Finlandia Fridays meet up with instructor Sami Dowling (’10) to discuss PTA Program and Club

This week, Finlandia Fridays welcome to the show PTA Program Instructor Sami Dowling (’10) to talk about Finlandia’s PTA Program and the newly revitalized PTA Club for students. Dowling shares her journey as a FinnU student, what inspired her to become a PTA as well as her journey back to Finlandia as an instructor.

“The beautiful thing about Finlandia is that it’s like a family. I’m still in touch with my instructors from when I was in the program. I have people now that I can rely on and lean on and a big draw was the small class sizes.”

Dowling earned her bachelor’s degree in therapeutic recreation from Grand Valley State University with an emphasis on mental health. While interning at Inner Harbour Youth Villages in Georgia, a psychiatric facility that emphasizes outdoor experiences to aid in the treatment of trauma and mental health, Dowling’s love of the outdoors inspired a passion for recreational therapy. Hired in 2021, Dowling brings with her 11 years of licensed clinical experience and years of observation.

“The fact is, our class sizes are so small that you can develop these relationships and you can literally create an individualized plan per student because that’s how much freedom we have here to help them reach their dreams.”

Listen to the full episode below or on your favorite podcast player! To learn more about Finlandia’s PTA Program, visit finlandia.edu/PTA.