D.C. student, President of the Student International Chiropractors Association

“We are the future of the profession”

 

Life in Missouri farming country must have been colorful for Brendon Pal, especially coming from a quaint small town named Violet. Living on a spacious property surrounded by cattle farms and being close to nature just made sense to Pal. His mother and his family encouraged him toward a vitalistic, drugless lifestyle as much as possible.

Pal’s first encounter with Chiropractic came early in his life, so early in fact that he doesn’t have any memory of it. At age 1, Pal began to suffer from chronic ear infections. His pediatrician repeatedly recommended antibiotics, but they didn’t really seem to be working, so Pal ended up getting two sets of tubes put in his ears for several years. He also had to have his swollen adenoids removed, the lymph tissues that sit in the upper airway between the nose and the back of the throat, similar to the tonsils.

Pal’s mom had been talking to a friend who recommended that Pal be taken to see her chiropractor. So, at age 1, Pal has his first visit and adjustment with a chiropractor who diagnosed him with chronic allergies and explained how subluxation in the spine can cause or exacerbate allergy symptoms. Fast forward to age 19, Pal then experiences his first chiropractic adjustment that he can remember, a side posture adjustment.

“I remember this overwhelming sense of relief in my entire body. I knew that this was a gift that I needed to give other people. Right then and there, I knew I was going to be chiropractor,” said Pal.

Prior to attending Life University (Life U), Pal attended a different chiropractic university for his undergraduate degree, but he “didn’t like where his education was going.” For two years of his undergraduate program, Pal worked as Chiropractic Assistant (CA) and received mentorship from two principled chiropractors who pointed him toward Life U as a place where he could learn and grow with a chiropractic philosophy that suited his goals. Pal did his own research online about the University and found that he identified with Life U’s guiding philosophy of Vitalism– the recognition that the Universe itself is self-conscious, and as such, creates itself as a dynamic system wherein living organisms are self-developing, self-maintaining and self-healing.

Life U’s founding principles originally drew Pal to Life U to pursue his D.C. education, but along the way, Pal has found many other things to appreciate about his time here.

“It’s the diversity of people. I was quite introverted; I still am. I definitely branched out and love meeting new people now. […] The diversity of the people and just listening to where they come from, how they got into Chiropractic and listening to the passion that they have for the profession and where they want to go in this profession, it’s very captivating,” explained Pal. ‘It’s something I look forward to every day going to school.”

Pal keeps pretty busy as President of the Student International Chiropractic Association (SICA), the student branch of the International Chiropractic Association (ICA) that has the distinction of being the oldest continuously active international chiropractic association in the world. The ICA was first established in 1926 by revered chiropractor Dr. B.J. Palmer, and the ICA serves as the “moderate voice of the chiropractic profession,” according to Life U’s SICA description on Engage.

Through SICA and with his fellow club leadership, Pal works to help educate chiropractic students like himself on how to promote the chiropractic profession. He is currently working with several organizations on and off campus to organize strategic partnerships to strengthen that collective mission.

“We as students are the future of this profession. We can’t just fit the mold. There is a changing of the time, and we have to adapt with it. Just like our bodies adapt to the adjustment and just like our bodies adapt to our environment, we have to adapt to the changing of the time,” said Pal.

 

 

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