Student Blog

Holiday Break Balance ⟩
January 10, 2014, by Jen

Living in LA School/Life Balance

With almost 4 weeks off from classes, I made sure to catch up on some much needed rest and relaxation. I spent the beginning of the holiday break in my hometown in the bay area. I was able to catch up with friends and families as well as engage in some of my favorite occupations: hiking, playing with my dog, and eating. After spending time in Northern California, I flew down to visit more of my family in San Diego. It did not feel like winter in San Diego’s 70-80 degree weather and I enjoyed every moment of my time there. For New Year’s Day, I went to the Rose Parade in Pasadena. I had never been before, but because I now live in Los Angeles it made it very easy (and fun) to attend. One of my favorite floats was the Cal Poly Universities Float (although I am a little biased since I attended Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo for undergrad). The float, titled “Bedtime Buccaneers”, won the Crown City Innovation Trophy. I was very proud of the work they did. Since the New Year, I’ve been spending time with friends and preparing to return to school. My break was full of balance which is one of the most important things to have.

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It’s Winter Break Time!!! ⟩
December 18, 2013, by Ryan

Living in LA School/Life Balance

Well, finals are over and it is time to relax . . . and I mean relax. I had a final on Thursday so that afternoon I went to get my nails done with a friend of mine. It was just what I wanted, something relaxing. And I never treat myself like that. I usually do it myself. It was great! I felt relaxed and had some great girl bonding time.

Then after our last big final on Monday, a bunch of us went to brunch and celebrated the end of our fall semester. I can’t believe I only have one more left! We had a blast! The restaurant was empty (because it was 12:30pm on a Monday) so we would rotate seats around the large rectangular table so we could all talk and catch up after the crazy busy 2 weeks we just had.

And yesterday I went on a hike in the Pacific Palisades, up Temescal Canyon. It was a beautiful day and does not feel like Christmas is just next week. After the hike, we all got frozen yogurt and ended the day playing Balderdash at a friend’s house. So, I would say my vacation so far is going great!

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Oh Happy Day! ⟩
December 16, 2013, by Clarissa

Community Getting Involved

I just took my last final today for my Current Issues in Adulthood and Aging class — hip hip hooray! I always have trouble picking from a jillion things to blog about but since it’s a jolly day, I’ll blog about jolly things — the OT Ugly Holiday Sweater Party! As the social chair of OTSC, I always look forward to planning and implementing this event. This event is a young tradition, started only last year, where the students get together and eat, participate in an ugly sweater competition, decorate gingerbread houses and ornaments, and make holiday cards. This year, we held it at the Center for Occupation and Lifestyle Redesign, which is a beautiful Victorian house owned by the USC OS/OT Division. The homey atmosphere, festive decorations, and Christmas tree made the party that much more enjoyable.

It has been so long since we had the opportunity to be creative and do arts and crafts! Participating in crafts reminds me why I so strongly believe in OT — meaningful ways of occupying my time lifts my mood, boost my self-esteem upon product completion, and, since I like doing crafts with other people, increases socialization. Basically, it’s a recipe for well-being. Unfortunately, in the midst of projects, finals, and papers, my creative brain has taken a backseat so it felt great to unwind and create again. On top of that, I was able to catch up with so many classmates and get to know first years. I get lonely with my laptop as my only companion during finals week.

This year, we also teamed up with another student group in our division called Design in Action. They encouraged the students to build gingerbread houses with universal design in mind — they created ramps, grab bars, handrails, and wheelchair accessible doorways. It was a fun way of incorporating some of the principles we learned in class and I loved hearing our classmates’ stories about each house. I was really impressed with some of these houses. Here is the first place winner along with some happy OTs!

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Snow Day! ⟩
December 13, 2013, by Rob

Life Hacks Living in LA

Last Friday I was giving a tour to a prospective student when what should we stumble upon but a giant snow pile next to Tommy Trojan on the main campus.

I’m always open to the unexpected when touring students on both of our campuses — you never know what might happen — but I was not prepared for snow! Being from Chicago, snow is nothing new to me, but after almost two years of sunny southern California, it certainly was a surprise.

Turned out, they had trucked in a load of snow and dumped it in the middle of campus for everyone to enjoy.

So naturally, I indulged my Midwestern roots (and my inner child) and had a good old fashioned snowball fight. I would love to brag about how I “won,” but the prospective student somehow managed to get snow down the back of my shirt. Fortunately for me, the snow fell between my outer shirt and inner shirt, which made the situation even more comical. Afterwards, I juggled snowballs for the first time!

Such good-natured fun was exactly what I needed in the middle of preparations for finals week. We had a big project due that morning and an essay due that afternoon. I was tired and just a little stressed. After playing in the snow, none of that seemed to matter. A little bit of occupation-based snow therapy was exactly what I needed!

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Finals Week! ⟩
December 12, 2013, by Ryan

Classes

Whoa! It is finals week, ya’ll, and it is no joke! Of course, I had the sit-down, typical, multiple choice exams for 3 of my classes. But I have also had projects and papers for a few of my other classes. And that has been such a positive experience. First one was on Friday for Dr. Fazio’s OT 570 Occupation-Centered Programs for the Community class. Our big project was to go through the steps to develop a mock-proposal for a service that is needed for a particular population out in the community. The cool part is that after we graduate, we have all the materials done to actually implement these programs and some alumni have! So for this project, you could work in a group or solo. I was very passionate about a certain population (and no one else was), so I worked by myself. I realized quickly that this was a bit difficult to do on my own, but it was worth it. The final for this class was the written proposal as well as a poster presentation to the department staff and faculty. Sound intimidating, right? But it wasn’t. I really enjoyed making my poster and it came out quite nice. I enjoyed sharing my project because I think it could really benefit people and also viewing other posters from my classmates was amazing and I saw a lot of creative ideas for so many different populations. My project was relating to older adults (between 50 and 70 years of age) who are healthy and still able to work. I was interested in their experience with unanticipated or early retirement. For individuals going through this huge life event they can lose their confidence, social connections, and financial support as well as purpose that gets them out of bed and sense of contribution to society. Especially with the baby boomer generation increasing the amount of older adults in our society, there is not enough support or services to deal with this issue. I was proud to contribute this idea as well as see how smart and wonderful my classmates are. Yay OT, USC, & Dr. Fazio!

FYI, here is my first attempt (since I am the worst with technology) to add a photo 😊

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