Waldron Career Conversation with Sonia Punjabi '21 ft. Smera Dwivedi '27

This special student-hosted episode of the Weinberg in the World Podcast features a conversation with Sonia Punjabi '21 who graduated from Northwestern with a Biological Studies Major and a Art Theory & Practice Minor. 

Student host Smera Dwivedi, a rising sophomore majoring in chemistry, interviews Sonia Punjabi, a third-year Doctorate of Physical Therapy student at the University of Miami. Sonia shares her journey from Northwestern University, where she explored various fields before finding her passion in physical therapy. She highlights the impact of being a peer advisor on her personal and professional development, emphasizing the importance of interpersonal skills and diversity training. Sonia also discusses her current clinical rotations and the challenges she faced along the way.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonia-punjabi/

Transcript:

Smera Dwivedi:
Welcome to the Weinberg in the World Podcast, featuring stories of interdisciplinary thinking in today's environment. My name is Smera, and I'm your student host of this special episode of this podcast. I'm a rising sophomore and I have an intended major in chemistry on the premedical path, although I'm not that sure about that, but I'm very excited to learn about physical therapy and your career. Today, I'm excited to be speaking with Ms. Sonia Punjabi, who is, I'm not sure I asked you where you're working or the title of company or anything.

Sonia Punjabi:
Totally fine. We can get to that when we start.

Smera Dwivedi:
Okay. Well, good to know. If you'd like to introduce yourself, thank you so much for speaking with me.

Sonia Punjabi:
Yeah, of course. So I'm Sonia, she/her/hers pronouns, and I'm currently in Miami, Florida. I am in the third year, third and final year of the Doctorate of Physical Therapy program at the University of Miami, which I never thought I would be doing for multiple reasons. It's really cool. We'll get into that. But because I'm in the final year of the doctorate, we have clinical rotations, which means I'll be at different places until I am fully licensed and practicing on my own. So for now, just UMPT, but I love it here, and when there's a job opportunity, I'll let you know.

Smera Dwivedi:
Oh, good to know, good to know. So how was your Northwestern undergrad shaped how where you are now?

Sonia Punjabi:
Oh, I loved Northwestern. I adored it there. I came in not knowing what was going on, which I think is normal. I came in thinking maybe I would do math because I had done well in my math classes in high school. I had excelled in the APs. They offered me the MENU course. I don't know if it's so called MENU. So I was like, "Oh, this is kind of neat." It wasn't quite what I was looking for because I didn't know what I was looking for, so I thought, "Oh, architecture, I like art and math. Maybe journalism. Maybe I should switch to McCormick or potentially SESP."
I kid you not, I looked at so many things when I was in Northwestern, but the things that stood out to me and made me who I am were being a peer advisor for two years. I was a peer advisor for the class of 2023 and the class of 2024, which is happy tears since they've graduated, if they stuck with that graduation year, and the fact that I took advantage of Weinberg because it's arts and sciences, I took a bajillion English courses, some short of a minor. I probably could have done a minor in English literature, and I did a minor in art theory and practice, and those highly influenced how I am as a person today, both personally and professionally, but we'll get into that. I don't want to talk your ear off immediately.

Smera Dwivedi:
You're so good. You're completely good. So what about being specifically a peer advisor made you realize something about yourself or something about your interests or something along those lines?

Sonia Punjabi:
I think the peer advisor course, the way that they prepare students to be peer advisors is phenomenal. It's so well done. I'm still hoping to encourage my current institution and future institutions to utilize some of the same training techniques where we learn about diversity in ourselves, we learn about identity in ourselves, we learn about how to dialogue, and those are essential skills for humans that interact with other humans, but also for healthcare providers that support other humans in health. So that was huge. That was my 101 and how to talk to people and also who am I. I loved it. I loved it. I gained so many incredible interpersonal skills from being a peer advisor that I probably still use at this moment to this day. They've just been honed as I've entered the doctorate program.

Smera Dwivedi:
Okay. Good. So what was the hardest part about where you are now? What was the hardest part, whether it was undergrad or something else?

Sonia Punjabi:
Good question. I think not to be too pithy here, there are ebbs and flows in every stage of life. In undergrad, maybe early undergrad, it was that I didn't know. I was confused about my path, which is the way it's supposed to be. I didn't know if I was even in the right school, right major. I had no idea. So I was a biological sciences major, inevitably, confusingly, begrudgingly pre-med, not that that's not a wonderful track, but it didn't quite fit and I wasn't sure why. And I kid you not, I was thinking about preparing for the MCAT and preparing for applying to medical school until the last quarter I was at Northwestern, the final one.
I changed my mind. I think it must've been February 2021 and I graduated in June 2021. So I decided really late that I wanted to go into PT school. So maybe in the beginning it was that uncertainty and that feeling that I hadn't found quite the right fit. I knew what I liked, I loved the art theory and practice classes, I loved being a peer advisor, I loved writing and talking, but I didn't know how that would translate.

Smera Dwivedi:
So I kind of relate to ... I'm in the pre-med path, but I'm not sure if that's something I want to do. So what made you realize that physical therapy was what you wanted to do or what made you finally decide to get off the medical school path?

Sonia Punjabi:
Sure, and again, I do want to emphasize that I have some lovely friends in the pre-med, well, now medical school world. They're deep in medical school now, and it's a great path. It's amazing. I don't want anyone to feel like, "Oh, this is wrong," because it's a great path. It just wasn't my path. For me, it was that I had a history of my own PT journey as a patient with dance. I danced at Northwestern. I was one of the first years who auditioned for Ahana when it was formed in 2017. So I was on Ahana, I had auditioned for the Bhangra team, and I realized I couldn't do everything I wanted to do, and that was tough. I hadn't found the right kind of PT for myself either. I didn't know what I was looking for.
Finally, we get to February 2021, and in my brain, I've already kind of thought about and entertained physical medicine and rehabilitation. It's called PM&R for short, you may have heard of it, and it is a specialty in medicine in which physicians intervene pain management with rehabilitation, either mildly invasively, moderately invasively, noninvasively. There are a ton of ways that physicians can intervene in PM&R, but I thought that was really attractive to me.
I was like, "Oh, there's a physician at Shirley Ryan that takes care of performing artists," and I met her. This was right before the pandemic. I kid you not, it was maybe the week or the week of, week before or week of. I go downtown. I have a meeting with one of these physicians who was nice enough to greet me, and we chat about the differences between the physician track and the physical therapy track because they work closely together for rehab.
And she was very honest about it. She said, "Yeah, well, I think as a physician, you get to make decisions about medications if that's applicable, about surgical interventions if that's applicable, but you spend less time with your patients compared to a clinician in physical therapy who might see someone two to three times a week for an hour each, depending on the setting they're in. So you have different relationships with your patients and you accomplish different things together." And I was like, "That's interesting,"

Smera Dwivedi:
Absolutely.

Sonia Punjabi:
I started entertaining that track during the pandemic when everyone was making sourdough and banana bread. We made a lot of banana bread. I was also-

Smera Dwivedi:
I forget the [inaudible 00:07:43]

Sonia Punjabi:
A lot of banana bread and a lot of podcasts. I was listening to podcasts by dance trainers working in the rehab world. I was listening to podcasts and looking at online resources from PTs who did a different kind of PT than I'd ever seen. They did strength-based PT. So I started educating myself and applying some of these skills and I was like, "Well, this is pretty cool." Finally, when I was juggling PM&R, PT, PM&R, PT, I made the decision to do PT because the lifestyle of the educational trajectory made sense to me. I got to be a clinician earlier and for longer time with patients, and that's what I really liked.

Smera Dwivedi:
Okay. Very nice. A podcast, so I need to start listening to podcasts. Got it. Got it.

Sonia Punjabi:
You don't have to. It just happened to be-

Smera Dwivedi:
It's like another avenue to explore to see what I want to do. It's very nice because-

Sonia Punjabi:
I was exploring on Instagram. There are clinicians that show you how they treat knee pain with certain exercises. Again, be careful, it's the internet. They might be like, "Hang upside down from a tree," and that's obviously not going to ... Well, it might, but it might not be the right thing, but I was exploring resources to understand the variety of people not only in rehab, meaning doctors and PTs and OTs and other folks that help with the rehab world, but also styles of rehab within physical therapy. So this was all on my own accord. Northwestern has a wonderful PT program, but I don't think the undergrads get a lot of exposure to what that is.

Smera Dwivedi:
Okay. That makes sense. So you looked at you said Instagram. Did you ever shadow a lot of doctors? Did that help or anything of sort?

Sonia Punjabi:
Yeah, good question. Again, because times were a little different, when COVID picked up, I had just started entertaining that idea, and that's why I met with some of the folks at Shirley Ryan. So I'd been to Shirley Ryan a couple times before the pandemic, and I had seen their space, which is really interesting. They overlap their engineers and their PTs and their physicians all in the same space in the same floor. So I got to speak to an engineer there, I got to speak to this performing arts physician and PM&R physician there, and I probably would've continued doing that with the children's hospital I applied for a position, et cetera.
But when the pandemic happened, the resources available to me were Spotify or Instagram were folks that were posting information, again, beware, but information that you could learn bite-size pieces about how they treat, and a lot of folks are doing that, especially in this day and age. So it's a wonderful way to explore. It's not the only one. It just happened to be one of mine. We have a family friend who I also was able to speak to on the phone who is at Hopkins Rehabilitation now and specializes in triathletes and runners. I got to speak to him about his experience. So that's also definitely an option. If you have connects in certain areas and they're willing to speak, ask some questions.

