Years before she became a Doctor of Physical Therapy, helping patients recover from concussions and balance disorders, Jen Strizak was a Tully High School student, dreaming about the faraway places life would take her.
Like many students, she had spent months visiting four-year colleges, imagining where she might spend the next chapter of her life. Her parents supported her dreams, but they also wanted her to understand the financial reality.
"I think I dragged my parents all across the state looking at four-year schools," Strizak recalled. "I distinctly remember my mom sitting me down at the kitchen table and saying, 'We want to support you, but this is what you are going to owe if you go to some of these schools. Take a look at this number - that's what you are going to have in student debt.'"
"That practical advice may have brought me down a little, but it helped me start looking at other options." One of those options came unexpectedly during a basketball camp at Onondaga Community College the summer before her senior year at Tully High School. "Coach (Mike) Wheeler said to me, 'What are your plans for next year?' I said I didn't have any plans yet. And he said, 'Why don't you come here and play basketball?' And I thought, 'Why not?'"
That decision changed the course of her life. Strizak enrolled at OCC in the fall of 2007, earning degrees in Mathematics & Science and Business Administration in just three years while playing for the most successful team in the history of OCC Women's Basketball.
"We all say it really was the most incredible time of our lives," she said. "We were the first OCC team to win the regional championship. The next year, we went 35-0 and made it to the national championship game where we lost. It was one of the most fun times to be part of that team and those historic runs."
Her journey wasn't without setbacks. She tore her ACL during her freshman year, forcing her to spend countless hours in physical therapy before returning to the court in her second and third years at OCC. "I did physical therapy as a student and hated it!" she laughed. Ironically, that experience would eventually lead her to the profession she now loves.
When Strizak arrived at OCC, she already knew she wanted a career in healthcare. As a Mathematics & Science major, she took two semesters of Anatomy & Physiology with Professor Susan Mitchell, an experience she still remembers vividly. "She was one of the most influential people in my time there. She made the material so fun," Strizak said. "I would spend some nights in Ferrante Hall in a lab studying with models of bones and muscles. I would enjoy studying there!"
After graduating from OCC in 2010, Strizak transferred to SUNY Cortland, where she majored in Kinesiology and continued playing basketball. She then earned her Doctor of Physical Therapy degree from SUNY Upstate Medical University in 2015.
Today, Jen Strizak, PT, DPT, specializes in vestibular rehabilitation, concussion management, and physical therapy at Upstate's Institute for Human Performance. She has spent her entire professional career at SUNY Upstate Medical University after earning college degrees at three SUNY institutions. Looking back, she can't help but smile at where her college search ultimately led. "I dragged my parents all over the eastern seaboard looking at schools, and I wound up staying in the SUNY system no more than 30 minutes from home."
More importantly, she says the college she once viewed as a starting point became something much more meaningful. "I thought OCC was going to be just a stepping stone, and it wasn't," Strizak said. "It was one of the most influential points of my academic career. I played basketball, found a mentor in my anatomy professor, and made lifelong friends and connections. Probably more so than any other school I went to, I still stay in touch with the people at OCC. It speaks to the value and the quality of it."
