Student Blog
Community

The Olympics Are Here! ⟩
February 5, 2014, by Kate

Community School/Life Balance

As of tomorrow night, the 2014 Winter Olympics have begun and I am SO EXCITED!!! I love sports competitions, and I love everything the Olympics stands for. I feel as if people from so many different races, cultures and backgrounds come together with a common goal: to represent their country and do the best they can. The Opening Ceremonies are one of the most magical events to watch because you can see this pride on the faces of all the athletes who come to compete. The Winter Olympics mean so much to me too, since I grew up in Colorado! I always wanted to be an Olympic-level ski racer, and I watched U.S. skiing greats like Picabo Street and Johnny Mosely when they both won Olympic Gold. Furthermore, one of my favorite movies of all time is Cool Runnings, the classic tale of the Jamaican bobsled team that went to the Calgary Olympics. Well, good news for me — the Jamaican’s are once again sending a bobsled team to the Olympics!!

I’m planning to watch the Opening Ceremonies tomorrow night with some friends and show my pride for Team USA!

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I love Kate Holford!!! ⟩
January 30, 2014, by Ryan

Community

Well, we are on our third week of classes and I feel like I have adjusted to school now. Getting into the groove with lots of reading, projects forming, etc. So I would like to take some time to talk about my love for my fellow ambassador Kate Holford. I, of course, appreciate my whole ambassador team. Everyone is so wonderfully unique which makes us a great team! But for Kate Holford, we have worked together majority of the time last semester and we were in the same cohort as well (meaning we shared a lot of our core classes together). We have been through a lot together and have become so close while adventuring into the new position of Student Ambassador as well as coming to the end of our program. We helped create an Instagram account for the division and have participated in adding photos each week, check it out if you haven’t already!!! It gives you a peek of what we do day-to-day. This all is in addition to the occasional girl talk and dancing in the office. Thank you Kate for always listening, giving me such great advice and being so supportive! I love you!

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Tai Chi and (Chai) Tea ⟩
January 23, 2014, by Clarissa

Classes Community Diversity What are OS/OT?

This morning, I saw a group of older adults practicing Tai Chi in a park nearby my house and I felt so happy! Why, you ask? I took a class last semester geared towards creating a community project. My group members and I interviewed experts, talked to community members, and designed a program for (you guessed it) Tai Chi!

Older adults are often at risk for falls and social isolation. In our research regarding Tai Chi, we found evidence in the literature supporting Tai Chi’s positive effects on fall prevention in older adults — it helps with factors contributing to falls like balance, coordination, and fear of falling. To address fall risk and social isolation, we decided to write a proposal for creating a Tai Chi class followed by time to socialize with tea. The social relationships built through tea time could also motivate the older adults to join our class.

We decided our target population would be older adults in Monterey Park, a city just east of downtown LA. The city has a 66.9% Asian population. In our research, we also found that Asians were less likely to talk about their lifestyle to their health providers so they may have needs that aren’t being met. The cultural familiarity of Tai Chi (and the tea!) may work to encourage their attendance to our program.

To explain the title of this blog post — my group really wanted to name our project Tai Chi and Chai Tea but had to very sadly let go of it. Chai tea’s sugar content may not be the best for older adults. The title lives on here. Woohoo!

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Group Projects ⟩
January 22, 2014, by Jen

Classes Community Diversity

So far this semester, I feel like I have had a number a group projects. The great thing about USC being such a large program is that with each new project, I generally get to work with someone new! I enjoy this because each person in the program has something different and exciting to offer. Everyone in the program has I different background, I’ve become friends with people who were professional dancers, writers, teachers, accountants, and more! I am glad that I went straight from undergrad to grad school because I never had a chance to get out of the “school mode,” but my peers that did work before starting grad school have brought such great experiences and knowledge with them . . . and I’m fortunate that they are always willing to share their knowledge with me!

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Mixing it Up! ⟩
January 15, 2014, by Clarissa

Community Getting Involved

The spring semester started a couple of days ago and I can’t believe it’s my last semester in the program! It’s hard to imagine not seeing my classmates every day, some of which have become so dear and special to me. The time has flown by and I’m getting nostalgic already.

The one thing I’ll miss most about USC is the community. Not only have I met those with amazingly compassionate hearts and bright minds in the OT division, I’ve also become acquainted with future colleagues through interdisciplinary interactions. It’s normal for students in any graduate program to feel engrossed in the world of their own discipline — school can be pretty consuming! This is why I appreciate opportunities to interact with students from other schools. Not only is it a great learning opportunity to learn about related professions, which is important to future practice, but it also puts OT’s unique characteristics into perspective.

Last semester, we had several functions where we could mix and mingle with other disciplines, including a mixer with the public health school at a cute little café in downtown LA, another function initiated by the pharmacy school, and several tailgates with physical therapy. The USC chapter of Phi Theta Epsilon, the national honor society of OT, also organized the annual OT/PT Forum where practicing OTs and PTs spoke about patient cases where collaboration was critical. Students of both disciplines were given the opportunity to brainstorm about these cases too. Pretty cool, huh?

Here’s a picture of the OTs with our new public health friends at Eat, Drink, Americano in downtown and of the OTs and PTs putting our minds together at the OT/PT Forum!

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