Student Blog
Getting Involved

Riding the Wave ⟩
September 1, 2014, by Jonathan

Getting Involved Living in LA What are OS/OT?

Greetings and aloha everyone!

Welcome to my very first blog post! I Being that this is my first blog post, I figured I’d start with the story behind why I’m here today.

As an undergraduate, I attended Cal-State Fullerton, where I majored in Kinesiology. During my time at CSUF, I developed passion and love for surfing. In fact, surfing became such an important occupation in my life (defined as meaningful activity) so much so that I decided to take the surfing class offered at CSUF four times! During each semester taking the class, I was assigned to do a project that would increase my awareness and education regarding surf culture. For one of my projects, I decided to write a paper about surfing and explain a therapeutic purpose as to why I engage in it. In my research I came across the Jimmy Miller Memorial Foundation, an organization that utilizes ocean and surf therapy to facilitate meaningful activity and foster therapeutic relationships for children with special needs and Veterans who are living with PTSD. After doing more digging, I found out that the program was started by an occupational therapist who was a product of USC’s OT Doctorate program (USC’s very own alumni, Dr. Carly Rogers!) To realize that you can utilize something that you love to do and use it as a means to help people pretty much solidified my career aspirations of becoming an OT. Coming full circle, I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Rogers when she spoke to our class during my first summer session within the program! Here’s a snap of Dr. Rogers and I, the OT that ignited my journey. Thank you, Dr. Carly Rogers!

As I continue on my journey as an OT student, I can definitely say that it’s been a fun, enlightening, and rewarding ride thus far, and I’m stoked that I’ll be able to share with you my experiences. As I continue to enjoy this ride, stay tuned for more of my adventures as I continue to grow within our program and profession.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, I greatly appreciate it.

Take care and aloha for now!

— Jonathan

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One Step Closer ⟩
August 21, 2014, by Claire

Fieldwork Getting Involved What are OS/OT?

It is a couple days before USC Commencement 2014! It’s hard to believe that my time as an undergraduate at USC is officially coming to an end. “Officially,” because I feel like I’ve been done with my undergrad for forever, but now I’m finally getting the diploma! Hooray! People often get confused about my class standing, actually. (“So . . . you’re both an undergrad and grad student right now?”) I technically finished all my undergraduate credits in my third year and this past year was my first year Master’s. When I tell friends that I’m staying another year, they think I’m a super senior when actually it’s to wrap up the master’s degree in occupational therapy. Talk about some identity crisis!

So, we are done with the first year in the program!! Most of us have two weeks off until the start of Level II fieldwork. This year has been absolutely amazing. I befriended so many talented classmates with a huge variety of backgrounds that all the passion to become occupational therapists. The faculty has lots of experience (seriously, mad respect for them). The two immersions that I went through this year were mental health and pediatrics. This summer, my Level II fieldwork will be at a pediatric clinic in Northern California. Part of me is super excited and another part of me is going EEPS! I am sure it will be a very valuable learning experience, and I’m looking forward to it.

Looking back to my first moments at USC, it has been so cool to see how OT is now a much more well-known area of study among the students. When I came in to USC with a Pre-Occupational Therapy emphasis, I remember needing to explain what OT is to basically every person that I met. (Wow, this is a major throwback to four years ago. I’ll try not to be too sentimental.) Now, I’m meeting a lot of first and second year undergrads who are already applying into the OT program, which is awesome! I am aware that the program is becoming increasingly competitive, and some of my advice to undergrads is to get involved! I was active in the USC Pre-OT club, which was a great way to see OT in practice. USC OT elective classes are informative, fun, and a good way to meet faculty (hint: letters of recs!). Volunteering and getting as much exposure to OT is also definitely recommended — that’s how I first learned about OT too! I was in high school trying to collect some community service hours to graduate and I met OTs at the center that I was volunteering at. I loved the idea of improving health and development through fun (we were working with children), did some research about OT, and found myself here at USC.

