Student Blog

Sleepy head ⟩
February 20, 2013, by Alisa

Life Hacks School/Life Balance

I haven’t been getting good sleep, and partly because I get woken up in the middle of the night. I’m holding the duty phone as a resident advisor, and I’m worried that the phone will ring in the middle of the night. It affects me in that I don’t want to wake up in the morning. The hardest part of waking up is getting up. Today, my alarm clock went off at 7:45, but I didn’t actually get up into 8:16. I set a new record, where I got ready in 6 minutes just in time to catch the tram. It helped that I had my clothes all laid out the night before. I usually catch up on sleep on the weekend, but sleep is something that I’ll be more conscious now. On average my body needs at least 7 hours to be able to fully function. In my undergraduate career I have pulled one all-nighter, and in grad school about once a semester. It’s just me having poor time management skills since I often get distracted by all the wonderful opportunities at USC. Sometimes there just not time in the day to accomplish everything that I wanted to. Yesterday, Kal Penn was speaking on-campus. Today, I’m attending an event at USC where Landon Donovan will be speaking! I’m looking forward to that.

I can’t believe I’m leaving for Thailand in a week! It seems that there is so much more to do between now and when I leave, but I tell myself I’ll get through it. I set smaller goals for myself and tackle them one at a time. Of course, I reward myself for accomplishing those tasks. For my externship in Thailand, I’ll be shadowing my aunt who owns a health spa and is involved in many charitable organizations. I’ll be learning about corporate social responsibility and leadership in the health and wellness industry. I’ll also get to spend more time with my beloved grandmother as well.

⋯

Discovering New Places ⟩
February 19, 2013, by Amber

Living in LA School/Life Balance

Over the long President’s Day weekend, I mostly did one thing: schoolwork. However, I did want to do at least one thing out of the ordinary to feel like I properly celebrated the holiday. My husband and I both love being outdoors and hiking, and the weather this weekend was beautiful, summery, and clear. So we decided to go for a hike. I had heard that a park near our neighborhood had good trails, so I looked it up. It turns out that Elysian Park is the oldest and one of the largest parks in Los Angeles. In less than 10 minutes, we were enjoying a wonderful hike with lots of shade and great views of downtown. It was refreshing and a great way to spend the holiday! Please leave a comment and let me know what you did over the long weekend!

⋯

Happy Valentine’s Day ⟩
February 14, 2013, by Alisa

Getting Involved School/Life Balance

First off, Happy Valentine’s Day! Happy Single Awareness Day! Happy Rotic Day (romantic without the “man”)! Happy whatever else you celebrate!

To be honest with you, I’m feeling a tad bit overwhelmed with all the roles and responsibilities that I have, but without these roles and responsibilities, I would probably be bored. Despite learning about time management in class, I still feel that I could improve. As I share about my time management, I would like you to consider how you spend your time as well.

Other than being a student, some of you know that I am also a resident advisor to undergraduate students. While some nights that I am on duty are peaceful, I realize my sleep gets disrupted when I get calls at 2:30 AM. Other than being on duty on certain nights, I also get to do programming (the more fun part!). Some things happen for a reason, and the opportunity to be involved in Relay for Life was presented to me, and I took it. Yesterday, I attended a team captain’s meeting for Relay for Life. In my undergrad I was also a team captain for the Chinese American Student Association, raising over $400 for cancer research.

As a resident advisor I also plan to organize a blood drive in the near future! I got the inspiration from my attempt to donate blood on campus last week. The Pharmacy school along with Hungtington Hospital organized a blood drive, and I was so excited to donate. Little did I know, I have failed to drink enough fluids, so the blood wasn’t coming out as fast as it should. I felt disappointed that I have wasted everyone’s time, but it sparked an idea for me to help organize a blood drive as an event in my residential community. I had no idea that blood was expensive (~$300/pint), and that they’re always in need of blood. Yes, 1 pint can help save 3 people’s lives! Here’s a cool fact from the American Red Cross website: If you began donating blood at age 17 and donated every 56 days until you reached 76, you would have donated 48 gallons of blood, potentially helping save more than 1,000 lives!

What I’ve learned from being involved in different roles and responsibilities is that it’s important to be optimistic. I’ve managed to find something positive out of a seemingly negative experience. I treat it as a lesson, and everyone is my teacher. In my life I have had my share of failures. I joked to my friends that I am usually second best. There was one time I went in for a scholarship interview for the second time, and I recognized the interviewers from the year before. They asked me, “What will you do if you don’t get selected?” I answered, “I’ll apply again next year.” Yes, we all laughed. Lo and behold, I got the scholarship to go to Thailand!

Wishing those of you who are applying and waiting to hear back a good luck! If you don’t get in the first time, tell yourself it’s okay. There are other options, and you can always apply again. Have a most awesome day!

⋯

New Digs — clarification ⟩
February 14, 2013, by Ricky

Living in LA

I would like to make a clarification about my comments in last week’s post, entitled “New Digs.” While I didn’t really bad-mouth my new neighborhood, I am feeling bad about calling it “not-the-nicest” area of Los Angeles. I don’t think that was a fair representation. So, I am staying on the eastside of LA, about a mile and a half south of the Health Sciences Campus. Again, not a recommendation for everyone — but I love it. I live just near the heart of a pivotal region in the rich history of my people, the Chicano people. If you’re open to it, you may find it is a great place too. Not only is it culturally rich, but the location is prime and it lends itself to easy travel in and around LA. LA rocks!

⋯

Inspired ⟩
February 12, 2013, by Paula

Classes What are OS/OT?

So this entry may seem to mirror Amber’s last post a bit but I have been feeling the same excitement at the progress I know that we all have made over the past years. I feel like we are finally pushing away those clouds of self-doubt that come with being a novice, wide-eyed student and are looking forward to exploring what our future careers will be with anticipation. The energy is definitely different mid-way through this final semester and it’s as though there was a transformation sometime within the winter break which really ignited the class. This is a great thing!!

Within the Motor Control elective, I have had the opportunity to meet some amazing people. My clinical observation placement is located in the Jacquelin Perry Institute (JPI) at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center, where I primarily follow an OTR/L who works with patients in the Stroke Rehabilitation program. I know that you have heard each of us mention Rancho by now. This rehabilitation center is certainly deserving of the highly esteemed reputation it has developed over nearly a century of providing services. The aspect of Rancho which I value most as a student is the enthusiasm for learning and the obvious effort that each member of the rehabilitation team makes to encourage students while also maintaining such a high quality of care for the people they treat each day. For every student who has started out in the clinical setting, there are those moments of, “Oh no, I cannot remember what they said about this in class,” interspersed with moments of “But, what if I do something wrong?!” It is normal; it is called ‘learning’; and it happens to us all along the way. When a location makes an obvious effort to support the learning experience and clearly has confidence in the ability of the student, as they do at Rancho, it resonates with the students.

Today during lab, a fellow student and I were told that we would be leading a co-treat with a gentleman we have observed in therapy before. We were able to evaluate, compete an occupational profile for the individual (including his prior function, changes he has experienced and what he would like to get back to doing), assess his scapular and thoracic alignment and perform scapular mobilizations to facilitate a more appropriate posture necessary to support activity in therapy. It has been so gratifying to work with people through the many different settings in fieldwork and to learn so much from each of them along the way . . . I feel like I am always saying this, but I am so looking forward to actually being an OT (soon)!

⋯