Smera Dwivedi:
Makes sense. Do you have any advice for somebody who's going through something similar or doesn't know what to do or something?

Sonia Punjabi:
Of course. So I think Northwestern kids are often certain personalities. They often are extremely high achieving, very bright. There's a reason that we're all in this cool place or we're in this cool place. We really like what we're doing and we're good at things that we're doing, and we want to continue to learn and excel.
I also feel that sometimes the perfectionism can mask our abilities to see, "Hey, I have all these really cool things going on," and I might not be where that person is, but I've learned how to speak Mandarin. I've learned how to oil paint in Kresge. I've learned how to code, and I'm a history major. Sometimes it's okay to do something purely out of interest and fun, even if it doesn't feel like, "Oh, this is going to be something on my resume or it's going to take me to this future degree," whether it's a medical degree or a law degree or whatever that may be. It doesn't necessarily have to make sense. I think explore and be okay with making mistakes and being lighthearted about it.
I will be totally honest, I think my art theory and practice minor and all of my English classes greatly influenced how I am as a future clinician. I think it's made me really well-rounded, and it's something I love. Typically with the pre-medical track, they may not be like, "Go take an art class." They might give you time, but don't feel like that's not the right thing if you're interested in it. Certainly, there's volunteering, there's health related courses, you have to take all of the prerequisites. Those are a given, but give yourself some space to make mistakes, to be lighthearted, to not be too hard on yourself and to explore.

Smera Dwivedi:
Well, that's really good advice because I feel like a lot of times I think of the longterm value in all the classes I take and if they're going to benefit my career or resume, so that's-

Sonia Punjabi:
It's not a bad thought. It's not a bad thought at all, but the pressure can feel like a lot sometimes with that.

Smera Dwivedi:
So along the same lines, do you regret doing something like that? Do you regret something like in undergrad that you wish you'd done differently?

Sonia Punjabi:
I think I can say the only thing I regret is being too hard on myself, genuinely. I think you are meant to explore and change your path. They know you're going to do that. If you don't, something's wrong. You are meant to explore, make mistakes and grow and change course. So if you're doing that, you're doing the right thing. So I wouldn't regret anything. I think I had a wonderful time. I explored and I did a lot of really unique things that made my Northwestern experience.

Smera Dwivedi:
That's reassuring to hear, for sure. So I'm worried I'm going to regret doing certain things or taking certain classes.

Sonia Punjabi:
I took, like I said, a bunch of art courses for the art minor, and I took English courses for fun because based on my Weinberg credits, I didn't need them, based on my premedical requisites I didn't need them, but I remember them maybe the most, and that's super cool to me.

Smera Dwivedi:
So other than your classes, and you talked a little bit about social media and how that influenced your decision, other than that, were there any extracurriculars that pushed you towards your career or any that you were like, "Oh, wow, I like this a lot. This is something I want to do in the future," or something like that?

Sonia Punjabi:
Let me think. Well, I did touch on the dance scene at Northwestern, which is lovely, amazing, super cool. There's a wonderful performing arts scene, as you know. The fact that I loved it so much but had some hurdles on my own participating in it, that was a big hole. I was like, "Gosh. If only I could wholeheartedly with my whole musculoskeletal system participate in this, that would be amazing." And I still did, but just at my own pace since I hadn't found the clinician that was right for me yet. I think that is often a common story in my fields. A lot of my classmates in my cohort, they have their ACL history or they have their shoulder labrums or their hockey injuries, and that is a common segue into the field, but not the only one.
Some people come from advertising degrees, business degrees, they have kids, they come from serving in the military, in the Navy. So a lot of paths can lead to this, and much like any other career, many paths can lead to a law degree. Many paths can lead back to medicine if you pursue medical school. I don't want people to think that there's one path to get here. I think I deviated from your question a little bit, so we might need to come back to that.

Smera Dwivedi:
Totally okay, just whatever you'd like to say. I did want to ask, Ahana, is that the Bollywood dance group or is that the one with the Danyas or which one?

