About me
Who am I?
My name is In Hwa Chae, and I was born in Pusan, South Korea. I came to United States when I was 13 years old and grew up in San Fernando Valley, California. I received a B.S. in Biological Science from UC Riverside in June 2008. I am continuing my education at Dominican University of California in the Masters of Occupational Therapy program, Class of 2020.
After my undergraduate, I worked in an education field for a year then entered to an accounting field and stayed there for 6 years. While I worked as an accountant, I got to know about Occupational Therapy through my client who is an Occupational Therapist. That became a turning point of my career life. As I learned more about occupational therapy, I wanted to use my talents to help others to achieve meaningful occupations. Also, my uncle who had a car accident which left him with severe burn inspired me. Even though his physical appearance and function got affected, with the help from family members and medical professionals, he got independent on ADLs and most of IADLs. If he was able to recover, I believe everyone can too. I want to be the part of the process for people to achieve their goals in occupations. This is why I want to become an occupational therapist.
I took prerequisites while I was working as a full-time employee, and couldn't take any courses during tax seasons. It took 4 to 5 years to finish all the prerequisites. Even though it took a long time, I did not give up the path to become an OT. The reason why I chose Dominican is that the school offers high faculty student ratio. I was able to build strong bond and relationship with the professors throughout my school year and learned from one-on-one relationship.
What I like to do
There are many occupations that I am passionate about, including outdoor activities, camping, swimming, cooking, baking, playing instrument, and arts and crafts.
I am a certified Master Scuba diver, and I am in an Assistant Instructor course. When I go boat diving, I assist the instructor with Open water students. I swim around them while I catch spiny lobsters, scallops, and sea cucumbers.
Since I grew up in the marine city, Pusan, I spent a lot of my spare time in the beach. As of now, I still love to go to ocean and getting a camping spot near coast. I enjoy cooking at the camping spots, and hanging out with my family and friends.
I also love occupations that require some hand craft skills. These days, I bake Korean traditional rice cake with sweet bean paste. I mix natural food coloring with the bean paste and hand pipe flowers - rose, daisy, cherry blossom, carnations, etc- with them. I decorate the flowers one by one on top of the rice cake.
There are few occupations that I participate to relieve my stresses out, and one of them are playing instruments. I learned how to play fluet when I was young, and that experience led me to have interest in my own cultural music. I learned Korean traditional musics and the instrument, Kayaguem for 2 years. I just felt in love with the instrument, and the fact that I am participating and keeping my own culture gave me a proud to be a Korean American immigrant.
New Occupations
During my 3rd year in Dominican, I decided to expand my interests in pottery. I am taking Pottery 1 class from College of Marin with my classmates from Dominican.