As a high school senior, Ephraim Bullock faced a major decision: pursue a career in professional ballet or attend college.
A trainee at the Richmond Ballet, he had just received an offer from the company’s artistic director to join its second company, the entry point into professional dancing, complete with a salary. It was a step toward making it into the main company, and he had been dancing ballet since fourth grade, so the offer carried the weight of nearly a decade of hard work.
But a series of overuse injuries was reshaping his thoughts about his future.
During a production of “The Nutcracker,” the year’s biggest performance, Bullock developed tendonitis and began working with one of the Richmond Ballet’s physical therapists. A former dancer herself, she knew what it was like to rely on your body as your instrument. “I was significantly stronger than before,” he said of completing his physical therapy.
The experience stirred something within him. “I want to help dancers at their lowest points,” he said, “not only to get back to where they were, but to be even stronger.”
Bullock poses with a barbell in his cap and gown inside the Fried Center for the Advancement of Potential, where he has worked as an undergraduate intern since his third year at UVA. “The clinician that I will be,” he said, “is a result of these formative years right now.” (Photo by Lathan Goumas, University Communications)
He applied to the University of Virginia and made himself a promise: If he got in, he would pursue a degree in kinesiology with the goal of becoming a physical therapist for dancers.
He was at a rehearsal when he received his admissions decision. He snuck away to the bathroom, sat down and opened his computer. “It was a cathartic outburst – I got into UVA!” he said. “I don’t even know how to describe it. It was like all my dreams had come true.”
Bullock described his first-year self as curious. He was a listener who gravitated toward upperclassmen, absorbing all the wisdom they shared, but school was harder than he expected.
He struggled in biology, tying his sense of worth to every exam. The harder he pushed, the worse it got, he said.
Through faith, he found his footing. He connected with the Navigators, a nondenominational Christian ministry on Grounds. At the last large-group meeting of the year, he ran into Nash Steed, a former high school classmate he barely knew. They went to Bodo’s Bagels for breakfast that weekend and talked for hours. They would meet nearly every week for the next two years to talk about life and faith.
Bullock guides a client through an exercise at the Fried Center. As an undergraduate intern, Bullock provides one-on-one functional care under the supervision of licensed physical therapists. (Photo by Lathan Goumas, University Communications)
“The way he balanced his work was really admirable,” Steed, who graduated from the College of Arts & Sciences in 2024, said. “He was super, super busy, but was still available to hang out with and would prioritize his faith like crazy.”
Bullock eventually became a small-group leader himself, meeting weekly with fellow students. His grades, he noted, trended upward every year as he stopped hyper-fixating on them.
“I was idolizing academics,” he said. “I realized there’s so much more to life than academics. You’re not defined by your grades.”
He found time and ways to apply what he was learning in his kinesiology classes. During his first year, he worked as a UVA sports medicine student volunteer, working directly with varsity athletic teams to provide prevention, evaluation and rehabilitation of athletic injuries and emergency care during games.
He spent one season with the men’s soccer team, then moved to men’s lacrosse, where he worked with Rebecca Vozzo, the team’s head athletic trainer.
