Student Blog
Jodie

One last post ⟩
May 18, 2016, by Jodie

Beginnings and Endings Community

Hello everyone! I am very sad that this will be my last blog post as a student ambassador. This has been such an amazing year and I would highly recommend applying to be a student ambassador during your second year in the program!

Graduation was last Friday and this past Monday I started my first day of my second Level II fieldwork rotation. I am so excited that I will be staying here at USC to pursue my OTD degree in the advanced clinical track and will be completing my residency at Keck Hospital of USC. (Just across the street from CHP so if you ever see me, please say hello!!)

I look forward to seeing new faces around campus in just a few weeks when the new incoming class joins us! Welcome to our Trojan family Class of 2018, you are in for the most amazing two years of your life!! Fight on 😊

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Once a student, always a friend ⟩
April 29, 2016, by Jodie

Community School/Life Balance

Last night, I officially finished my last academic course as a master’s student here in our graduate program. This entire journey towards becoming an occupational therapist has been the most rewarding, inspiring and memorable experience of my life. This has been my biggest dream ever since middle school and it still feels so surreal that in just a few months, I can proudly call myself an occupational therapist!

In my hands rehabilitation elective course last night, my professor ended the lecture by telling my class “once a student of mine, always a friend.” At this moment, it really hit me how tremendously lucky we are to have such supportive and brilliant faculty not only sharing all their knowledge with us, but also supporting us every step of the way towards becoming the best occupational therapists possible. So many thoughts flooded my head as I was driving home from school last night so I decided to write them all down as soon as I got home and share some thoughts/advice with you guys!

1. Get to know our faculty from the very start of the program! There’s so much more that we can learn from our faculty than just what is taught in lectures. I promise you, they don’t bite. 😛
2. Immerse yourself in each and every experience throughout the program: lectures, tailgates, conferences, mixers, guest speaker seminars, etc. Every experience opens a door to new possibilities and you’ll never know what’s out there if you don’t put yourself out there first.
3. Keep your class notes organized either electronically or in binders/folders. You will need all your study guides and notes at the end of the program for the comprehensive exit exam!
4. Take the time to get to know all of your classmates — MAIs, MAIIs, Bachelor’s to Master’s students, OTD and PhD candidates, and everyone else in between! Especially during your first summer semester before you split up into different cohorts but even after you’re separated into cohorts too!

Those were the main thoughts that came into my mind during my drive home (I’m sure if I lived further or took a detour route home, this list would have been exponentially longer!) I hope you find them helpful as you begin your journey towards becoming an OT. I am so excited for you guys and hope to hear about your adventures through these blogs in the years to come.

I also just wanted to share a picture from our last recruitment team dinner tonight at the San Antonio Winery! 

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So close to the finish line! ⟩
April 13, 2016, by Jodie

Community Getting Involved

This month has been filled with many deadlines and celebrations. First and foremost, April is OT Month so we celebrated as a division with our OT Month Kickoff event held at our Health Science Campus. This was a super fun event where we passed out FREE pizza and OT buttons and faculty and students had the chance to socialize and celebrate occupational therapy during lunch!

This past weekend was also AOTA’s national conference in Chicago, which I had the amazing opportunity to attend. I went to numerous short courses and poster presentations and was so inspired by what occupational therapists are doing around the country! I think my favorite thing about attending conferences is being surrounded by people who are equally as passionate about occupational therapy as I am. I felt so inspired by all the presentations and conversations that I had with fellow conference attendees. I am already looking forward to next year’s national conference in Philly!

To top it all off, April happens to be the birth month of my two childhood best friends AND my dad! That being said, I have been very busy planning celebrations for each of them and balancing my time between schoolwork, extracurricular work, family/friend time and “me time”.

I am doing my best to balance my time and to cherish every second of every day in the program. This program really does fly by in the blink of an eye. We are so close to the finish line and I am so excited to see what the future has in store for my classmates and I!!

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A Day in the Life of an OT Student ⟩
February 22, 2016, by Jodie

Living in LA School/Life Balance

Ever wonder what a typical day as a Trojan OT student looks like? As student ambassadors, we often get asked this question so I thought that it would be helpful to actually see what a typical day is like! I documented my Monday schedule to share with all of you. Just a reminder that I am currently in my second year of the program, halfway through Spring semester! 😊

As many of you already know, our program is located in the Center for Health Professions (CHP) on the USC Health Sciences Campus (HSC). I commute to HSC from Monterey Park, which is only about a 20 minute drive taking local streets. I park in the Biggy Parking Structure — one of the closest parking lots to the CHP building. 

On Mondays, I start my morning off working in the ambassador’s office from 8:30 AM to 1 PM. The ambassador’s office is located in our division’s main office in Room 133. Here you see my fellow student ambassador, Rashelle, already working hard in the office!

Once I’m done with my shift, it is time for my first (& only) class of the day: OT 540 Leadership Capstone. All the second year students take this course together from 1 PM to 3:20 PM in room G-37, our large auditorium located on the first floor of CHP.

After OT 540, we are done with class for the day! I like to spend the rest of my afternoon catching up with classmates and getting schoolwork done. Seen in these pictures are some of my classmates sitting out on the CHP patio, catching up after a busy morning in class.

I also enjoy going to the HSC Fitness center, located in the Soto Building less than a mile away from CHP. Since this fitness center is so close to CHP, it is convenient to squeeze in a workout whenever it best fits in my daily schedule. Every USC student has access to this gym so feel free to take advantage of this beautiful facility! (Disclaimer: that is not me doing the push up! 😮)

After all my activities from the day are done, I make my way back home in the evening and relax and prepare for tomorrow’s adventures! This usually consists of checking my planner for any reminders, packing my bag, and setting (multiple) alarms so that I’m all ready to go in the morning. 😀

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Hands-On Learning! ⟩
February 4, 2016, by Jodie

Classes What are OS/OT?

This semester I am taking Occupation-Based Adult Neurorehabilitation, Hand Rehabilitation and Occupational Therapy in Acute Care as my elective courses. Although we are only four weeks into this semester, I have already learned so much and am fascinated by all my classes! Each elective course provides such a comprehensive review of the course topics and allows for very hands-on learning opportunities. Throughout our program we get to see course content applied in practice through both our Level I and Level II fieldwork experiences however, this semester we get to apply course concepts on ourselves and our classmates and really hone in on our skills as practitioners before we graduate!

In my acute care class, we have the opportunity to shadow occupational therapists at Keck Hospital of USC, our world-renowned academic medical center. These clinical experiences coincide with lecture content and significantly enhance the learning experience. In my occupation-based adult neurorehabilitation class, we have both a lecture and lab portion. During lab, we get very hands-on practicing various neurorehabilitation techniques that we learn in class that day. Again, this opportunity to practice what we’re learning and clinically apply concepts from lecture has really made this semester so enjoyable and enriching. This week in neurorehab class, we practiced kinesiotaping and dynamic taping techniques on each other. Here are a few pictures from all the fun we had while learning and practicing this technique!

How did we do??

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