SLU AT Student Builds Clinical Confidence and Communication Skills at New Trier HS

SLU AT Clinical Site Spotlight - New Trier High School, Wilmette, Illinois

By: Gwyn Brown (MAT Class of 2020)

My summer clinical experience is as New Trier High School in Wilmette, IL. New Trier has a highly recognized athletic program in the Midwest with many of their athletes going on to play at the collegiate level. This summer New Trier has been an amazing experience and has helped build my clinical confidence and communication skills. 

I had the opportunity to be there for all the summer sport camps which include, football, girls’ and boys’ lacrosse, girls field hockey, girls’ soccer, and occasionally basketball. What has been new for me at new trier is that I am used to athletes playing one sport a season or just one sport period but not at New Trier in the summer. These athletes are going back to back practices for different sports. It is a great experience because I get to be involved with multiple sports consistently that don’t occur during the same season regularly. 

Another highlight of New Trier that I haven’t seen anywhere else at my clinical sites, is that they, in the last year, built an athletic training room right next to the fields, fully equipped with an ice machine, plinths, whirlpool, electrical stimulation and ultra sound machine, and enough space for rehabs to take place, and if there is not enough space, take 10 steps and you have an entire turf field. Being so close to the fields makes us more accessible to the athletes. They come in more and are more willing to come in and get checked out versus us being all the way in the building down in the basement which tends to be a deterrent being so far. 

Communicating with high schoolers can be hard and at New Trier, their Athletic Trainer Jordan Anderson ATC who was my preceptor really helped me improve on how to communicate with the athletes and how to understand the way they communicate. This has helped me immensely get increasingly better at evaluations and being able to walk the athletes through rehab or explain their injuries to a parent or coach. New Trier was a great summer clinical because it helped me keep old skills and knowledge sharp but improve skills that needed to be sharpened. It was truly an incredible experience with intelligent mentors and high-end equipment and tools.  

Students in the Saint Louis University Athletic Training Program have an immersive field experience in the summer between their two professional years in the program. This blog post details a student's reflection on their experience.