Welcome to the fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada (February 9, 2009)

From Shyla McCarthy ‘06 and Emily Saathoff ‘06…

Greetings from CSM 2009 in Las Vegas! We are Shyla McCarthy ‘06 and Emily Saathoff ‘06. We are third year DPT students at Bradley University. This afternoon we flew from Peoria to Las Vegas. It was an experience for Shyla, as this was her first flight ever! We are staying at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, where the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) Combined Sections Meeting (CSM) conference is being held. We were amazed at how extravagant our hotel room is. We even have a flat screen TV in our bathroom! It is surprising how many physical therapists are here from all over the country. It took us 15-20 minutes to register because the lines were so long. We felt honored this year to wear a “presenter” ribbon on our ID badge.

We just attended the opening ceremony where all the clinical specialists were recognized and the keynote speaker was from Illinois. There were more than 800 newly certified clinical specialists in 2008. Following the ceremony, we attended the reception where there was free food! Stay tuned for more news from CSM 2009.