Student Blog

Studying without Stu(dying) ⟩
November 21, 2019, by Kaho

Life Hacks Living in LA

I don’t know about you, but I’m easily distracted by my environment. As soon as I sit down to study, my brain convinces me that my entire house needs to be deep cleaned this instant, or that I need to meal prep for the next 2 weeks, or it suddenly reminds me of an errand I need to run that I’ve been putting off and is obviously not time sensitive. If I manage to win that internal battle and remain at my desk, then my bed starts to look incredibly cozy and warm and before I know it, I’m wrapped up in there like a burrito and hours have passed . . . Unfortunately, I just cannot study for long periods of time in the comfort of my own room or home. If you just nodded in agreement, this post is for you. 👉

After trying to study in various places around my house, I’ve found a few favorites that always get the productive juices in me flowing. I live near the main campus, UPC, so I usually study somewhere around there.

1. The Village
   This is my favorite spot of all time. There are tables and chairs in the plaza next to a fountain, where numerous undergraduate and graduate students sit down to study or chat with friends. It’s outdoors, so I love being able to feel the calming breeze while soaking up some SoCal sun. There’s a Trader Joe’s, Target, and various shops surrounding the plaza, so I can always run for a snack or meal if I get hungry. If I need an outlet or I want to go indoors because I’m baking in the sun, there are cafés like Dulce and Starbucks that still promote productivity. When I need a quick break, I just look up from my books or laptop and people-watch. It may sound strange, but it’s really interesting to see all these different lives and situations coming together in one place. I just like to gaze around the plaza and see what people (and their dogs) are up to. I could study here for hours.


Tables and chairs in the USC Village plaza

2. Doheny Library
   My second favorite is Doheny Library. In my opinion, it’s the prettiest library at USC. I go here when I really need to concentrate and grind out some work because it’s quieter than the Village and there are less people. It also kind of makes me feel like I’m in a Harry Potter movie, so I guess that helps too. There’s a study hall in the corner of this library where the ceiling is high, books line all of the walls, and there are numerous long tables for students to sit at. It gets an ample amount of natural light and outlets are conveniently located. Just sitting in the room instantly makes me feel more intelligent and motivated.



Study hall at Hogwa—I mean, Doheny Library

3. Any coffee shop
   I won’t go into much detail about this one because there are hundreds of influencers out there that can do a much better job than I can of ranking aesthetically pleasing LA coffee shops. But, I just wanted to point out the existence of numerous aesthetically pleasing LA coffee shops. Once you start exploring, the possibilities are endless. Just Google “best LA coffee shops” and you’re good to go. (Side note: The next place on my coffee exploration list is Blue Bottle because a dear friend got me a gift card. I’m pretty excited to try it this finals week.) Sitting down with a nice cup of coffee in a well-decorated space with relaxing music is always a good indicator of a productive day.

Finals week is coming up and it seems to be a tough time for a lot of people, but the least you can do is study in a space that makes you feel relaxed and comfortable. You’ll definitely find me in one of these three places these coming weeks. Don’t forget to get some sun, listen to some music, eat well, sleep well, and good luck!

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Family Traditions ⟩
November 20, 2019, by Kevin

Life Hacks

With the holiday season approaching, it got me thinking about what make the holidays so special for me. At the top of my list are the traditions I celebrate with my family. For the past four years, my girlfriend Jenna and I visit my family in NorCal to celebrate thanksgiving and these are the traditions that are the most meaningful to me.

Although we arrive a few days before thanksgiving, the festivities start the moment we arrive. On the first day, my mom always makes pies and more importantly “pie sticks” . . . what are pie sticks you may ask? Well it’s essentially just the pie crust baked with cinnamon and sugar on top. We all know the crust is the best part of pie, so let’s just get to the good stuff . . . right? After we’ve filled up on pie sticks, we walk from my parents’ house, one street down to my older sister’s house to play the latest board games. I never know how she does it, but my sister always has the most fun board games that I’ve never played before. It’s even become a tradition to bring the games my sister taught us to Jenna’s family during their holiday celebrations. The next day we head to Wright’s Lake to kayak. In November, Wright’s Lake is usually partially frozen over, and is surrounded by snowcapped mountains making it one of the most breathtaking scenes of nature I have ever seen. After a day of exercising our upper body kayaking, we wake up early Thanksgiving morning and do a charity 5k run. The run helps me feel more justified in the amount of food I will consume later in the day. The rest of the day we help our relatives prepare the Thanksgiving meal and then we all eat together while sharing stories to catch up on the past year. The next morning we get up early again and we head toward South Lake Tahoe to find a tree in preparation for Christmas.

