Student Blog
Bindi

OTAC Conference ⟩
October 22, 2014, by Bindi

Getting Involved

USC has been so good to the MA1s, they recently sponsored us to attend two days of OTAC conference in Pasadena. Thank you Dr. Blanche for making it happen.

We attended the student track and it was very informative. There was a large focus on fine motor activities, traumatic brain injury and recovery and my favourite was a presentation on coaching a student with autism. Our very own Dr. Samia Rafeedie was a super star and everybody loved her presentation. Students sitting next to me asked if I went to USC and when I said yes, they expressed how lucky we are to have her as a lecturer! It was amazing seeing how many presenters in student track were from USC — either alumni or faculty.

The sessions were great, but what really had me excited was the keynote address from Dr. Michael Iwama, the founder of the Kawa (river) Model. He gave a powerful and entertaining address, I was amazed by how he understood cultural diversity and how difficult it can be to generalize an OT model/approach universally. I experienced this first hand when I was doing my bachelors of occupational therapy in small university town in South India called Manipal, and later when I started practicing in Kenya.

Besides the academic benefits we thoroughly enjoyed the exhibit hall with all the pens, sticky notes, stress balls and other cool stuff we gathered. My classmate Disha won an iPod from UCLA Health and I won a spa voucher!! Yaaay!

Freebies aside, we managed to get a lot of information about the different jobs available out there for us as OTs, and it was comforting to know as international students that there were very many companies that sponsor the work visa we will require after the OPT period is done. We also walked around and explored a very tiny part of Pasadena and appreciated the picturesque area by taking lots of selfies and hoping to get some of the beautiful architecture in the background.

Lets keep the profession moving forward and sharing the knowledge!

⋯

The USC Mrs. T.H. Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy ⟩
October 8, 2014, by Bindi

Community International What are OS/OT?

Try saying that aloud, the USC Mrs. T.H. Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy. A mouthful, isn’t it? While it may be a mouthful, it sure does have a wonderful ring to the name.

While they were preparing for the big announcement, I was asked to interview for the division’s video and it was then that I was told that we were about to receive a $20 million gift! I was shocked, I had never heard of any occupational therapy school receiving such a sizeable amount. Of course during the interview I was asked what I thought the impact of this gift would be in the field of occupational therapy. I may have been flustered then and nervous to talk to a device that was recording me, but now I have a chance to think and give a well-articulated answer to that question.

My hope is that this gift will go a long way in research so that we as OTs have a stronger evidence based practice. Every occupational therapist around the world knows what Sensory Integration, and I would like for this gift to have the same impact in the world.

This gift should give people more access to the occupational therapy education. The China Initiative is wonderful news especially considering there isn’t a Chinese word for ‘occupational therapy.’ Giving easier access to occupational therapy education may be in terms of university affiliations, scholarships and awareness.

USC already has a great global initiative, and are recruiting people from all over the world — like me. But this should increase the numbers, making the OT course available to more candidates from around the world especially from Africa. It is only South Africa that has a bachelor’s and master’s program for occupational therapy that is highly valued. Most of the other African countries have only diploma schools.

I hope we have an African initiative soon too! ☺

⋯

From Kenya to Los Angeles ⟩
September 29, 2014, by Bindi

Living in LA

I remember landing in Los Angeles, and seeing baseball and American football fields for the first time. It was then that I had my moment of realization that I had left home and was in the United States of America!

I had several chances to realize that, for instance saying goodbye to my wonderful family and my precious dog, Toto, or any time through my 30-hour journey to Los Angeles. But it had to be the football fields!

Of course it was the longest flight of my life but being here at USC has made living through those 30 hours worth it! 5 weeks have gone by in flash and it makes me wonder what I have been up to.

Making the transition from Kenya to Los Angeles has been much easier than I expected it to be. Strange but I wasn’t anxious about the big move to LA despite this being my first time in USA and that is all because I had all the information I needed weeks before I left Kenya. I knew exactly where I was going to live, how I will be commuting to the Health Sciences Campus and back to the accommodation. I got everything I needed to know from the emails that Kim and Liz would send including the daunting tasks like applying to the program and visa application procedures.

We had a series of events to orient and integrating International students into the Trojan family such as the student orientations, reception dinner and mentor-mentee programs. The highlight of our first week of classes was of course the White Coat ceremony. It was different compared to other universities around the world, and I too believe the oath should be taken at the beginning of the course rather than the graduation. The ceremony re-instilled the values of occupational therapy and our commitment to becoming better OTs.

Living at the OT house (Centennial Apartments) has to be one of the best decisions I made for many reasons. The best reason being meeting my roommate, Kathleen, a second year MA2 student. She has been such help to me and I wouldn’t be having half as good of a time as I am having right now without her. With her I managed to attend many events such as the interdisciplinary health mixer at Dockweiler beach, the Los Angeles County Fair, the Greek festival and we watched several movies at the European Film Festival. We are taking full advantage of all the good and fun things USC has to offer.

Residing at the University Park Campus opens up opportunities to attend all the fun events they host. One of the first one I attended was the welcome back concert where they had Nico and Vinz perform. I especially enjoyed the concert because they had a good African groove to their music.

My American experience wouldn’t be complete without exploring the Greek sororities and fraternities. Not only did I go to ‘frat party’ but I also rushed for a leadership fraternity Delta Omicron Zeta for about half a week before I decided that it wasn’t for me. I just know where to go when I need to take a break from being a responsible graduate student.

So far I love being at USC and a part of the Trojan Family. Fight on Trojans!

⋯