Student Blog
What are OS/OT?

Uselessness is Gorgeous ⟩
January 29, 2014, by Clarissa

Life Hacks School/Life Balance What are OS/OT?

Normally, there’s a little lull at the beginning of the semester before it goes into full swing but this semester hasn’t been like that at all. I hit the ground running once the semester began. I’m really busy and I love it. In order to stay balanced, though, I’ve started thinking a lot about concepts I learned last semester in my Health Promotion and Wellness class. Particularly, I thought about a lecture we had about happiness and how I can ensure I have personally meaningful moments in the midst of my hectic schedule.

I thought our happiness lecture related really well to an art exhibit I saw when I visited Chicago over the summer. It’s called “The Happy Show” by Stefan Sagmeister, an individual who struggled with depression after his mother’s death. Because of his depression, he became interested in whether or not people can train their minds to be happy, similar to how people train their bodies. This one particularly beautiful art piece of his was made out of post-it notes and spelled out “Uselessness is gorgeous.” It looked like this:

Sagmeister accompanied this art piece with a personal experience that relates to the concept of “flow” which we also learned about in our Health Promotion and Wellness class. One experiences flow when completely absorbed in a satisfying activity and ceases to notice the passage of time. By this art piece, he wrote:

Uselessness is gorgeous. I came up with a reputable technique to artificially produce a moment of bliss: take a scooter, drive it on a beautiful road with little traffic so I can ride without a helmet and feel the wind in my hair while listening to about a dozen carefully selected songs, music that I don’t know well (so it won’t have any baggage) but am likely going to like. And very important: there can be no purpose to the drive, just cruising without any goal. This recipe would send shivers down my spine every time. To identify something without any goal and without any function has its own beauty: it’s the difference between a walk in the park and a commute. It’s the different between art and design.

This quote also reminded me of a pediatrics lecture my professor Dr. Erna Blanche gave where she said that without participating in activities that we do “just for the heck of it,” life wouldn’t be worth living. I found that Sagmeister’s view really complemented OT’s value of participating in activities simply because they are meaningful.

As for me, the closest moment I’ve experienced to Sagmeister’s description of bliss was my climb up Yosemite’s Half Dome, pictured below. When I reached the top and looked over all of Yosemite Valley, I forgot about time and space. I have decided to incorporate more nature into my life this semester in order to encourage a work-life balance.

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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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Learning More About Occupational Science ⟩
January 23, 2014, by Kate

What are OS/OT?

Sometimes it’s difficult to find other people who know what occupational therapy is, but think about the mystery that is occupational SCIENCE. People look at me like I’ve misspoke when I tell them more about our Division at USC and the classes I am currently taking. “Occupational science? What is that? Do you use microscopes and test tubes?” Not exactly. We have been introduced to the concept of occupational science since our first semester, but now as second-year students, we are all taking a Seminar in Occupational Science 2-unit course. Today I will be attending my second class of the semester, and the experience thus far has been really interesting!

From what I know, the concept of occupational science was actually founded at the University of Southern California in the 1980s when the university offered PhD degrees in the field for the first time. It’s crazy to think that our school has been such a leader in our profession!! Occupational science can roughly be defined as the study of human activities (occupations) and how participation and engagement in these activities impacts our lives. This class is really helping to bring all the concepts we have learned over 2 years into full circle.

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A Day with Celebrities ⟩
November 21, 2013, by Clarissa

Getting Involved What are OS/OT?

Life at the USC OS/OT Division has been really eventful and exciting. So many things happening to update you on! It was hard but I am picking the 24th annual Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy Symposium at USC occurred a couple of week ago to hone in on today. This year, the symposium focused on research on Sensory Integration (SI), which is a specialty practice area of occupational therapy. SI theory is the manner in which one’s neurological system organizes sensation from the environment for participation in occupations. Dr. Jane Ayres, who was actually a faculty member at USC, developed SI theory!

I’m currently learning about SI in my pediatrics immersion and see it practiced in my fieldwork — it was really great listening to what the big names in SI and pediatrics had to say about it based on their research. Presenters included Drs. Jane Case-Smith, who wrote our pediatrics textbook, Lucy Miller, who created an assessment tool (Miller Function and Participation Scales) that we learned about in class, my neuroscience professor Barbara Thompson, and the chair of our division, Florence Clark. It was so cool seeing and learning from the people whose tools we use in school and practice! It really hit home just how renowned the presenters, which included USC faculty, are and how lucky I am to attend such an amazing school where opportunities like these to learn are readily available. Practitioners in the audience were snapping pictures of the panelists — they are celebrities!

Here is my very own paparazzi shot of the presenters and also a photo of me and my fellow student ambassador Kate! I’d take breaks from my part-time job title of “paparazzo” (yes, I had to Google the singular form of paparazzi) to visit her.

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Class Project ⟩
November 18, 2013, by Ryan

Classes What are OS/OT?

I recently had to interview an older adult (65+) and write a paper about their changes in roles, responsibilities, and occupations. I interviewed Walter (fake name for privacy purposes) who is actually my dad. In order for me to fit in this interview, I chose to interview my father and I know very little people over 65 years old. My grandparents have all passed away; I have a great-aunt and 2 friends but could not coordinate schedules . . . so it ended up being my 66 ¾ year old dad. And I am so glad it worked out this way. I did not grow up with my father and have built a relationship with him as an adult so I enjoyed sharing this time with him. I also don’t get to see him that often and I learned a lot about his past.

I don’t think he really understood that I was interested in his activities/occupations but he shared a lot about his views and interests throughout his life. He was very politically involved and had interest in the Black Panthers which was very surprising to me. I have rarely seen my dad mad, or even mean to a single person. He is the sweetest, fun loving guy and I could not see him relating to violence. He explained that he grew up in Los Angeles in the 1960s and ‘70s, around gangs and violence so that was all he knew. He even expressed that he never thought he would have lived as long as he has. As we continued to talk about the activities he has transitioned to now I noticed a shift in the way he looks at his life. When my dad was young he was a bit more selfish in his thinking about did not think of the future. Now his main activity is working to support his family and prepare himself for retirement in the next year. Also within the last couple years, he has changed to eat healthier food and has expressed wanting to be more involved with his family, especially his grandkids.

I think my dad has become wiser in his older age and he agrees. He no longer feels he is self-destructive; he just wants to make people laugh and help his family. This interview was such a great gift. I really enjoyed seeing another side of my dad and I think I will try to do a few more recorded interviews for myself to keep. I appreciate his positive attitude about aging and I hope to help others see the value in finding meaning throughout your life if I work with older adults. I also will take this information with me as I get older and hope to age as gracefully as my dad.

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