Campus News

Kayla Howard gives back to community where she was raised as physical therapy assistant

GREAT FALLS, Mont. – Kayla Howard knew when she was a high school student at Whitewater High School that she wanted to be a physical therapy assistant.

She watched teammates and others struggle with injuries and then comeback with the help of physical therapists.

"I witnessed teammates, coaches, teachers and family members succeed after injuries, all of them with the help of the physical therapy team that I am so happy to be a part of today," said Howard, who now works at Phillips County Hospital in Malta in northeastern Montana. "I remember wanting to be able to help people like that someday."

That day is now.

Howard, who graduated from Whitewater with six other students in 2015, attended Great Falls College MSU from 2015-2018, is now practicing just 20 miles south of where she grew up.

She said it's been great to return to her roots.

"It's the most rewarding career I could have asked for, being able to come home and help the members of my community," Howard said. "There is something special about seeing the people you cared for succeeding in their goals, knowing you had a hand in getting them there. That is what makes it all worth it."

For Howard, it was a pretty easy decision to attend Great Falls College.

She wanted to stay in Montana, and there are only two physical therapy assistant programs in Montana: Great Falls College and Flathead Valley Community College.

Howard said she chose Great Falls College, which is closer to Whitewater, when she saw the program had such a terrific track record of placing students in jobs, including 100 percent job placement within a year of graduation the last three years.

She is happy she chose Great Falls College.

"The instruction in this program gives you the right tools and materials, but you have to put in work too," Howard said. "My instructors had a good balance of teaching and lecturing and having us dive in and learn things for ourselves."

But all of the studying didn't make it easy when Howard set out to do her clinical rotation.

"I remember being so nervous to go to a real facility and practice as a student, afraid of messing up, and scared of not knowing everything," she said. "I learned that, as clinicians, we will never know everything, and that messing up gives you the opportunity to learn something from your mistakes. It is when I really got a taste of what my career was going to be like, and it definitely increased my drive to absorb as much knowledge as possible in the program and in my clinical rotations."

Howard said it was no problem finding a job upon graduation.

In fact, she had one before she graduated the program with an associate of applied science degree in 2018.

"It's students like Kayla who are a great example in filling the need for health care professionals in rural communities like Malta," said Brad Bechard, program director for the physical therapy assistant program at Great Falls College. "It reiterates our program's stakeholders are not just the Great Falls community but the entire state."

The median wage for a physical therapy assistant is about $45,000 a year in Montana, according to physicaltherapyassistantedu.org.