Grad Stories '17: SAU Helped DPT Grad Push Past Tragedy

When Kevin Wendling '16 tells his future physical therapy clients they can push through any challenge, he will be speaking from powerful personal experience.

Wendling was a month past earning his St. Ambrose Bachelor of Exercise Science degree and a few weeks into a summer class in the Doctor of Physical Therapy program when both his mother and father died when they were struck by an automobile while bicycling near their home in Morris, Ill.

Wendling went home on June 21, 2016, to mourn with his brother Ryan, his paternal grandparents and other close friends and family, including many from St. Ambrose who attended the funeral.

Then, he was back in a DPT classroom within a week.

Now, having battled through grief while working through the rigor of SAU's highly regarded DPT program, Wendling graduated on schedule Saturday at the Davenport RiverCenter.

His parents weren't there, as they were in May of 2016, but there to cheer him on was brother Ryan, who last week received his Master of Business Administration degree from Valparaiso University. So were their paternal grandparents and Kevin's girlfriend, Ellen Witte, who will graduate from the DPT program next December.

As importantly, Wendling said, he was surrounded by the DPT classmates, faculty and staff who provided so much of the emotional support he has needed to process the tragedy and progress through the program over the past 18 months.

"From the day that it happened, the St. Ambrose community was just powerfully present," he said. "It wasn't overwhelming. I had the space to grieve in my own way. But everywhere I turned, people were there for me, willing to talk and do whatever they could to help."

Mike Puthoff, PhD, professor and outgoing director of the DPT program, said Wendling's quick return to St. Ambrose almost certainly was the most comforting way to deal with the tragedy.

"He felt like he was coming home, in a way," Puthoff said. "My sense is he got some comfort coming back to the structure of the program but also his many friendships."

A number of those friendships were formed in the course of Wendling's undergraduate career. Those were a busy four years that included participation in virtually every intramural sport offered by the Wellness and Recreation Department; an active role in the SAU's Dance Marathon chapter that was launched by the DPT student organization in the spring of his freshman year; and steady work as a volunteer tutor in the Student Success Center and as a peer assistant in the New Student Seminar.

As a Track One early-admit student to the DPT program, Kevin also managed a challenging academic schedule that allowed him to take doctoral courses while he still was completing his undergraduate degree his senior year.

In the process, he spent lots of classroom time alongside other Track One students who also will earn their DPT degrees on Saturday. One such friend was Heather Birely '16, a non-traditional student, mother of three teen-aged sons, and one of many classmates who offered Wendling support but also drew from his strength.

"As a parent, it amazed me that he was able to somehow everyday push his way through," she said. "He had tough days but I think it also opened him up to a whole new perspective. All of us in this program are Type A personalities, where grades and everything around the program are so important. Then something major happens and you realize what the truly important things are in life."

Wendling – who will enroll in the St. Ambrose DPT program's post-professional clinical orthopedic residency program after his graduation – believes his experience with personal tragedy will make him a more empathic therapist.

"There are relationships you build, working with your clients sometimes five days a week," he said. "I think my life story and the things I've experienced can help me see their perspective, too."

He will also carry the life-enriching lessons he learned at St. Ambrose, where he said he felt the pull of Ambrosian community on his first visit. "It just felt like home," he said.

His parents loved St. Ambrose, as well, he said - especially his mother, Janice, who went to small, private college in the midst of an urban neighborhood herself before making a life as a beloved elementary school math teacher.

She and her husband, Mark, an engineer at a nuclear power station, visited Kevin often at St. Ambrose, sometimes just to take in an intramural basketball, volleyball or field hockey contest.

Their final visit was their proudest, of course, and it comforts Kevin to look at photos of the family together for the happy occasion of his graduation just a month before the tragic accident.

He certainly thought of Janice and Mark on Saturday.

"There is always going to be a little bit of that bittersweet for all the big moments in my life going forward," he said. "I'm happy that I have that sense of achievement for all of the work I put forth to get here. I know that my parents are proud of me and I still know they are watching over me. I can smile knowing I did them well, carrying on. They would have wanted me to keep pursuing my dreams, what I wanted, where I was going with life. Holding onto that thought makes it more of a happy moment than a grieving one."