There’s so much to learn still about OT! I will be keeping you updated as the summer goes on! Congratulations to the Class of 2014, hooray, everyone!

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First Blog: OTSC International Forum 2014 ⟩
April 14, 2014, by Samar

Getting Involved International

As the countdown to graduation begins (30 days left!), I am thinking a lot of the great moments I had at USC. Moreover, how I don’t want it all to end. What I love most about USC is how there are always opportunities to learn and to be inspired. Just this past Saturday, I attended the International Forum which was organized by the Occupational Therapy and Science Council (OTSC). The forum took place at the quaint and charming Center for Occupation and Lifestyle Redesign (a gorgeous place to be in on a Saturday morning). Me and my classmates from the MAI program got to present posters on occupational therapy in each of our countries. I also listened in on presentations by Dr. Cermak, Dr. Frank, and the students panel on their international externship experiences. All of these presentations have posed important questions on the role of occupational therapy on an international level. There were probably two themes that stood out for me from the International Forum. One theme that kept coming up across all the different presentations was the importance of being inventive at finding low-cost and sustainable solutions to facilitate occupational participation of the different populations across the world. The second theme was the ability to consider the broader contexts of human existence such as political and cultural contexts and how might these uniquely influence occupational participation. Being an “international” occupational therapist myself, I feel that the topic of global occupational therapy and occupational justice is close to my heart. So, it felt great to have a forum of discussion on this very important topic. On top of that, I got to enjoy a good part of the day socializing with my favorite OT students. Overall, I feel like this event was such a great mix of learning, socializing and having fun.

This is a picture of me and my classmates minus one (we took the picture with her poster instead!).

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National OT Conference in Baltimore! ⟩
April 7, 2014, by Clarissa

Getting Involved

There is an annual conference that the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) of California organizes and, this year, it was in Baltimore! The division offers scholarships to go, which I applied for and received. I was so excited that I got to nerd out about OT!

I love going to AOTA because I learn about the exciting new places our profession is going and I can also network with big names in OT. There are always tons of great speakers, workshops, posters, and free stuff to grab! I also get to hang out with OTs all day – classmates, OT students from other schools, my professors, etc. Where else would I rather be than OT central?!

Here are a few of my OT classmates and my comrades on the recruitment and admissions team representing USC at the conference. There was an awesome balloon artist in the exposition hall, too, hence our adorable animal balloon headbands.

Here are my classmates as well as one of my mental health professors Celso Delgado at the USC party that’s held every year at AOTA.

AOTA is also a great excuse to travel. My friends and I got to do some sightseeing in Washington DC on the side.

Man, I’ve been doing a lot of traveling lately and I’m wiped. So worth it, though!

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April is OT Month! ⟩
April 2, 2014, by Kate

Getting Involved

First, I’d like to wish everyone a HAPPY OT MONTH! Yes, April is the month that is dedicated to everything occupational therapy. Here at USC, we kicked off the celebrations on Monday with a celebratory picnic right outside of our building. It was a great way to come together as students, clinicians and faculty to relax in the sunshine and eat some pizza. It is USC tradition to create pin-on buttons that we collect and wear throughout the month. We also hand these out to family and friends. It’s exciting because there are new designs every year, as well as more traditional designs. This year we have a panda expressing his love for OT on a button as well as a tyrannosaurus rex with reachers professing his love for the profession. I’ve attached a picture of my stylish button arrangement from Monday’s picnic below!

This weekend is also our professional organization’s annual conference which is being held in Baltimore, Maryland this year. The American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) is a great organization that brings together future students, current students, practitioners and other health care professionals. You can learn more about their mission here. Clarissa, one of my fellow ambassadors, is traveling to the conference and I’m sure she will have a lot of fun updates for everyone.

I’ll be sure to write about some fun activities throughout the month that focus on OT and its awesomeness.

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