Hi everyone on 360 O&P and welcome to my blog. This being my first blog here I just want to introduce myself to you and let you know what I’ll be writing about. First off, you are probably wondering who I am and why I am writing this blog, which I think is a good question.  My name is Mark Profeta and I am in my final year of my O&P education at the St. Petersburg College O&P program. So in the coming months I will provide insight about my experiences, both past and present, about going through an O&P program and transitioning into a residency.

For the remainder of this entry I’ll answer the question that I have been asked more times than any other question since I have gotten into O&P; how did you get into O&P? Well here goes my story. I initially started going to school for physical therapy since I have always been interested in the mechanics and anatomy of the human body and helping people get better. When I got into the pre-physical therapy program at the University at Buffalo I started to do more shadowing to try and get more experience and exposure in the field. During the times I was shadowing I started to notice that as time went on there was not much about PT that was getting me excited about becoming a PT. But, during these times I did get some exposure to prosthetics, which I thought was really cool (and still do). Since at this time I was unsure of wanting to continue pursuing a career in PT I researched the O&P field and started to shadow a practitioner in Buffalo. From the first day I started shadowing I got really excited about the field and decided to make the switch to O&P, and from that day I knew I made the right choice. Well that’s how I got into this field and I look forward to sharing my experiences with you.