Student Blog
Diversity

LOTA-eria! ⟩
May 1, 2015, by Brenda

Diversity

LOTA, the Latino Occupational Therapy Association, hosted its first LOTA-ería event yesterday on campus! Based on the Mexican Lotería, LOTA-ería uses images that are intended to help students with their OT Spanish. LOTA hopes to continue hosting events such as these in an effort to promote diversity!

⋯

Lunar New Year Celebrations ⟩
February 27, 2015, by Bindi

Community Diversity International Living in LA

The Global Initiatives team organized a Chinese new lunar year dinner at the Plum Tree Inn in Chinatown. Adley Chan and Daniel Park put together a diverse group of international students together with the faculty.

The organizers laid out a large spread of Chinese cuisine including a jellyfish appetizer. They took into special consideration the vegetarian students and had several vegetarian dishes for the several Indian and vegetarian therapists and students.

Chinese New Year: It is the year of the goat, and obviously there was a lengthy discussion on Chinese zodiac animals and everyone wanted to find out which sign they were and the significance. Mine is the Dragon ☺.

Adley Chan informed us on the correct way of eating noodles and they say NEVER cut a noodle before it is entirely in your mouth. In China, people have the custom to eat noodles on the birthdays. The long and continuous noodle strips are the symbolic meaning of longevity. So people who choose to eat noodles on the birthdays show their wishes to live longer and maintain a better life. The noodle represents longevity and cutting it before it reaches the mouth indicates bad luck, cutting the longevity and good health.

All in all it was a fun, laughter filled dinner and getting to know the faculty and other students better. Happy Chinese New Year!!!

⋯

Elderly Drivers and Community Mobility ⟩
April 23, 2014, by Jen

Classes Diversity What are OS/OT?

In my leadership capstone course, we had an interesting discussion on elderly drivers and community mobility. I found it interesting that although senior drivers are safest compared to other drivers on the road, they are more likely to be injured or killed in an accident. I am not sure of the exact reason for this, but I believe it could be because their health may already be compromised due to their old age. I also think a reason they may be more likely to be injured or killed when involved in an accident (even if they are not the reason for the accident) is that their reflexes may be slower so they are not able to protect themselves as quickly. There are a number of barriers that elderly drivers face. One of them mentioned in the forum was how unmet transportation needs are linked to reduced well-being. This reminded me of a client I had who used a ride share program to get to their therapy appointments. Although they valued therapy sometimes their ride would be very early or very late in picking them up and dropping them off. This became quite a problem because it greatly interfered with how they spent their time. Instead of coming to therapy for an hour session, they frequently would get dropped off up to 45 minutes before therapy and not get picked up until an hour after therapy ended. This caused the time they dedicated to therapy each week to become almost 3 hours (with most of the time being waiting for their ride) instead of spending their time doing things they would like to do. I hope in the near future these types of issues will become less common for older adults.

⋯

Black College Expo ⟩
February 24, 2014, by Ryan

Admissions Diversity Getting Involved

This weekend I was worked at a table representing USC Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy at the Black College Expo in Downtown Los Angeles’ Convention Center. It was a great event for anyone who is interested in going to college. They had tons of colleges there as well as seminars for parents, such as how to apply for financial aid. I was amazed at how many people were there. I just wished that I had this when I was thinking about college because it is such an overwhelming process. I was happy to tell them about my experience at USC, but also about the amazing field of Occupational Therapy . . . because, of course, a lot of people didn’t know what it was. I didn’t know what OT was until after I graduated from my undergraduate program. I was so glad to be a part of this and inspire prospective students!

⋯

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!

Here’s a picture of me and my awesome group on poster presentation day!

⋯