A student currently enrolled in second-year studies in the Somerset Community College Physical Therapist Assistant Program has been named the recipient of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) Orthopaedic Section’s Outstanding PTA Student Award for 2015. Kristy Hyden of Prestonsburg will receive the award at the APTA meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana in February. Hyden is the eighth SCC student who has won the award. Past recipients include: Samantha Grubb, Barbourville; Bethany Smahaj, Winchester; Glenn Trail, Lexington; Chris Garland, Burkesville; Valarie Cooper, Jamestown; Barry Buchignani, Lexington; and Isaac Mills, Corbin.
Hyden was previously awarded a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Exercise Science from the University of Kentucky (UK) before being admitted to SCC’s PTA Program. While at UK, she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society and the Calvary College Ministry, a group with whom she raised funds for UK’s Pediatric Hematology and Oncology Clinics by coordinating dance marathons, fall festivals and other various fundraisers.
At SCC, she is a member of Phi Theta Kappa Honorary, the Physical Therapy student organization, the Student Government Association and is the historian for her class. In 2013, she was selected to serve on the Forward in the Fifth Student Congress. In 2014, she received the highest honor presented within our program, having been selected the recipient of the James H. Anderson Award. This award is especially meaningful as it is peer-selected and based upon the expectation that the recipient will make a significant and lasting impact upon the physical therapy profession. She was also recognized as one of three PTA students in Kentucky to be named to the Kentucky Physical Therapy Association’s (KPTA) All-Academic Team.
Hyden is active in a number of charitable and community service activities including assisting with free health screenings at the Kentucky Special Olympics, teaching and mentoring teen students in Camp Jump Start and raising funds for the Jordan Light Foundation, a group whose mission is to provide awareness, support and funding for families with a financial medical crisis, since 2010.
Hyden has worked as a PT Aide at Highlands Physical Therapy and was nominated for the award by Ernest D. Brewer, a physical therapist at the facility.
“Regardless of the setting or task being asked to perform, Ms. Hyden demonstrates high levels of professionalism, character and trustworthiness,” said Brewer.
The nomination was supported by program faculty members Steve Hammons, Ron Meade, and Claudette Prather, and by program students Brittany McKee and Courtney Watts.
Hyden is the daughter of Larry and Patricia Hyden and is expected to graduate with an Associates of Applied Science Degree from the Physical Therapist Assistant Program in May, 2015.
For more information about the SCC PTA Program, contact the director at ron.meade@kctcs.edu.