The NFL has selected a Case Western Reserve University student for the Diversity in Sports Medicine Pipeline Initiative.
Case Western med student Penelope Halkiadakis has been chosen as one of the students to take part in the program. She will be working with the Cleveland Browns training staff for one month during the 2023 season.
News 5 spoke with Halkiadakis about what this opportunity means to her and what she is most excited about looking ahead going into the program.
“One of the things that I'm really looking forward to is the opportunity to see what it looks like to be a partner with the NFL. They get to have this synergy when it comes to excellent research, cutting-edge innovation and top-notch clinical care. So, I'm really interested to see what it looks like to be able to see injuries in real-time and then be able to take this back, whether it's clinical or bench to bedside research and develop these innovative treatments” Halkiadakis said.
Halkiadakis says this NFL opportunity was on her radar for over a year.
She knew she wanted to apply and was thrilled when she received her selection this past month.
“What I'm most looking forward to take away, I think, is to see how far sports medicine has come in terms of delivering holistic care to patients so that it's not only about rehabilitating their musculoskeletal injury but also making sure that we're building back resilience in these patients so that they can come back full force for the season,” Halkiadakis said.
This program being offered is a little more special to her, being a diversity program, Halkiadakis is excited to see the different ways she will be exposed to sports medicine on the field.
“This NFL diversity pipeline program is so they're really intentional about trying to bring a diverse subset of medical students to offer them this early exposure to orthopedics and sports medicine in general. I really feel honored to be part of that opportunity," Halkiadakis said.
Watch live and local news any time:
Download the News 5 Cleveland app now for more stories from us, plus alerts on major news, the latest weather forecast, traffic information and much more. Download now on your Apple device here, and your Android device here.
You can also catch News 5 Cleveland on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, YouTube TV, DIRECTV NOW, Hulu Live and more. We're also on Amazon Alexa devices. Learn more about our streaming options here.
