Student Blog
Life Rolls On ⟩
September 17, 2012, by Amber
Diversity Getting Involved What are OS/OT?
This weekend I volunteered for a wonderful organization called Life Rolls On. This foundation is near and dear to the heart of my classmate Marisa, and she regularly recruits students from the occupational therapy program to volunteer their time. According to their website, Life Rolls On is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for young people affected by spinal cord injury and utilizes action sports as a platform to demonstrate the infinite possibilities beyond paralysis. More than 1.2 million people in the United States have sustained spinal cord injury and approximately 6 million Americans live with a form of paralysis. A subsidiary of the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, the organization was founded by Jesse Billauer, a professional surfer and motivational speaker who established Life Rolls On after he sustained a spinal cord injury while surfing.
The event this weekend was called They Will Surf Again and took place in La Jolla, just north of San Diego. Approximately 50 individuals of all ages (3-63) with spinal cord injuries became surfers for the day. A team of hundreds of volunteers mobilized to organize the surfers, help them into wetsuits, and take them into the water. The surfboards were adapted with short rails and the surfers lay on their stomachs. A team of volunteers took them dozens of feet offshore and pushed them into perfect waves. It was a sunny day and the conditions were beautiful, so many surfers enjoyed very long rides. It was inspirational to see their accomplishment and a joy to see their faces beaming with excitement.
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What’s Your Profile? ⟩
September 13, 2012, by Ricky
Does it feel really uncomfortable when someone gives you a moderately wet kiss on the cheek? Are you really sensitive to light touch, like if an ant crawls up your leg? Do you get dizzy at Costco? Do you ever question how people could ever study with the TV on? If you’re like me, and answered yes to any (or all) of these, it might be really insightful to complete a Sensory Profile* with your Occupational Therapist. This assessment will help you become more familiar with your sensory preferences, meaning, how your body responds to the various stimuli in the environment. The pediatric version of this tool (Infant/Toddler Sensory Profile) is commonly used by occupational therapists working with children with Autism or other developmental disorders. Many of us have independently figured out strategies to work around/through uncomfortable stimuli, but for some, this might be quite a challenge. Pinpointing these stimuli and our responses to them can lead to optimal strategies. Chances are you may even reveal some uncomfortable stimuli that you never really considered before.
*by Winnie Dunn PhD, OTR, FAOTA | pearsonassessments.com
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Feeling like an Olympian ⟩
September 13, 2012, by Alisa
Classes Life Hacks School/Life Balance
This is Week 3 of classes already! Time is flying by so quickly. This week in my Health Promotion and Wellness class, we learned about the importance of having balance. We got to do a balance wheel of a typical weekday, and I realized that I do not have leisure activities during the weekday. So, after coming home from class, I set forth to do a new activity purely for myself. Since I live near the main campus, I have access to the track and decided to take a nice walk there instead of going to the gym. Instead of doing the elliptical like the usual, I craved a breath of fresh air and decided to start slow by walking/jogging on the track. I spent a total of an hour there, but it was very worth it in the end. I got to enjoy the cool breeze against my skin along with my workout music while getting to see students practice field hockey, doing lunges, and running. I enjoyed the atmosphere and simply being outside. Who knows I might enter in the Mud Run or Color Run the next time you see me? For a brief moment on the track, I felt like an Olympian.
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Occupations linking us to our heritage ⟩
September 12, 2012, by Kendra
I got married this past August and something that occupied my mind throughout the planning and actual wedding process was the connection to my ancestors and current family I felt by taking part in this long-lived tradition. For the longest time I was a nay-sayer for weddings, I didn’t want to prescribe to antiquated traditions, I envisioned myself a new-age woman, hear me roar! I still am, but I see now why some traditions live for hundreds, thousands of years. Suffice to say, I get why people ‘get married.’ The feeling that I was experiencing the same jitters, excitement, and annoyances that my mother, grandmother, and one day, daughter will experience, made me feel like I was tapping into something far greater and substantial than just one day of celebration.
One of my classes this semester is Health Promotion and Wellness, and the activity we did this week was identifying occupations that are important to us and what values and emotions we instill into them. All I kept thinking about was the connection to the past I feel when engaging in some occupations. Finding this connection allows for greater value and understanding of the process of engaging in occupation. For example, laundry. I avoid doing it until absolutely necessary, but lately when I am folding shirt after shirt after shirt I think of my great-grandmother, whom I never met, but know that she too throughout her lifespan folded clothes, cooked meals, and got married. Suddenly this seemingly mundane task was far more meaningful. Suffice to say, my class has helped me re-think the ‘why’ of engaging in certain activities, allow the why to create meaning and, ideally, change something burdensome into something meaningful.
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Balance ⟩
September 10, 2012, by Amber
This weekend, I spent four days in the mountains near Yosemite at my family’s vacation home. It is a cute little place nestled in three acres of oak and fir trees. My hectic schedule had prevented me from visiting for over a year, so the peaceful country setting was a pleasant shock to my overstimulated city senses. My entire immediate family was there, which totaled eight including significant others and my new baby nephew. The special reason for this visit was that my aunt and uncle had traveled from Oregon to spend a last summer weekend with my family. We took the jet skis out on the lake, roasted marshmallows, cruised the farmer’s market, and enjoyed my dad’s famous BBQ every night. It was a wonderful weekend.
It felt incredible to take time out for fun and relaxation. Today in my Health and Wellness class, I learned that my feeling of rejuvenation came from the insertion of much-needed balance into my activities. I completed a “Balance Wheel” indicating how my time is spent on a typical day. I found that very little of my time is set aside for leisure activities. I learned that to achieve balance in my life, it is very important to set aside time for my own health and well-being, and commit to defending that time. Personal time often gets set aside as less important than other activities in our lives. My goal for this school year is to incorporate more health-promoting activities into my schedule to try to achieve that elusive balance.
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