Sonia Punjabi:
Good question. So I think I auditioned for pretty much all of them when I was a freshman, a first year. Ahana is the noncompetitive, as far as I'm aware, still noncompetitive Bollywood dance, like a film fusion dancing. I remember exploring the Raas team exploring the Bhangra team, exploring TONIK Tap, which I thought was super cool, legendary, such interesting performing artists, the TONIK Tap. I was familiar with Refresh. I hope that there's still a large participation in the dance scene at Northwestern, and I would hope that in the fields in physical therapy, there is more tension given to performing artists now than before because I think that's been a developing part of the field where performing artists have a very unique sense of sport, of what they have to do, demands in the sport, and they haven't always been treated as such.
So I think getting proper treatment and having clinicians that understand that is so [inaudible 00:16:36] because then it takes people years to figure out who they need because it's not common knowledge. So little mini plug for all of our dancers out there. If something's not right, don't be afraid to get second opinions and look for clinician that makes sense to you and that treats you to your sport and to your needs.

Smera Dwivedi:
So did you continue doing Ahana all four years?

Sonia Punjabi:
I did Ahana for a year-ish, a year-ish. I remember I had to say goodbye to the team my sophomore year, I believe, my second year because of my PT journey. I hadn't found what I needed yet. It was getting tougher to participate in dance, but I think life has a funny way of showing you what you need when you need it. So I've found some really amazing resources, clinicians, worlds of PT that lend themselves back to what I was doing in Ahana like, "Oh, that thing I wanted to do, that's why it was so hard because I hadn't had this training, this treatment, this person." I mean, life is kind of funny like that.

Smera Dwivedi:
So was it the balance, was it a lot of time commitment, which is why you had to just let it go or were you just like, "I need to be more career-oriented," and some extracurriculars can't be balanced well? What was the driving-

Sonia Punjabi:
It was actually the physical pain injury stuff. I was having trouble with that, and yeah, it's a tough journey for any athlete for any performing artist when you have to take a break because of that, but I'm really glad my life went the way that it did because I don't know if I would be here if it hadn't.

Smera Dwivedi:
Do you have any role models growing up or just whenever?

Sonia Punjabi:
Yeah. So currently, a few of my role models here in the Miami area are the women who work in the subspecialty of PT called pelvic floor therapy. It's a therapy that you might not recognize applies to more than just pregnant folk because, certainly, that's a population that needs pelvic floor PT at times, but there are subspecialty of PT that works with stability, strength, integrity and function of the pelvis and the things in the pelvis. So this is bladder and bowel function, this is sexual health, and this is pain, injury, et cetera.
They're so cool. I have a wonderful mentor in the Delray, Boca Raton area who has her own clinic, and she's always available for me to ask questions, for me to come in and say like, "Hey, can I participate as a shadow? Can I see who you're treating today?" if they're comfortable with it. She's wonderful. And then I have my own clinicians here, actually, that have treated me, that have seen me throughout my own journey who are so smart, so interesting, such fun individuals to provide support. They show me that being a colorful human is not only allowed but also encouraged in a field where you're treating humans.
So I think if we handle ourselves with imperfect grace, that's great. That's going to be a wonderful way to connect with people when you show them like you're doing your best and you are acknowledging when things get a little twisted and continuing on. So definitely my role models in pelvic PT, my parents and my brother who are all Northwestern alum. We are a very purple family. They are definitely a big support system to me.
There are so many other people on the list, my sister-in-Law, my brother's wife and the cat outside. Essentially, your support system cheers you on, and the mentors and the role models I have are often one and the same, so to keep it light.

Smera Dwivedi:
Right. Good to know. It's also nice to have a support system, for sure.

Sonia Punjabi:
Absolutely. Oh, I should probably mention, if you do another degree after Northwestern, all of the faculty, all of the clinicians, all the people who are teaching you become amazing role models and support systems. A little shout out to the faculty and staff at the University of Miami Physical Therapy Program. They're a family. That's why I came. They are like a bonafide family. They will care for you. They will help you to the point of texting you when something's wrong or you texting them when something's wrong and they'll respond to you. They are available by email. They're available to meet with you. They're honestly available to give life advice. I have a faculty member's book sitting in my bookcase right now. So if you're open to being vulnerable, which is a huge part of what peer advisor training teaches you, people will help.

Smera Dwivedi:
Okay. So you talked a little bit about your post post-grad struggles.

Sonia Punjabi:
So again, every chapter is going to have its own flavor of ups and downs. When I graduated from Northwestern, so bittersweet, amazing, very exciting. I started a gap year position at a Miami-based gym and physical therapy clinic. I was doing their photography, their media, their patient and client interactions. It was amazing because I got to learn all these wonderful things from people who were already doing it ahead in this part of the career, but it was tough because I didn't have any peers and I felt a little bit like an island.
So that can be a little isolating when you have a new chapter and you feel like you're on your own footing and you would benefit maybe from seeing where some of your classmates are or having a peer that's just at the same stage of life. So it was helpful when someone else came in at that position who was applying to med school, and so we had that commonality of life chapter.

