Student Blog

(Un)balanced? ⟩
October 10, 2014, by Claire

Life Hacks School/Life Balance

The school semester is well underway — we are about halfway done! Hang in there, folks! One goal that I made for myself these two weeks is to work on LIFE BALANCE. (life balance? what is that?). In OT534: Health Promotion and Wellness, we discussed the importance of lifestyle balance and healthy routines. We did an activity using the Balance Wheel, which is a worksheet that helps you categorize how you spend your day in one hour time slots. The categories include Leisure, Individual care, Free/unscheduled time, and Effort in school/work activities (LIFE). Looking at my completed worksheet, I realized that my Balance Wheel was very much unbalanced — it consisted of Individual care (mostly meaning sleep) and Effort in school/work, with very little leisure and free time. I also noticed that I was frequently stressed and my buddies often commented that I looked tired.

So in my new initiative to be in a better state of health, I went OT on myself and started to pay closer attention to where all my time was going. I downloaded an app that allowed me to track my day by the half hour, and over the course of last week, I noted what I did, my productivity and satisfaction level. At the end of the week, I made a few goals for myself: waste less time browsing on my phone (this really added up for me!) and get in more studying earlier in the week to prevent high stress later. This week, I am making an effort to change my study habits in order for me to be less stressed and more pleasant around others. The method seems to be working now that I am making more conscious decisions on what I do with my time. Work and school, leisure, rest, and spending time with friends — these are all very important! I am happier now knowing I don’t need to choose one and sacrifice another by managing my time better!

I always have to remind myself that if I want to help others live their life to the fullest, I have to be healthy and taking care of myself as well. For others who are also feeling overwhelmed, maybe this is a helpful idea for you! Even just take a step back for fifteen minutes and breathe, meditate, take a nap, exercise . . . and you will feel more refreshed!

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The USC Mrs. T.H. Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy ⟩
October 8, 2014, by Bindi

Community International What are OS/OT?

Try saying that aloud, the USC Mrs. T.H. Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy. A mouthful, isn’t it? While it may be a mouthful, it sure does have a wonderful ring to the name.

While they were preparing for the big announcement, I was asked to interview for the division’s video and it was then that I was told that we were about to receive a $20 million gift! I was shocked, I had never heard of any occupational therapy school receiving such a sizeable amount. Of course during the interview I was asked what I thought the impact of this gift would be in the field of occupational therapy. I may have been flustered then and nervous to talk to a device that was recording me, but now I have a chance to think and give a well-articulated answer to that question.

My hope is that this gift will go a long way in research so that we as OTs have a stronger evidence based practice. Every occupational therapist around the world knows what Sensory Integration, and I would like for this gift to have the same impact in the world.

This gift should give people more access to the occupational therapy education. The China Initiative is wonderful news especially considering there isn’t a Chinese word for ‘occupational therapy.’ Giving easier access to occupational therapy education may be in terms of university affiliations, scholarships and awareness.

USC already has a great global initiative, and are recruiting people from all over the world — like me. But this should increase the numbers, making the OT course available to more candidates from around the world especially from Africa. It is only South Africa that has a bachelor’s and master’s program for occupational therapy that is highly valued. Most of the other African countries have only diploma schools.

I hope we have an African initiative soon too! ☺

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Yay USC undergrad OT classes! ⟩
October 3, 2014, by Claire

Classes

Today’s a shoutout post to all USC undergraduate students taking OT courses! A couple weeks ago, Leila and I had the privilege to visit OT classes at the main UPC campus to talk about the Occupational Science minor program. I was also lucky to give a HSC tour with some Bachelor’s-to-Master’s OT students earlier this semester. You guys really rock! As a current Bachelor-to-Master’s OT student (last year already, wow!), these assignments mean a lot to me personally. It was super exciting to see this year’s classes and see how much they have grown. In my freshman year (that was back in 2010!), I took OT310x Creativity Workshop and OT250 Introduction to Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy. I remember a student ambassador coming to talk to us about Occupational Therapy, and it’s so crazy to see everything come full circle. Not only that, that year we had about almost ten students signed up for the Friday morning class, but this year, the class is now double its size! Thank you to all the students for hearing our spiels about how amazing occupational therapy is and how much we love USC OT, and I had so much fun answering any questions that people had. USC Pre-OT club is having their first site visit — go check it out!! Best of luck to all USC undergrads — hope to see you at other USC OT events or at the Master’s program!

