Brooke Martinez

“I decided on Sage when I was a senior in high school because it pretty much had everything I wanted,” said Brooke Martinez, listing Russell Sage College’s small campus, its location in New York’s Hudson Valley and its accelerated physical therapy program.

She said she knew she wanted to be in the medical field and was drawn specifically to PT due to its emphasis on holistic interventions instead of medication and surgery. 

“Sage has been wonderful as I moved through college,” she said. 

She particularly enjoyed the array of classes available to her as a Health Sciences major and member of Sage’s Honors program. Some favorite Honors classes included History of Medicine, an exploration of medical ideas and the social context in which they functioned; Big History, which spans the Big Bang through artificial intelligence; and an independent research project with Biology Professor Mary Rea, Ph.D. 

That project examined the effect of mood on recovery rate after exercise. 

“I learned all the steps of research — writing a research proposal, applying to the IRB, actually conducting the research on participants, analyzing the results and drawing conclusions, and creating a poster that we presented at the undergraduate research symposium,” said Brooke. 

“Now that I am in the DPT program, I feel more prepared than students who came from different colleges,” she continued, again naming specific courses that made a difference. “Sage has us take Pathology and Prevention and Medical Terminology, which I found very helpful.” 

“I also have been able to be a tutor and TA,” said Brooke. Teaching assistants work alongside professors to set up labs, offer assistance during lab sessions, lead some post-lab discussions and help with grading. 

She said that her role as a teaching assistant has helped her develop the leadership qualities that she will need as she advances in her career, eventually supervising others and managing PT practices. 

“Russell Sage College was the perfect fit for me,” she said of all the opportunities she found. “It’s not a huge university, but it has everything you need and a great community.”