Student Blog

One last occupation: photography ⟩
May 2, 2016, by Heather

Beginnings and Endings School/Life Balance

As a way to ring in the end of my graduate school experience, I wanted to talk a little bit about one of my favorite occupations: taking photos.

I found my passion for photography over twenty years ago, when my father gave me his old point-and-shoot camera. I initially discovered my love for taking photographs of flowers and different elements of our natural world. It was beautiful and seemed safe at the time.

When I was in high school, I joined the school newspaper as the staff photographer. This gave me an introduction into taking photographs of people. All different types of people.

When I moved on to bigger and better things in college, I decided to minor in photography. Our school had a well-renowned art department, so I thought it would be a good idea to make the most of the resources it had to offer. I recall the discomfort of my first photography class critique — we reviewed each other’s work and gave constructive criticism (out loud). It was extremely difficult. I learned eventually to not shy away from criticism, as I saw my craft improving with time and peer feedback.

After college, I moved to San Francisco and tried to start my own photography business. My passion had evolved from taking photographs of the natural world to taking photographs of food. Yep, food porn basically. I was offered opportunities to assist on bigger photo projects for brands showcasing ice creams, soups, yogurts, and for projects for Bon Appetit magazine. I was loving the challenges and the different types of art I was being exposed to.

To this day, I still love photography. I look forward to its next big challenge for me.

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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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The POT of LUCK at the End of The Year Rainbow ⟩
April 28, 2016, by Rashelle

Beginnings and Endings Classes Community What are OS/OT?

Today is officially my last day of classes within the the Two-Year Master of Arts degree program for Occupational Therapy! This week my biggest stressors were preparing enough food to accommodate all of the potlucks that we have in celebration!

On Monday, the second year bible study leaders handed off the torch to the first year leaders with a wonderful picnic.

On Tuesday, we had our final practicum in OT 599: Occupation-Based Adult Neurorehabilitation, then celebrated with a giant feast!

Then, today for my final class assignment, I will facilitate a group in OT 583: Lifestyle Redesign. I am a member of the group focused on, “Sensory Strategies for Wellness,” which Joe had previously mentioned in his blog. To lead this session I prepared different food items for my group members to sample. Each item was intentionally picked to serve as either an alerting or calming gustatory stimuli, in order to regulate one’s emotions and stress throughout the day.

While my session is targeting taste as a sensory strategy for wellness, my classmates have led the groups prior, which discuss the other senses. Thus, to summarize and provide closure to our group, I also created this worksheet to remind everyone of what we have learned throughout our semester.

Essentially, we built a toolkit of sensory strategies, to serve as a visual reminder, whenever we experience those emotions listed. I can’t wait to be able to utilize this with clients in the near future!

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Touring with Homeboys ⟩
April 27, 2016, by Joe

Community Getting Involved

This morning I had the pleasure of leading a campus tour for clients from Homeboy Industries.

Homeboy Industries is an incredible organization whose mission is “to help formerly gang involved and the previously incarcerated, by offering hope, training and job skills. Our goal: To help former gang members redirect their lives and become contributing members of their families and our community.” They offer a variety of services & programs for education, employment, legal services, as well as mental health services. They also have several social enterprises where they employ and provide job training to former gang members and previously incarcerated people.

The group I led today was from their Pathways to College program, which provides support and education in pursuit of college degree programs. The students had a variety of interests and had never heard of Occupational Therapy, so it was a great opportunity to share with them this potential profession. They were also interested to hear about the clients I’ve worked with who had been involved in gangs and had previously been incarcerated.

We had such a great time, that they offered to swap roles and give me a tour of their facilities soon!

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Fun Fridays: Fave Occupations Edition ⟩
April 22, 2016, by Joe

Classes What are OS/OT?

To cap off our Lifestyle Redesign course, we develop our own 5 week group program as a team. Each team gets to decide the theme or lifestyle area they want to address as a group; some group topics include “sensory strategies for wellness,” “life management skills” (e.g., finances, time management, etc.), and “healthy eating.” My group theme is “exploring recreation,” so each week, one of us leads the rest of the group in trying out a new recreational or leisure activity. Here’s a peak at some faves.

Check us out with our hip scarves! Our Lifestyle Redesign professor, Camille Dieterle, joined us in the dance too, but we were having too much fun to take any action shots.

Our group is also going to explore cooking, coloring, and gymnastics. It’s a really fun class, but I’m about ready for a nap . . .

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