Kimberly Hill, a first-year graduate student in the Marshall University Professional Master of Science in Athletic Training (PMSAT) program, has been awarded the William Prentice / MAATA (D3) Scholarship from the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA) Research and Education Foundation.
Hill, a 21-year old Martinsburg native, is the only student in West Virginia to receive the $2,300 national scholarship. She will be recognized for her award in late June during the NATA Clinical Symposium in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Zach Garrett, director of the university’s athletic training program, said Hill is an exceptional student who remains committed to advancing the athletic training profession in the state of West Virginia.
“Kim has held leadership roles in several student organizations on campus and currently serves as a junior senator for the Mid-Atlantic Athletic Trainers’ Association (MAATA) Student Senate. Her leadership role for the MAATA Student Senate revolves around public relations, where she has had the opportunity to promote the athletic training profession and shine light on the need for athletic trainers,” Garrett said. “By choosing to pursue a degree in athletic training, she’s able to help athletes throughout the Tri-State and has begun to establish herself as a leader with other prospective athletic training students and professionals across the state and district. Her strong didactic, clinical and leadership skills were great contributing factors in her receiving this national scholarship.”
Growing up playing sports, Hill said she always dreamed of being a professional athlete. Eventually, reality set in, and she said she had to figure out what she was going to do with her life.
“I first learned of the athletic training profession while in high school from my mother, who is a physical therapist, and I haven’t considered a different career ever since. I grew up ‘helping’ my mom study for her exams while she was in physical therapy school – I couldn’t pronounce half the words on her notecards, but I liked to pretend to help – and then watching her treat patients at a clinic after receiving her license,” Hill said. “My mom’s passion for physical therapy and helping people has been something I have dreamt to have with a career for as long as I can remember. And athletic training allows me to have that.”
Hill said she plans to use the award monies from the scholarship to help with the cost of tuition and advanced certification classes to further her education.
“Winning such an award recognizes the work we are doing at Marshall at the national level and shows that the guidance from our athletic training faculty allows students to be successful and to become leaders in the profession,” Hill said. “I wouldn’t have been able to win this scholarship without the mentorship I have received while in the athletic training program, so this award is just as much an acknowledgment of the excellence of Marshall’s athletic training curriculum as it is of what I have accomplished as a student in the program.”
Hill currently serves as an active member and treasurer of the Delta Zeta Sorority as well as the vice president of the Marshall University Athletic Training Association (MUATA).
To learn more about Marshall’s 3+2 PMSAT program, which allows students to earn both bachelor’s and master’s degree in only five years, contact Garrett at garrett46@marshall.edu or visit www.marshall.edu/athletic-training/.
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Photo: Kimberly Hill, a first-year graduate student in the Marshall University Professional Master of Science in Athletic Training (PMSAT) program, has been awarded the William Prentice / MAATA (D3) Scholarship from the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA) Research and Education Foundation.