Student Blog
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April is OT Month! ⟩
April 3, 2012, by Alix

Community Getting Involved

According to the American Occupational Therapy Association: “Each year in April, occupational therapists, occupational therapy assistants, and students in practice, education, research, and science host a month long celebration showcasing the importance of Occupational Therapy. It’s the time of year when everyone in the profession goes out of their way to tell the world about what we do.” At USC, we’re doing our part to promote the field for OT Month. Yesterday, we hosted an “OT Month Kickoff” event with entertainment from the dashing and talented ambassadors Chelsea Robinson and Chris Thompson. We also got free lunch (!) and custom-made OT buttons (also designed by the shockingly talented ambassadors). D’Andre (Dee) Holland emceed the event, which was incredible. Thanks, Dee! We hope that everybody remembers to represent occupational therapy this month by taking a few minutes to tell a friend (or a stranger) what you love most about the profession.

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USC OT Ranked #1 ⟩
March 13, 2012, by Floyd

Community

US News & World Report rankings of the best graduate school programs in the nation just announced University of Southern California’s Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy ranking #1!

I am so proud to be part of the Trojan family and to receive the greatest education throughout the nation. When you sit in the lectures offered by renowned professors in the field, you can understand why USC OT was ranked number one. USC is always in the cutting edge of research and evidence-based practice. When I graduate this May, I feel confident that my education will follow me throughout my years of practice. I understand that time will establish my clinical expertise, but I know that the foundation that I have set at USC will enhance my skills into fruition.

Not only will I have a great education, but I will also have wonderful colleagues who I spent 2 remarkable years with. This kind of networking and fellowship is something that money can’t buy. When I go out into the “real world” and start practicing, I know that I am not alone. I have over a hundred other fellow practitioners who I can bounce ideas off of and support each other’s growth.

FIGHT ON, USC, FIGHT ON!

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Le French Cooking ⟩
February 29, 2012, by Alix

Community School/Life Balance

As an undergrad, I studied abroad in Grenoble, France for a semester. While I was there, I took an amazing cooking class with a French woman in her home. She taught me and the five other students how to cook traditional French meals using fresh, local ingredients (often sourced from her own garden and poultry). At the end of the class, she provided us all with a handwritten recipe book outlining how to prepare all of the meals we had learned. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, I lost my copy. So you can imagine how excited I was to learn that my friend Deana, who also took the class, still had hers. And she lives right down the street from me! We decided that we would start cooking all of the recipes from the book, occasionally throwing French dinner parties so our friends could enjoy the food. One of the first recipes we are going to try is mousse au chocolat. I can’t wait. First things first, though — the recipes are all written in French and using the metric system. So we are just hoping that nothing gets lost in translation and we don’t end up pulling an Amelia Bedelia (you remember her, right?).

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Dog Park! ⟩
February 21, 2012, by Kimberly

Community Living in LA

I dog-sat for my friend’s terrier mix this past weekend. On Sunday I decided to take him to the dog park so he could get some energy out and hopefully enjoy playing around. I had never been to a dog park, or taken a small dog in my car anywhere before. The first challenge of the outing was where to put the little guy. I grew up with large dogs who always were very content and could only fit in the backseat or the bed of my family’s truck. So I at first put him on the front seat floor where he stayed for all of about 2 seconds before jumping up to the seat. Before I knew it, as we drove, he was climbing farther and farther into my lap. I tried to continue focusing on the road, but by my second turn he was sitting contently in my lap in front of the steering wheel. Since he’s so small I decided to let him stay and just continue driving (I still want to ask my friend if this is his normal riding routine or if I spoiled him a bit) . . . it was kinda cute, I’ll admit.

We arrrived at the dog park and walked up to the entrance gate. There was an area for large dogs and one for small dogs each with nicely manicured running space and benches for the owners. I followed other dog-owners in and let my new friend off his leash into the open space. I watched in humor as the dogs found each other, started chasing games, elicited pets from other owners, and ran incessently in the gated area. I was surprised by the stark personality differences between the dogs and what some enjoyed doing over others. My friend’s dog was very content on his own but would seek out other dogs occasionally. He wouldn’t initiate play, but seemed to like meeting all the other dogs and just being in the open space. Though the dogs were very at home, I found it a challenge to figure out what to do myself. The other dog-owners were either standing or sitting around the dog-park. Should I talk to them? Simply focus on my dog’s play? Walk around? Sit down? Run with the dogs? I had been so focused on getting the dog to the park that it didn’t occur to me to think of my own role during our time there. In the end conversation was struck up with some of the other owners over dogs as they came up and elicited pets from us. I can see how this could easliy become a community of people and of dogs if is was a place that you frequented. Definitely a new occupational environment, but a very fun one to experience.

About 20 mintues later, my little guy was tired out and we headed home. This time he climbed right onto my lap from the beginning and I had to work keeping him from jumping up onto my fore-arms to look out the window. I love dogs, I really do . . . but I have to say it was nice to pass him off to his owners at the end of the weekend. Maybe after grad school a pet will become more feasible. But for now, I am completely happy with the occasional chance to dog-sit!

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Renewing an Occupation ⟩
February 14, 2012, by Chris

Community Living in LA School/Life Balance

Before beginning the Occupational Therapy program at USC I started playing beach flag football. Well, once I moved to the west coast I didn’t have a league to play in anymore. I’ve played football for almost as long as I can remember and not having a league to play in was bothering me. Last week I began searching for leagues throughout Los Angeles and I found one that meets in Santa Monica. I quickly informed a few classmates of this league and built a solid group to start going weekly. The first weekend only three of us went, but more people have expressed interest in playing. Once we got there the games were great. The teams were pretty much even and the organizers try to keep groups of friends together. Finally after playing for about 3 hours we finally called it quits, with me leaving with a pretty sweet sunburn. Next week should be even better as more people should make it out.

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