Gifts of Giving Back

When Mollie Kam moved from Boston to the Washington, D.C. area, becoming a mentor kept her in touch with the IHP. Kam graduated from the Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) program in 2020. She worked at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, and last year she moved to the nation’s capital, where she works for Set Physical Therapy.

“I’m passionate about advocating for the PT profession and about helping the next group of people who are coming through the educational system,” Kam says. 

“Mentoring felt like a great opportunity to stay involved and offer advice on changes I’ve recently gone through. I had just found a job, moved to a new place, and gotten a new license in a new state, all things that I could share to help students prepare to be new graduates. 

“It’s a period of uncertainty when people wonder if they are really prepared and what their experience will be when they don’t have someone supervising them.” 

Kam’s mentee was Clarence Lee, a 2024 DPT graduate, who, like Kam, also left the Boston area. In his case, he moved with his then-fiancée, now wife, to Philadelphia, a new city where he’ll start a new job. 

To spark conversations between mentors and mentees, the DPT program provides a list of topics that led to useful conversations between Kam and Lee. They talked about Lee’s final clinical rotation and about preparing for the board exam, finding and interviewing for jobs, and the most useful continuing education opportunities. 

The relationship was useful for Lee, who is a career-changer. He had graduated from Brandeis University with a degree in economics and went to Washington, D.C., to work in government. 

“I was working for great organizations, but I always felt that I was helping the helpers instead of getting directly involved with people,” he recalls. To do that, he decided to become a physical therapist. He had benefited from physical therapy himself, and he was impressed by the other career-changers he met when he was looking into enrolling at the IHP. 

Having a mentor, Lee says, has been a way to build on the relationships he already had with his instructors. 

“Mollie has been very involved and proactive. I was able to bounce ideas off her, and it was great to have someone who was so clearly invested in my future and my well-being help guide me along.”

Key players 

The MGH Institute’s dynamic community of alumni is one of its greatest treasures. With over 11,000 graduates, Institute alumni are integral partners in helping the Institute achieve its mission and vision. From the newest graduates to the most seasoned professionals, alumni give back in a variety of ways. More than 200 have served as mentors since 2020, and hundreds have served as clinical educators. Some have donated to ensure the Institute continues to meet the needs of the current students, while others have returned to give advice as guest speakers in classes and on panels. Their commitment not only enriches the student experience and helps the Institute achieve its goals, but it also aids alumni in developing skills that support their career aspirations. 

“It’s a win-win when a mutually beneficial relationship can be forged between alumni and the Institute,” says Katie Mulcahy, director of alumni relations, “because it showcases how, when members of a community support each other, the whole community succeeds.”

Providing a clinical education 

Mentoring is one way to help students learn important lessons; teaching is another. 

“I’m still learning every day from my supervisor and colleagues,” Anna Cardoni says, “so working with IHP students was a natural thing to do.” 

Cardoni, who earned her master’s in physician assistant studies in 2o18, works in cardiac surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, and is a clinical educator for IHP students. 

“Everyone in this profession and everyone at the hospital has had a teacher,” says Cardoni. “So I enjoy being able to give back and have a positive influence on students.” 

Cardoni has shepherded students through operating rooms, teaching them about cardiac surgery and sharing everything she knows about working with patients, from communicating effectively to helping students understand that they are seeing patients on one of the hardest days of their lives. 

“I want students to learn everything they can, then choose a job they truly enjoy because that will make them better clinicians who can really help patients.”

One of the best parts of being a clinical instructor, Cardoni says, is seeing her students eventually become her colleagues. 

“We’re in the process of orienting someone right now, which is so great. It’s so rewarding to see them develop as a student, take time off for their exams, and then come back and develop into a clinical provider.” 

Erin Foley, a 2018 graduate of the IHP’s Doctor of Occupational Therapy program and a clinical educator, loves creating opportunities for IHP students. 

“Fieldwork was the most valuable thing I did as a student,” Foley says. She’s currently an occupational therapist at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital. “I had incredible clinical instructors who shaped my thinking and my approach to treating patients, and those experiences still come back to me now, six years into my career. 

“So I love working with current students, being able to give back by sharing what I learned as a student and what I’m learning as a clinician.” 

School, Foley says, can be theoretical, but it’s clinical fieldwork that connects what students learn to patients’ lives. So, she teaches students the clinical reasoning and occupational therapy skills they’ll need as well as the “soft skills” of “how to have a difficult conversation and how to approach a patient who may be struggling.” 

She also teaches students that occupational therapy is a holistic, creative, evolving field, and that the best way to succeed is to become a lifelong learner. Ultimately, Foley says, clinical education is an investment in the future. 

“It’s great to see how excited students are, and to help them understand how exciting it can be to join the profession and carry it forward.”

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