Needless to say, I cannot wait for next week because I am grateful to have these traditions that allow me to spend quality time with the people I love!

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Electing Your Electives ⟩
November 19, 2019, by Catherine

Classes

I’ve been getting a lot of questions about electives. While I highly recommend you take elective based on your interests and intended area of practice, it might be helpful to talk about the electives I took and my experience from them.

OT-572 Ergonomics. I always had a keen interest for ergo, not only to enhance my knowledge to make recommendations for my clients, but I found it incredibly useful in my personal life as well. This is a real hands on course, where you get to practice your ergonomic evaluation skills and also get creative. With the knowledge and skills gained from the class, I re-did all the home workstations of my family members and got rave reviews on how their pain and fatigue had improved. So it was totally worth it!

OT-578 Therapeutic Communication for the Healthcare Practitioner. I took this course because at the time, I was not confident about my interpersonal skills in practice. I was intending on doing my second level II fieldwork in either mental health or adult rehab, and I was looking for a way to get more comfortable putting my best therapeutic use of self forward. This course primarily focused on principles and the practice of motivational interviewing. While you do also get to practice other forms of therapeutic communication such as mindfulness and cognitive behavioral therapy, MI is really the meat of the course. At first, I felt a little awkward, because again, you get A LOT of practice using these skills on each other, but by the end of the course, I felt a lot more comfortable speaking to clients during my fieldwork!

OT-583 Lifestyle Redesign. I chose to take this course because not only was I interested in learning more about our practice methods in health and wellness, but it is one of the signature course offered here at Chan. You get a lot of insight in working with a wide variety of clients who are not only working towards wellness goals such as stress management, weight loss and chronic pain, but I loved learning about emerging evidence based practice in green wellness and corporate wellness. I used the skills I learned in this elective to complete my level II fieldwork project, investigating workplace wellness at my site.

What’s really great about the curriculum at Chan (this goes for both the OTD and MA programs) is that we have A TON of choices. You don’t have to be limited to only the courses offered by the Division but other departments as well, and there is also to option of an independent study. So if you are waitlisted for an elective that you want to take or don’t have an elective that totally speaks to your learning goals, it may be a good idea to peruse the course catalogue and also make an appointment with your mentor for more guidance.

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OT in the HOUSE ⟩
November 14, 2019, by Noelle

Housing and Transportation Living in LA Videos

Warning: time lapsed commute may cause motion sickness. 😬 Skip to 2:00 for just the apartment.

I want everyone to know that I made this on iMovie ON MY PHONE and I am not the most tech savvy so bear with me. 😊

I originally wanted the background music to double as my song recommendation (”Home” by Dan Croll), but alas, couldn’t make it happen. The background music is “Extra Jolly” by Mark Mothersbaugh.

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We don’t want tricks; we just want treats! ⟩
November 13, 2019, by Japeth

International Living in LA

As someone from the other side of the world, I haven’t had a legit Halloween experience. So when my cohort asked if we were down for some trick or treating, we immediately said yes! Everyone was just so excited because it was something that’s new to most of us.

Last Halloween, we had two celebrations: the first one was during our Quantitative class and the second one was when we went to Pasadena to do trick or treats. Dr. Myka Persson organized a potluck lunch for the MA1 cohort. We brought our food to share to everyone and Dr. Myka baked Halloween pumpkin cookies using their own family recipe! It was really delicious . . . like I ate 4 of it. I love how our professors at USC Chan practice occupational balance.

Now this is the part that I always look forward when blogging – sharing with you all the pictures!

Until our next adventure, Fight On!

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