Chelsea Jasper, Junior Exercise Science Major from Attica, Indiana

“Why’d you decide to come to Manchester?”
“I came to Manchester actually as transfer student from Purdue University, but what drew me to Manchester is the small community and how everybody’s so nice here, and genuine. Unlike how Purdue is so big—it’s big enough to have its own fire department and police department—you were just an ID number there, but here you have a name and all your professors know you, everybody knows you here, and you know everybody.”

“Why did you decide to study exercise science?”
“I actually started as wanting to be international business management, and then I decided the business life, or being at a desk all the time, just wasn’t for me, so I looked into speech therapy because my younger brother goes to an autism school where he deals with a lot of therapists. I was researching that and came across occupational therapy, and took a lot of interest in that because of how it’s a constantly changing environment, and how you’re always learning. To be able to do that, you have to be an exercise science major here at Manchester University, which then prepares you for a graduate program in occupational therapy.”

“What has been your favorite class so far?”
“My favorite class was probably ‘Therapeutic Exercise,’ mainly because it was very hands-on and exactly in my area, but also because I learned a lot about therapy in different settings, including the clinical setting, even therapy in a pool. We actually went to the Aquatic Center here in town and we participated in our own set of therapy. We had to get up really early, 6 o’clock in the morning, to do that. That’s unlike any other class I’ve ever had, so it’s very hands-on and I was really experiencing what it’s going to be like in the occupational therapy field.”

“What has been your favorite memory from your time here?”
“I’d probably say Lil Sibs’ Weekend was my favorite, because I got to bring up my sister who was 16 at the time, so a little old for Lil Sibs’ Weekend, but she really enjoyed it. Plus, being two hours from home, even though it’s not a long distance it’s long enough to not go home all the time, so it’s nice to bring in, even if it’s just my sister to see her for the weekend, that was really fun. They put on a lot of really fun events for us, so that was probably my favorite.”

“What’s something most people don’t know about you?”
“I’m recently a vegetarian. September 2016 is when I decided to be a vegetarian. I feel like whenever I go to dinner and I just order salad or soup, everybody’s like ‘Why didn’t you just get a chicken sandwich or a hamburger?’ Well, I’m a vegetarian, so I guess that’s something people don’t know about me.”