Home ⟩The People of USC Chan ⟩Meet Our Trojan Family ⟩Entry-Level Doctorate (OTD)

Jessica Jeong MA ’22

What brought you to occupational therapy?
Initially I wanted to be a teacher for students with developmental disabilities but I learned about OT my freshman year in college and really aligned with its value of occupational justice. I want to support those with any disability, chronic illness, or limitation get back to their day to day life and do things they love to do.

What area of practice are you interested in?
As of now, I’m interested in neurorehabilitation and hand therapy but keeping myself open to different areas I’ll be learning about throughout the program!

Tell us about your favorite memory from the program so far.
My favorite memory so far was our first day of in person labs where I finally got to meet my classmates after 3 months since starting our program. It was a weird but exciting moment after knowing them online and then finally seeing each other. We took our first picture as a cohort (masked of course) and had some socially distanced chats after lab. Starting grad school during a pandemic has been tough but thankful for cohort A!

If you could travel anywhere, where would it be?
I hope to go on a Korea and Japan trip one day. They’re both known for amazing food and cute cafes which are some of my favorite things!

You have your own late night talk show, who do you invite as your first guest?
It would be so cool to interview Elon Musk and ask him about Neuralink! I’d love to know more about it and its implications on the future of neurorehabilitation.

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USC Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy
1540 Alcazar Street, CHP 133, Los Angeles, CA 90089-9003

ACOTE accreditation | NBCOT certification

The USC entry-level master’s degree program (cost of attendance) is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education® (ACOTE®) of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA). The USC entry-level doctorate in occupational therapy (OTD) degree program (cost of attendance) is accredited by ACOTE®. View our program’s ACOTE® standards public data. ACOTE® c/o the American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc.®, 7501 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite 510E, Bethesda, MD 20814, (301) 652-AOTA, www.acoteonline.org.

Professional program graduates are eligible to apply for the national certification examination administered by the National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy, Inc.® (NBCOT®), nbcot.org. All states require licensure to practice; a felony conviction may affect a graduate’s ability to sit for the NBCOT® OTR certification examination or attain state licensure. Program results from the NBCOT® can be found online at www.nbcot.org/Educators-Folder/SchoolPerformance.