Christina Bourbeau ’10 Awarded AT Fellowship in Colorado
Talk about upward trajectory! After Christina Bourbeau ’10 earned a degree in Athletic Training from KSC, she headed to the University of Hawaii to pursue a masters degree in the discipline. Then she worked for a year in southern California as an athletic trainer and was selected for a prestigious and competitive Sports Medicine Athletic Training Fellowship at the Steadman Clinic in Colorado, where she’ll be working with Olympic athletes.
“I am very fortunate to be an athletic training fellow at the Steadman Clinic!” Bourbeau exclaimed. “This is a huge opportunity, as it is a very competitive fellowship program for certified athletic trainers. Each year, the Steadman Clinic offers five to seven positions for certified athletic trainers to work in the orthopedic hospital and train to become physician extender athletic trainers. This is a year-long fellowship, and we go through rotations with each surgeon in the Steadman Clinic, giving us the opportunity to work with some of the best orthopedic surgeons in the nation. While we are here, we become certified orthopedic technologists (after we pass our national exam) and we obtain ‘scrub’ privileges so we can assist in the operating room. Additionally, we have a lot of outreach opportunities to work as traditional athletic trainers at local high schools; we also provide sports medicine coverage at events that come to Vail, including the GoPro Games, Dew Tour, and USA Pro Cycling Challenge and we travel with the US Ski and Snowboard teams whether it’s to Europe, Canada, or locally at Copper Mountain. Professionally, this is one of the best opportunities I could have ever accepted at this point in my life.”
“While I am here, I hope to learn as much as I can from all of the sports medicine professionals I work with. I hope to publish some research and to give back to the athletic training profession by sharing my research at national meetings. Also, I want to enjoy the active lifestyle of Vail, CO and explore as much as I can.”
And where does her training at Keene State fit into all of this? “KSC played a huge role in preparing me for a position like this one,” she said. “My foundation of athletic training skills and knowledge all began there. The clinical opportunities offered during my time as an undergrad introduced me to the various routes I could take after becoming a certified athletic trainer. My education at KSC allowed me to obtain a graduate assistant position at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, which in turn provided me with the education I needed to be a competitive applicant for the Steadman Clinic fellowship position.”
