By David Simpson 

提示换装. 

在四月底和五月初, Megan Frick finished her doctor of physical therapy degree at 最靠谱的网赌软件, passed her licensure exam and started work at ODU Monarch Physical Therapy.  

At the end of June, she’ll trade her clinic gear for an evening gown and compete for the title of Miss Virginia. 

“我真的很期待代表这个地区,” said Frick, 现任汉普顿-纽波特纽斯小姐. The preliminary rounds start June 29 at the Berglund Center in Roanoke, with crowning on July 1. 

对弗里克来说，选美是件严肃的事. Besides the title and crown, the winner receives $20,000 in scholarship money. And Frick will have a chance to push her pet project – a health screening and health literacy initiative she created last year. 

这不是她专为选美设计的话题. 健康素养是她内心燃烧的主题. 

这一切都归结于她母亲的遭遇. 

弗里克在北卡罗来纳州的阿尔伯马尔长大， east of Charlotte. 5岁时，她告诉别人她想成为一名医生. 

但在她9岁的时候，她的发型师父亲去世了.  

这是经济上的打击，也是情感上的打击. Megan’s mother, a private-school teacher, made little money and couldn’t afford health insurance.  

弗里克说:“我妈妈再也没有再婚。. “这真的很难，因为, 作为一个本该享受童年时光的人, 我从来没这么做过. And so that was something I knew even as a 9-year-old: that the journey to getting what I wanted out of life was going to be kind of an uphill battle.”  

She found a refuge in sports – track, volleyball, basketball, soccer. Along the way, though, she realized that the sight of blood made her sick. 这意味着她永远不可能成为一名内科医生或外科医生. But in a 12th-grade athletic training class she learned about physical therapy. 

“听说理疗师可以提供帮助, basically, 拉伸紧绷的东西，加强弱的东西, I thought, 这听起来像是我非常擅长的事情.’” 

她进入了位于比斯克里克的坎贝尔大学, North Carolina, 主修运动机能学, 理疗前治疗轨迹. 她还为学校的足球队工作, 协助运营总监和招聘总监. 

One day, during her sophomore year, her uncle and aunt showed up unexpectedly at her dorm room. 这不是一次社交访问. 弗里克的母亲死于严重的心脏病发作. 

我倒在地上. It was by far the worst moment of my life because my mom was my best friend,” Frick said. “我们真正拥有的只有彼此. 所以我觉得那天我的一部分也死了. 

“我甚至不知道她病了. She 我不知道她病了.” 

随着消息传遍校园， 一丝光明穿透了她的黑暗. Campbell’s football coach offered her a full-tuition athletic scholarship if she agreed to keep working for the team, Frick said. 她既惊讶又感激，接受了. 

但后来她得知母亲留下了一笔沉重的债务. Creditors made it plain: Frick had one year to pay back the full amount, $87,000. 对她来说，这是一笔难以想象的数目. 

“我从来没见过1000美元，更别说8.7万美元了，”她回忆说. 她别无选择，只能把家里的房子出售. 

By Christmastime it had not sold, and she had to vacate her dorm for winter break. But she couldn’t stay in the North Carolina house, because there was no power or water. 相反，她睡在朋友的沙发上. 她陷入了低谷. 

然后一个电话从过去打来. 是她最喜欢的高中老师. Evans. 弗里克愿意来和她和她的家人一起过圣诞节吗? 

洛里和查德·埃文斯有一个9岁的儿子和一个14岁的女儿. 弗里克和那个女孩睡了两周. 在弗里克回学校之前, the Evanses offered to convert their dining room into a bedroom so she could stay with them whenever she was off from classes. 

弗里克说，这个家庭“对我来说是巨大的祝福”. “我开始在休息时间回到那里.” 

In March 2019, the Evanses went a step further, officially adopting her.  

“梅根刚刚完成了我们的家庭，”洛里·埃文斯说. “她克服了很多困难. 我们都为她感到骄傲.”  

弗里克从未听说过成人收养, “but they adopted me so that I could have health insurance and so they would officially be saying that they are taking care of me the way that my mom would have wanted.”  

When it came time to look at graduate schools, Frick visited and applied to just one institution: ODU. 一个朋友的哥哥也去过那里. 埃文斯夫妇开车送她去学校的时候, 她立刻明白了:“在我的脑海里，在我的心里, this was the place.” 

In the doctor of physical therapy (DPT) program, she quickly found her area of focus. 

“Neurological conditions are my jam,” Frick said, “because I love the way the brain works. People who have had strokes or have other neurological conditions are really where you see the most drastic change in someone’s status.  

“And I think it takes really special people to work with those individuals, because it can be draining at times and you have to have empathy and patience. And what also drew me to that population was, like, these are the people I think I can help the most.”  

She was wowed by the standardized patient program ODU offers through EVMS, where people portray patients for the training of healthcare professionals, and by ODU Monarch Physical Therapy’s high-tech pair of bionic legs, known as REX, 让佩戴者体验正常的运动模式, 即使是在人的肌肉不能自我激活的时候. 

“梅根在DPT项目中是一名出色的学生, and I am delighted that she joined our team at ODU Monarch Physical Therapy when she graduated,助理教授Lisa Koperna说, 谁来指导诊所. 

弗里克谈到她在这个项目中的经历时说:“老实说, 一切都是我能想象到的.” 

她母亲去世后， Frick started brainstorming ways to help people recognize the symptoms of disease, 尤其是那些没有保险，不定期看医生的人. 比如她妈妈.

Late last year, Frick started a knowledge bank and health screening initiative she calls S.I.M.plify Healthcare用她母亲的名字缩写. It’s designed, she says, to help improve health literacy and provide accessible resources to underserved communities. She distributes health information using her personal social media accounts.   

“I've been creating graphics that cover anything from high blood pressure to diabetes to Parkinson's disease – I'm trying to kind of run the gamut, to show as many people as possible different things to look out for and let them know when they need to get checked out.” 

作为她活动的一部分，她正在与男孩们合作 & Girls Club of America for a community health day June 10 at 629 Hampton Ave. in Newport News. Healthcare professionals and local graduate students will be on hand to offer free screenings.  

S.I.M.plify Healthcare will get a plug when Frick presents her platform at the Miss Virginia event. 她将于6月29日参加生活方式比赛 & fitness and evening gown competitions, and answer a question onstage. 6月30日的才艺部分, she’ll sing a Broadway number – she can’t reveal which one – that encapsulates her journey.  

That $20,000 in scholarship money would come in handy, given that she’d like to work on a Ph.D. 不管结果如何，她发誓要继续努力. 

"In everything I do now,” she said, “I always think of how proud my mom would be of me."