Casey Yurista, DPT

“Many physical therapists are attracted to the field because they believe in a healthy lifestyle and want to help others,” says Casey Yurista, DPT. “That’s what it was for me.”

Casey transferred to Sage to complete his bachelor’s degree in Biology and earn a doctorate in Physical Therapy.

“Sage had a good PT program and made the transition easy,” he says, describing how graduate program professors met with him while he was still a community college student, to answer questions and guide his course selection toward transferable prerequisites.

“I was able to hit the ground running,” Casey says.

He joined the men’s soccer team and found the athletics program great for making friends — as a student-athlete and also as a spectator. “There is a lot of passion for the sports teams and it was really cool to see that pride. I made good friends on the soccer team and at other teams’ games. Sage is a small school so it is easy to get to know people watching games together.”

“I had lots of good professors,” he says of his classroom experience, “both in terms of imparting education and instilling confidence.”

Professor Stacie Kutz played a big role in his undergrad experience. “When I hit a rut, she was there to say, you can still do this. She pushed me and played a big role in my persevering.”

In the Physical Therapy program, he appreciated that the professors came from diverse backgrounds — in terms of both practice specialties and countries of origin — and emphasized the patient experience alongside the scientific data.

Today, Casey is a physical therapist at Choice Physical Therapy in Troy. Five of his colleagues are Sage graduates, and his practice also hosts physical therapy students from Sage for clinical rotations.

“My favorite part is making people better,” he says. “Choice does a good job of celebrating small wins. Whenever a patient reaches a milestone, maybe they regain a range of motion or go for a run, we sound an air horn on Alexa. The whole workplace is behind every patient. Making people better is why I got into it.”