Smera Dwivedi:
That's nice that you were able to navigate through that. So your two years post ... You said you graduated in 2021?

Sonia Punjabi:
I did, yes, in June 2021.

Smera Dwivedi:
So you mentioned your doctorate program that you have to get back to. What is that?

Sonia Punjabi:
Yes. So the PT program, typically in the United States now, are three-year programs and they're doctorates. So when you graduate, you have a doctorate of physical therapy, and then you take the licensing exam to practice. So okay, you have the doctorate, you're knowledgeable, now you're allowed to practice. So that is where I am. I'm in the third year and I'm finishing classwork in October, and then October through May for our program, we have three clinicals in a row where we get to have hands-on experience with a clinical instructor who will oversee you and you'll treat people in the hospital, you'll treat pediatrics if you're into that. For me, I'm going to be treating pelvic in March. So this termination of the program is really hands-on practical work.

Smera Dwivedi:
Got it. Okay. Is there anything else you'd like to say or, I don't know, speak about, give advice for anything?

Sonia Punjabi:
Open-ended. I have silly versions of this answer and I have serious versions. Do you want both? Silly versions. Still, they hold weight, go check out Bookends and Beginnings. It's, I think, still in the alley at where the box is. You know where the campus gear store is?

Smera Dwivedi:
Yeah.

Sonia Punjabi:
There's an alley, there's a bookstore in there. They also have a book front, which is beautiful, if I'm remembering correctly, on Sherman. I think it's on Sherman. Go check it out. It was my little lifeline during PT or not PT school, during my Northwestern undergrad experience. And if the fourth floor of North still exists-

Smera Dwivedi:
Yeah. They're doing some construction with North, but it's like they're adding a pub of something.

Sonia Punjabi:
Interesting.

Smera Dwivedi:
There's still like a third and fourth floor. Yes.

Sonia Punjabi:
I think it's the fourth floor and people don't know about it. If you take a staircase, go check that out if nobody knows about that yet.

Smera Dwivedi:
It's nice and quiet up there, for sure.

Sonia Punjabi:
Oh, yes. Oh, yes. I think I have a few about the library. Do they still take out the Mario Kart Wii during reading week?

Smera Dwivedi:
Yes, of course.

Sonia Punjabi:
Okay. Good. Play a lot of that. Do a lot of that. Participate in every primal screen you can.

Smera Dwivedi:
Haven't done that yet, actually.

Sonia Punjabi:
Yeah, you should. I think it's 9:00 PM. Is it the Sunday before finals?

Smera Dwivedi:
Yeah, I believe so, around that time.

Sonia Punjabi:
Do that. If you're feeling adventurous, go take a look at Blick, the art store near where the movie theater used to be.

Smera Dwivedi:
There's still a movie theater there, the AMC.

Sonia Punjabi:
Oh, surprising. I'm sure more fun, silly ones will come to mind, but my gist here is just explore just a cool place. Evanston's a great place. Northwestern's a great community. Don't be afraid to strike up conversations with people you haven't really crossed paths with. Serious ones would be don't be afraid of change. Change is the only constant. It's that very famous saying or phrase. Don't be afraid of change with anything, with undergrad, with your personal life, with post-grad. Don't be resistant to change. It will often make you better.

Smera Dwivedi:
No, good to know. I do.

Sonia Punjabi:
Yeah, of course.

Smera Dwivedi:
Well, I mean, that was really helpful for me to consider. Thank you so much for your advice and for talking about your career and personal stuff about your life and [inaudible 00:25:50] I appreciate it.

Sonia Punjabi:
If anyone has questions about the physical therapy world, I'm more than happy to chat, to get on a video call, phone call. It's a really cool place. I think a lot of health leaning undergrads may not know this is an option for them or what it even looks like. There are a million different things you could do in PT. You can help folks post-stroke walk again. You can help folks post-spinal cord injury participate in leisure, in recreation. For me, I can help folks during pregnancy or if you just want to rehab ankles and pediatrics who play soccer, do that. It's a cool field. Consider it, and I'm here for questions.

Smera Dwivedi:
Okay. Thank you.

Sonia Punjabi:
Yeah, of course.

Smera Dwivedi:
We appreciate you tuning into the special edition of the podcast, Weinberg in the World. Go Cats. We hope you have an amazing day.