Mixing it Up!

January 15, 2014
by Clarissa

Community Getting Involved

The spring semester started a couple of days ago and I can’t believe it’s my last semester in the program! It’s hard to imagine not seeing my classmates every day, some of which have become so dear and special to me. The time has flown by and I’m getting nostalgic already.

The one thing I’ll miss most about USC is the community. Not only have I met those with amazingly compassionate hearts and bright minds in the OT division, I’ve also become acquainted with future colleagues through interdisciplinary interactions. It’s normal for students in any graduate program to feel engrossed in the world of their own discipline — school can be pretty consuming! This is why I appreciate opportunities to interact with students from other schools. Not only is it a great learning opportunity to learn about related professions, which is important to future practice, but it also puts OT’s unique characteristics into perspective.

Last semester, we had several functions where we could mix and mingle with other disciplines, including a mixer with the public health school at a cute little café in downtown LA, another function initiated by the pharmacy school, and several tailgates with physical therapy. The USC chapter of Phi Theta Epsilon, the national honor society of OT, also organized the annual OT/PT Forum where practicing OTs and PTs spoke about patient cases where collaboration was critical. Students of both disciplines were given the opportunity to brainstorm about these cases too. Pretty cool, huh?

Here’s a picture of the OTs with our new public health friends at Eat, Drink, Americano in downtown and of the OTs and PTs putting our minds together at the OT/PT Forum!

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