DETROIT – As a former youth athlete, Sophia Costa knew she wanted a career in sports. But she wasn’t sure what a job supporting athletes would look like.
“Sports and fitness have always been a part of me, and I wanted to make it a bigger part of my life,” said the senior in Wayne State’s College of Education. “I never was that person in high school who knew exactly what I was going to do. I was of the mindset that I would figure it out, eventually.”
As a student at Macomb Community College, Costa got a clearer picture of what her college-to-career path would look like.
“When I started looking into physical therapy jobs, a lot of my coworkers were in the same program as me and also went to Wayne State,” she said. “They had nothing but good things to say about not only the physical therapy program, but also the instructors who are a part of the Wayne State program.”
Costa, who will graduate in December with a bachelor's of science in exercise and sport science with a minor in sport psychology, recently received the Carl Parsell Scholarship – awarded annually to family members of the Michigan Association of Police, Michigan Association of Public Employees and Michigan Association of Fire Fighters.
“I was very excited to find out that I was one of the recipients,” said Costa, whose mother works for the Sterling Heights Police Department. Costa is the second WSU student to win the Parsell Scholarship, which was established in 1991.
She hopes to continue her education at WSU, planning to earn a doctorate to become a physical therapist in the sports medicine industry.
“I like Wayne State,” Costa said. “I think I would still enjoy being a student there in a graduate program. Ultimately, it all depends on where I would get in. But yes, I would like to be a Wayne State student for that.”
Last fall, Costa was among 287 transfer students from Macomb Community College – Wayne State’s largest feeder school – followed by Henry Ford Community College (222) and Oakland Community College (175).
Students from partner institutions can transfer more than 60 credits to Wayne State for a number of programs, as well as participate in University Honors and accelerated master’s programs. Costa enrolled in the Michigan Transfer Network and used the pathway to transfer her general education credit hours to Wayne State.
“One of the pillars of the Prosperity Agenda is to accelerate mobility for our students,” said Dr. Laurie M. Lauzon Clabo, Wayne State’s provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs. “Education can positively impact students’ life trajectories, and it fosters generational change and societal advancement, so these transfer pathway agreements have wide-ranging benefits not just for students like Sophia and her family, but for everyone in Michigan.”
For the last two years, Costa has participated in internships as a physical therapy aide and a physical therapy technician. Now, she’s working with Wayne State faculty and staff like Elana Lofman, internship and community engagement coordinator, and Fawne Allossery, academic services officer, to climb the postsecondary ladder and land another meaningful internship this fall.
“I’m looking into different strength and conditioning style internships, working more with an athletic population and more training styles,” said Costa, who has a 4.0 GPA. “I have experience working one on one with patients, but that style of exercise is a little different than how you might train someone looking for personal training or working with a sports team.”