Student Blog
Getting Involved

So close to the finish line! ⟩
April 13, 2016, by Jodie

Community Getting Involved

This month has been filled with many deadlines and celebrations. First and foremost, April is OT Month so we celebrated as a division with our OT Month Kickoff event held at our Health Science Campus. This was a super fun event where we passed out FREE pizza and OT buttons and faculty and students had the chance to socialize and celebrate occupational therapy during lunch!

This past weekend was also AOTA’s national conference in Chicago, which I had the amazing opportunity to attend. I went to numerous short courses and poster presentations and was so inspired by what occupational therapists are doing around the country! I think my favorite thing about attending conferences is being surrounded by people who are equally as passionate about occupational therapy as I am. I felt so inspired by all the presentations and conversations that I had with fellow conference attendees. I am already looking forward to next year’s national conference in Philly!

To top it all off, April happens to be the birth month of my two childhood best friends AND my dad! That being said, I have been very busy planning celebrations for each of them and balancing my time between schoolwork, extracurricular work, family/friend time and “me time”.

I am doing my best to balance my time and to cherish every second of every day in the program. This program really does fly by in the blink of an eye. We are so close to the finish line and I am so excited to see what the future has in store for my classmates and I!!

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Faculty Mixers! ⟩
December 1, 2015, by Rashelle

Community Getting Involved School/Life Balance

This year for the annual faculty/student mixer series, students were invited to partake in fun events organized by our student council professional development chairs. I was fortunate enough to be available to attend all three of them this year!

At the first mixer I got the opportunity to show off my (un)impressive bowling skills with Dr. Myka Persson, a previous professor, Carey Sokol, my past fieldwork coordinator, and Amber Bennett, who coordinated the Career Fair, which I attended the day after. It was awesome to see faculty members in such a fun, informal environment, which really allowed me to get to know them apart from the structured school work and meetings. 

The second faculty/student mixer was held at Urth caffe with Dr. Karrie Kingsley, one of my favorite professors, along with Dr. Tracy Jalaba and Dr. Lindsey Reeves, who recently completed their doctorate degrees at USC’s distinguished Faculty Practice. It was an honor to sit next to them over dinner, and to hear about their captivating journies of how they got to where they are today.

Lastly, after my final day of fieldwork at the Keck Hospital of USC, I got to celebrate it with, coincidentally, my fieldwork supervisors! Dr. John Margetis and Dr. Kim Lenington are two of USC’s finest clinical faculty, who taught me the ins and outs of how to intensely care for patients in an intensive care unit. If that was too cheesey, it must be from where my mind has drifted after all of those nachos we ate!

These intimate gatherings truly made me feel welcomed into the Trojan Family. Not only will I feel less intimidated when approaching these faculty members in the future, but also I was able to connect with first year students, who may have been intimidated by me! Every day, with every new person I meet, I see how large this network of Trojans is, and how supportive and encouraging they can be as we go through this journey together.

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OTAC and Magic and Rose Floats, Oh My! ⟩
October 28, 2015, by Ariel

Getting Involved What are OS/OT?

Last weekend, I headed to Sacramento for the annual OTAC Conference. This conference, put on by the Occupational Therapy Association of California, is an opportunity for OTs and OT students to spend a weekend immersing themselves in the world of occupational therapy. Through its wide array of courses, symposiums, special speakers, and after hours parties, the OTAC experience always reinvigorates me and adds new perspective to the work we do.

One of my favorite parts of conference this year was listening to the keynote address. Our speaker, Kevin Spencer, gave an impassioned speech about the power of arts-integrated approaches to promote functional and social skills development. His intervention, Healing of Magic, uses the act of learning and teaching magic tricks to help patients regain lost physical skills while increasing motivational levels and self esteem. His unique intervention is a testament to the level of creativity that occupational therapists can incorporate into their interventions!

Check out this video of Kevin Spencer doing his thing!

Another awesome part of conference was participating in USC’s efforts to get Occupational Therapy a float in this year’s Rose Parade! During some down time, my classmates and I filmed an Ice-bucket-challenge-inspired video, in which we informed the public of our campaign, which will help support OT’s Centennial Vision of getting occupational therapy widely recognized and globally connected. We’ve pledged, as a department, to donate $2,017 to forward our goal. And we’ve challenged Boston University to do the same. Let the OT Rose Parade Challenge BEGIN!

When we weren’t at conference, my friends and I took advantage of Sacramento and the fall season by visiting a pumpkin patch! As someone who had never been to one before, I didn’t know what to expect. To our surprise, we found a sensory experience on our adventure we hadn’t even expected — A CORN PIT!!! As future occupational therapists, we hopped right in!

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Leadership and Interprofessional Collaboration ⟩
October 27, 2015, by Joe

Getting Involved

This past week I had a very special opportunity: the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) invited me to represent OT at their National Student Conclave (NSC) in Omaha, NE. USC Chan really emphasizes leadership & innovation in the field, so I was able to attend this 2 day conference with support from faculty & the program through a Leadership Award.

Physical Therapy is one of our most frequent care team partners, so attending their student conclave was a unique opportunity to discuss interprofessional collaboration and get a better understanding of their profession on a national-level. I met with the leaders of the APTA Student Assembly and had meaningful conversations on how to manage our large student bodies and better develop student leaders. Funny enough, the point person for their interprofessional initiatives is a PT student from USC! My fellow Trojans did a great job at representing our school: winning the APTA Student Advocacy award, and playing an integral role in bringing together other professions to attend their National Student Conclave.

The sessions I attended were really enlightening as far as PTs’ practice concerns, and I was able to answer some questions student’s had about OT & collaboration in clinical practice. One of my favorite moments was the Town Hall with Sharon Dunn, DPT, the current President of APTA.

As the lone OT, I asked her to describe what she considered the challenges and future of interprofessional collaboration. Her response? Doing exactly what I was doing at their NSC — having collaborative conversations with each other when we weren’t in the high stakes/high stress environment of the clinic.

Inspired to work on more interprofessional initiatives with students from other disciplines. Stay tuned!

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OTAC Conference 2015 ⟩
October 27, 2015, by Jodie

Getting Involved What are OS/OT?

This past weekend, many of my classmates and I traveled to Sacramento to attend OTAC Conference! As the second-year OTAC student delegate, I was responsible for helping with the student track sessions and as a student ambassador, I volunteered at the OTAC Rose Float booth and our USC Chan booth. Although I had a packed schedule, it was so much fun collaborating with students and faculty from different programs across the state! Some of the student track session topics included: grassroots advocacy training, OTs role in the NICU, stress management and lifestyle balance for OT practitioners, as well as many other exciting topics! As a student attending conference, we were also invited to attend the President’s Reception, where the work of OT/OTAs in pediatric, early intervention, and school-based practice were celebrated. We were also able to explore the Exhibit Hall to network with exhibitors and listen to poster presentations from OT practitioners and students! As a special bonus treat for being a proud Trojan, students were also invited to attend the Trojan Alumni party. This reception was sponsored by our Trojan family and allowed us to network with past and current OT faculty while enjoying some refreshments. Here are some of my pictures from our wonderful weekend at conference!

As always, I hope you’ve enjoyed my blog! 😊

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