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

Tess Suhrbier MA ’16

What brought you to occupational therapy?
As an undergraduate student, I decided to pursue a career in health care but had a hard time finding my niche. My sophomore year, I had somewhat of a mid-college crisis and confided in a friend. I described to her what my ideal career would look like. She gave me a simple response: “you should do what my mom does.” When I asked her about her mom’s profession, I learned that she was an occupational therapist. This was the first time I had ever heard about the field. I went home and looked it up and couldn’t believe how tailor made the profession was for me. It was serendipity: I found a career that would encompass everything I could muster intellectually and all of the personal attributes I could bring to the table.

What area of practice are you interested in?
Inpatient Acute (Neuro).

Tell us about your favorite memory from the program so far.
My favorite memory from the program was having the opportunity to design and pilot a social based health and wellness group for LGBT college and graduate students. It was an incredibly rewarding experience to be able to work closely with a friend and colleague from the program to design something new and innovative that is not currently addressed in healthcare.

If we opened your fridge, what would we see?
Chicken and kale . . . I’m somewhat of a one trick pony when it comes to the kitchen.

If you could choose anyone (living or dead) to be your mentor, who would you pick?
I was lucky enough to have Dr. Jess Holguin as a clinical instructor for my first level I fieldwork and I wouldn’t trade his mentorship for anyone: living or dead. He truly epitomizes everything that is wonderful about our practice and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to be his student. He instilled me with the professional and clinical reasoning skills to enter the field confidently. Learning from him drastically changed my course in the program, he helped me find a true passion in neuro and I will forever be thankful for that.

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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 fully accredited by the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education® (ACOTE). The USC entry-level OTD degree program (cost of attendance) has been granted Candidacy Status by ACOTE. View our program’s ACOTE standards public data. ACOTE c/o Accreditation Department, American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc.®, 6116 Executive Boulevard, Suite 200, North Bethesda, MD 20852-4929, (301) 652-6611 x2914, acoteonline.org

Professional program graduates are eligible to apply for certification by National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy, Inc.® (NBCOT), nbcot.org. Program results from the NBCOT can be found online at www.nbcot.org/Educators-Folder/SchoolPerformance.