and academic writing, all of which allowed Audrey to produce a finished thesis that passed with distinction.  

While Audrey’s path seemed clear from early in her undergraduate journey, she stresses that her focus on physical therapy is a direct result of acting on her curiosity from the beginning of her time as an undergraduate student. She advises current students to try out new experiences early in the college journey. “I knew I wanted to do PT going into sophomore year of college. I knew this is what I wanted to do because I got involved early,” Audrey said.

And her advice extends to deciding if what you’re interested in turns out to be different than you expected. Audrey reasoned that starting early allows you time to reevaluate. She explained, “If you hate it, that’s just more time you have to delineate between where else you want to go.” This advice also allowed Audrey to have a clearer picture of how she wanted her post-graduate experience to be.

Being sure of her next steps, Audrey was able to better understand where she needed to go next. “My end goal with going to PT school is to get a DPT degree so that I can get a license, so that I can practice. And at the end of the day, you're going to take the same test no matter what school you go to. And so, I applied to schools based on that,” Audrey reflected. After isolating safety and reach schools, Audrey ultimately decided to attend Duke University. By getting involved in interests early in undergraduate years, Audrey assures that you can view “everything as a learning opportunity.”