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Eyes on the Prize ⟩
October 2, 2014, by Jonathan

Admissions Life Hacks

Hey everyone! Can’t believe it’s officially Fall already! This means a couple things — cooler weather (hopefully), Fall sports (go Lakers, Dodgers, and Trojans!), and application season! For this blog, I’m dedicating it to the hopeful prospective students in the middle of their application process. The application process is a long road, requiring patience, diligence, and sheer determination. Reflecting on my own journey, I can definitely admit that I ran into my own share of challenges. Yes, it can be tedious — taking the GRE, fulfilling prerequisites, requesting letter of recommendations, etc. — at times it can be overwhelming. If you find yourself in this situation, all I can say is, remind yourself what is fueling all your efforts. I think at times, we get so caught up in the process and the end product that we forget why we are doing things in the first place. In my personal experience, I would do my best to give myself daily reminders of my dream. Some ways to do this, which worked for me, include the following:

Reading this blog: I remember meeting Ricardo, a past USC OT student ambassador at OTAC two years ago, and told him that whenever I found myself too caught up in the application process, I would visit this blog to envision what it was like to be a student. In doing so, this would remind me of what I was working towards, and the experiences I would eventually look forward to one day.

Keep immersing yourself in occupational therapy: Listen, you’ve already found your calling, which some people spend their whole lives looking for! Now that you’ve found that OT is for you, then all I can say is start living OT today! Whether that’s volunteering, reading up on research, attending conferences, advocating for OT, etc, it’s never too early to start practicing your calling in life!

Stay balanced: Balance is something we preach in OT everyday. Surround yourself in the meaningful occupations that define who you are, because those occupations will provide perspective, especially if times get rough. I understand that the application process is monumental, but so is living and enjoying your life! In addition, by living a life of balance, you’ll be immersing yourself in a concept that you’ll be emphasizing to all the people you will eventually help one day.

Surround yourself by people who will fuel your fire: By surrounding yourself by people who will support you unconditionally, they’ll be able to give you reminders of why you’re working towards your dream. These are the people who truly understand your passion, and will give you that extra push that you need. Whether that’s family, friends, or a mentor, I can honestly say that without these people in my own life, I wouldn’t be where I am today.

Dream big: Finish this line: When I am an occupational therapist one day, I want to ________. Ask yourself what you want to accomplish as an OT. In doing so, you’ll give yourself that extra motivation as to why you’re engaged in the application process.

Patience, patience, patience: As i mentioned earlier, the application process takes time. It’s human nature to want instant gratification, but good things truly do come to those who wait.

Your best is all you can ask of yourself: Once you turn in your application, celebrate, blast your favorite song, and do your happy dance.  No matter the outcome, you’ve focused all your efforts over the last couple of weeks/months/years towards making your dream come true, which is all you can really ask of yourself. If that same effort shines through when you’re an OT one day,  you’re going to be an amazing clinician.

Hope my words of encouragement serve you all well. Stay determined, stay hungry, and stay focused. It’s all worth it. Best of luck to you all!

— Jonathan

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From Kenya to Los Angeles ⟩
September 29, 2014, by Bindi

Living in LA

I remember landing in Los Angeles, and seeing baseball and American football fields for the first time. It was then that I had my moment of realization that I had left home and was in the United States of America!

I had several chances to realize that, for instance saying goodbye to my wonderful family and my precious dog, Toto, or any time through my 30-hour journey to Los Angeles. But it had to be the football fields!

Of course it was the longest flight of my life but being here at USC has made living through those 30 hours worth it! 5 weeks have gone by in flash and it makes me wonder what I have been up to.

Making the transition from Kenya to Los Angeles has been much easier than I expected it to be. Strange but I wasn’t anxious about the big move to LA despite this being my first time in USA and that is all because I had all the information I needed weeks before I left Kenya. I knew exactly where I was going to live, how I will be commuting to the Health Sciences Campus and back to the accommodation. I got everything I needed to know from the emails that Kim and Liz would send including the daunting tasks like applying to the program and visa application procedures.

We had a series of events to orient and integrating International students into the Trojan family such as the student orientations, reception dinner and mentor-mentee programs. The highlight of our first week of classes was of course the White Coat ceremony. It was different compared to other universities around the world, and I too believe the oath should be taken at the beginning of the course rather than the graduation. The ceremony re-instilled the values of occupational therapy and our commitment to becoming better OTs.

Living at the OT house (Centennial Apartments) has to be one of the best decisions I made for many reasons. The best reason being meeting my roommate, Kathleen, a second year MA2 student. She has been such help to me and I wouldn’t be having half as good of a time as I am having right now without her. With her I managed to attend many events such as the interdisciplinary health mixer at Dockweiler beach, the Los Angeles County Fair, the Greek festival and we watched several movies at the European Film Festival. We are taking full advantage of all the good and fun things USC has to offer.

Residing at the University Park Campus opens up opportunities to attend all the fun events they host. One of the first one I attended was the welcome back concert where they had Nico and Vinz perform. I especially enjoyed the concert because they had a good African groove to their music.

My American experience wouldn’t be complete without exploring the Greek sororities and fraternities. Not only did I go to ‘frat party’ but I also rushed for a leadership fraternity Delta Omicron Zeta for about half a week before I decided that it wasn’t for me. I just know where to go when I need to take a break from being a responsible graduate student.

So far I love being at USC and a part of the Trojan Family. Fight on Trojans!

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