Class of 2015: The courage to change
May 7, 2015

By Mike McNulty

While one’s life is most often lived looking forward, it is perhaps best understood only by reflecting backwards.

For Brian Wylie MA ’15, a soon-to-be master’s degree graduate from the USC Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, a decade of experiences will cohesively culminate at commencement.

“I have taken advantage of opportunities to do a whole lot of different things in my life,” says Wylie, a 33-year-old native of Novato, Calif., a Marin County suburb located in Northern California. “And now I can truly see how all these experiences led me to USC.”

After earning an undergraduate degree in psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, Wylie embarked upon what he thought was his career calling by enrolling in the University of Notre Dame’s top-25 ranked law school. His career path seemed to unfurl before his eyes — except it didn’t.

“After a couple of months I knew that law school was just not for me,” Wylie recalls.

So he returned to Northern California, where he worked as a non-profit fundraiser for several years.

It wasn’t long before yet another opportunity came his way. In 2009, Wylie received a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Grant, which took him to Cheonan, South Korea, a city located 50 miles south of Seoul. There, he taught English to school children and lived in the home of a Korean host family.

“I was thrust into a situation that was so unfamiliar, not only professionally but also personally,” Wylie explains. In hindsight, Wylie realizes that this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity showed him not only who he was but — perhaps most importantly — who he wanted to become.

After a year teaching in South Korea, Wylie returned stateside, determined to pursue a career in the health professions.

As a former high school athlete and amateur Olympic-style weightlifter, he was interested in a field that could leverage his passion for physical activity. But equally important, as Wylie says, was finding a career that also integrated the all-important “human connection.”

While completing prerequisite courses through UC Berkeley Extension, Wylie earned a personal training certification, worked in corporate wellness settings to improve employee health and quality of life and even started his own personal training business.

After exploring many options, Wylie realized that a career in occupational therapy would combine many of the recurring themes spread across a decade of his personal and professional life.

“Working for a non-profit was about advocating for a cause and working for what you believe in,” Wylie says. “Teaching in Korea was not only about education but about reaching people across seemingly insurmountable barriers. Becoming a personal trainer and corporate coach reminded me of how passionate I am about physical activity, health and wellness.”

Wylie happily admits that he, in his own words, “stumbled” upon occupational therapy. But the various experiences that led him to the USC Chan Division only seem to make all the more sense as he looks ahead to the next chapter of his professional life.

“Occupational therapy holds a very unique place in the world, in society and in health care,” Wylie says, “and learning how I can be a part of that has been a very exciting process.”

But the soon-to-be graduate isn’t finished with his formal education just yet; he will be joining USC’s doctorate of occupational therapy degree program this August. As a doctoral resident based at the USC Occupational Therapy Faculty Practice located on the USC Health Sciences Campus, Wylie will continue advancing his education and interest in delivering lifestyle-based interventions to maintain and improve quality of life for people with chronic health conditions.

“This is a very special time for OT,” Wylie says, “and I want to see where I can make an impact to effect change on as large of a scale as possible.”

As for his advice to the USC occupational therapy master’s class of 2017, who begin the program in June, “Stay open, stay flexible,” Wylie says.

“It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day pressures of classes, papers and tests. But don’t lose sight of who you were when you began the program, how excited you were to come to USC and remember that ‘spirit of occupational therapy’ which we’re all in tune with.”

⋯