COMMUNITY CLINIC: A 'TRIPLE WIN' FOR HIGH POINT.

The pro bono clinic five minutes from campus is a big reason why students come to High Point University to study physical therapy.

The top-notch faculty draws them. So does learning in a new 220,000-square-foot building filled with technology that seems straight out of science fiction. But ask them another reason why they come, and they'll mention the large space ringed with exercise machines.

That's the clinic--9,000 square feet of space with $1 million worth of equipment, including an MRI machine.

For three years on campus, they'll work toward receiving a doctorate in physical therapy. During that time, they'll also work with patients, one on one.

That, students say, is one of the best lessons they'll ever receive.

They'll take what they learn in class and practice it in the country's only pro bono physical therapy clinic that's open 40 hours a week. The lessons they learn will take on faces and names, complete with stories of hardship tinged with much appreciation.

That is part of what makes their education special.

"It's not like, 'Oh, you can take a field trip there and experience it,'" says Emily Tower, a physical therapy student from Annapolis, Maryland. "No, we're learning in our own clinic, and that's what I call a triple win--for the students, the faculty and the community."

Unlike other free PT clinics nationwide, the space isn't the size of a large walk-in closet. HPU has created a clinic out of a building once used by its graduate students studying to become physician assistants.

The clinic is big. Simply stand back and count--10 exercise machines, six treatment rooms and an MRI machine, a device found nowhere else in any free PT clinic nationwide.

HPU's free clinic will help educate the next generation of physical therapists and assist those in High Point who don't have enough insurance to treat the chronic pain that limits their life.

HPU has built a reputation of altruism community wide. Students, staff and faculty volunteer more than 100,000 hours a year in some type of service. The clinic becomes yet another example of HPU helping those who feel forgotten.

That commitment drew Dr. Alicia Emerson last summer to HPU.

She spent 15 years in Chicago working in four hospitals helping patients with little or no insurance deal with their chronic pain. Her Spanish got a workout. Her compassion did, too.

She has countless stories of patients, of hearing how they couldn't climb steps or take care of their kids. But she helped them...