Check out my Course Sequence in the OT Program at Dominican University of California

Sensory Integration Lab in Pediatrics 2

Sensory Motor and Fine Motor Groups

Extracurricular Activities of the Fall Semester

• • Volunteering RotaCare San Rafael, Spanish Interpreting and Medical Scribing

  • Volunteering at Institue of Leadership Studies Lecture Host Ambassador (3 lectures in the fall)

  • Student Health Advisory Committee Member working on the Zen Zone

  • Co-President of Dominican's Student Occupational Therapy Association (DSOTA)

    • Fundraisers: Jackets, The Way Station, Jackalope

    • Club meetings: Thanksgiving Potluck

    • Events: OT Hill Day, Mingling with Japanese OT Students, attending faculty meetings monthly

Healthy Seniors

I got the opportunity to assess, determine, facilitate, and implement an intervention for a healthy seniors participant. Due to the Global Pandemic of COVID-19, I provided my services via Telehealth.

The Two presentations below were done for my Assistive Technology Course.

Roadmap reflection

Looking back at these past two and a half years in the occupational therapy (OT) program at Dominican, I am amazed by the growth I have accomplished, the amount of knowledge I have gained, and the amazing opportunities I have experienced. I started as a shy girl who did not feel comfortable speaking up in class or in a group larger than five people, but last December I made a live speech in front of over 100 people at the pinning ceremony. I have grown to be an intuitive, intelligent, humorous, and dedicated woman. I have held two leadership positions spanning over two years, interned at three locations, been a research assistant for a year, advocated for OT on campus, volunteered to interpret Spanish-English medical sessions for RotaCare, and my capstone has been accepted at three conferences (Dominican’s Creative and Scholarly Works Conference, Occupational Therapy Association of California, Closing the Gap). I am proud of my OT school accomplishments. I know that the end of my graduate career will not end my engagement in leadership and professional development in my OT career.

As I have acquired a new title now: mentor to a first-year student in the program, I have new insight into the academic and program curriculum at Dominican. The OT program builds on each class and each semester by first starting with exploration and then progresses to competence and finally to achievement. The hands-on experience and internships we are offered have solidified my understanding of the curriculum and have come at the best times to solidify my learning. Having an opportunity to be involved with the community in practice labs, capstone, fieldwork, school field trips, and program development has been a valuable addition to my education and resumé. This allows me to refine our therapeutic persona and professionalism. We can also develop more interpersonal skills and better understand the concepts of cultural efficiency and cultural and environmental contexts. Throughout the curriculum, we are reminded to create evidence-based, occupation-based, and client-centered interventions. Our educational foundation starts with psychosocial coursework where we learn to listen to our clients and do what they want to work on. Then, in occupations of children and adolescents, we learn how important it is to play, not only to have leisure time and enjoy the present moment but also to provide services through their main occupation. Finally, throughout the occupations of adults and senior coursework, we are continuously asked to provide evidence to our intervention ideas with literature. Ultimately, we are applying evidence-based practice to our capstone project or research and to our program developed in partnership with a local community. In this way, the OT education at Dominican is structured to build from the foundational skills to clinical knowledge and then to applied skills, so that we are able to learn, practice, and provide best care practices. This program has molded me into being a client-centered, occupation-based, and evidence-based occupational therapist.

The department has offered many opportunities for community involvement outside of class; these are opportunities that I have happily taken advantage of. I have helped with OT graduate admissions, partaken in research fieldwork with boxing for Parkinson’s, coordinated the Student Occupational Therapy Association (SOTA), been involved with Pi Theta Epsilon, Alumni Events, and more. When I was co-president of Dominican’s SOTA, I applied my leadership skills from my summer at LeaderShape and gained networking skills, communication skills, and used a lot of organizational skills. As I helped with Alumni events and admission events, I learned the value of engaging with the OT profession and networking with not only OTs but other professions as well. I thus attended my school’s interdisciplinary event where we got to discuss where various health care professionals overlapped in work and how we can each participate in the larger team goals. My adult level 1 fieldwork turned into a year-long research assistant role with a professor I admire. For this role, I worked on implementing a fine motor program for people with Parkinson’s using boxing to relieve their symptoms. I have learned valuable lessons and developed useful skills and connections from my experiences both in and outside of the classroom.

I am passionate about my goals around international and multilingual involvement with the OT profession, but the pandemic has complicated the completion of some of those goals. I had planned to attend the summer course about medical Spanish and internships in a SNF and pediatric outpatient clinic in Merida, Mexico in the summer of 2020. Unfortunately due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the course was canceled. Instead, I took a Medical Spanish class online and hope to one day practice with the Spanish speaking population. I had the goal to complete a Level 2 Fieldwork in each of my fluent languages (English, French, and Spanish) but unfortunately, I am only allowed to complete one international fieldwork. Additionally, the pandemic altered my fieldwork plans to attend a student-led clinic in Ecuador.

When taking the OT Knowledge Exam, I did not perform as I wished because time constraints and stress, and anxious feelings about the exam and that week caused my dyslexia to be more pronounced while I took the exam. In preparation for the NBCOT, I have already gathered various tips for studying for the exam from OT podcasters, professors, consultation with a representative, and NBCOT preparatory materials. Regardless of my study plans, I’m still nervous. No matter how much I study or re-read the questions, I have to remember that the NBCOT does not dynamically nor holistically measure the quality or potential I have as a therapist, but merely measures my static memory and understanding of OT concepts.

what has inspired me to bring to the next stage

Future plans: