Logen Thielke ('19, '20 M.S.) woke up bright and early on a spring day so she could make it to a 5K in Natural Springs Park in Anna by 8:30 in the morning.

Thielke is a speech-language pathologist working for Pate Rehabilitation -- a long-term rehabilitation network in North Texas with a focus on brain-related injuries -- and this year, the organization hosted its first annual 5K Fun Run and Wheelchair Push.

For fun, Thielke took up running last December. She began training with one of her patients named Yohannes Gidey after he suffered from a stroke that resulted in him developing aphasia, a disorder affecting the ability to communicate.

The plan for the day of the 5K was to meet Gidey at the starting line, but a mix-up caused him to be two minutes late.

"The race started!" Thielke thought at the time. "Where the heck is he?"

As she started to scramble, Gidey showed up running and grinning ear-to-ear.

"Let's go, let's go!" Thielke shouted as they caught up to others despite the delay and muddy conditions.

Gidey became the one motivation for Thielke to keep going all the way to the finish line.

"We ran the whole thing and he really pushed me," says Thielke. "He got second place in his age division. I was seventh in mine and ended up with a personal record, which was pretty cool."

Soon after the race, Gidey was able to return home with a speech generating device that allows him to communicate on his own.

Thielke reflects on this time as if they were helping each other.

"He truly impacted my life," says Thielke. "Sometimes you wonder, am I really making a difference? Then there's something like this and think, 'I absolutely am.'"

College and Communicating

Originally from San Antonio, Thielke attended the University of Texas at San Antonio and cycled through a handful of majors before transferring to UNT for the College of Health and Public Service's audiology and speech-language pathology program.

"One of my childhood friends had a stutter, and while working in restaurants, one of my managers told me about speech therapy," Thielke says. "That's when the lightbulb went off."

As a student, Thielke learned American Sign Language and joined the National Student Speech Language Hearing Association. She served as an intern at Pate during her second year of graduate school and began working there full-time in February of 2023.

She met Gidey, who moved to the U.S. from Ethiopia in 1992 and became a special education teacher's aide.

Gidey was unable to speak when they met and began working and training with Thielke daily, who suggested they run together. He became ecstatic at the first mention of the idea.

Somehow, Gidey was logged out of his phone after he was admitted to Pate. This led to a long three-month battle with Apple, ending with Thielke finally getting him back into the important communication device.

"We both cried," Thielke says. "He brought me in front of a group of people and made me tell them because he was so thankful."

Gidey was discharged from Pate less than a year following his stroke in September 2024.

"I work on the higher-level functioning team and he started on the lower, but within a month made so much progress," Thielke says. "His success story is one I'll keep in my back pocket."

Someone Else's Shoes

What initially began as just a side hobby is now a major part of life for Thielke.

Planning to become an avid marathon runner, Thielke trains almost every day and signed up for the Seattle Half Marathon in November -- and won't have to travel very far when the time comes around.

Thielke recently accepted a position traveling to patients for adult at-home care, one of her lifelong dreams, and is moving to the Pacific Northwest with her husband and pets this fall.

"There's a lot of changes coming for me," Thielke says. "I'm really looking forward to it."

If there is anything Thielke has learned during her professional career, it's that the only way to truly be able to understand what someone is experiencing is to walk -- or in this case, run -- a mile in their shoes.

"It's easy to paint a picture," says Thielke. "I will always try to see the other point of view. Try to have compassion and understanding, you never know what someone is going through."