OTA 1210 OT Prof Issues I

OTA Awarenesss Slide

OTA Awareness Reflection

Today, Wednesday, February 7th, Rachelle, Kennedy and I went to Salem Hills High school to promote OT and the program at SLCC. Pamela Lyman allowed us to come to her second period class and teach the students about possible job opportunities. I looked forward to sharing all the information that we had prepared for them. I wasn’t sure if the students would be responsive or how our presentation would go, which made me a bit anxious.

         We met at Salem Hills High in the city of Salem. It’s a small town, in comparison to Salt Lake City and has almost as many farm animals as people. The high school is located on the main street at 150 N Skyhawk Blvd.

         We arrived at the school around 8:30 to give us time to get checked in, meet the teacher, prepare our items, and the power point so we would be prepared for her 9 o’clock class. Mrs. Lyman teaches anatomy and we met with her second period class where 28 students were in attendance.

         We did a quick introduction of ourselves and why we were there before we kicked it off with a fun activity which was led by Rachelle. We then moved into my portion of the presentation which was to educate them on what OT is and what the going pay is in Utah. Kennedy then talked about the education requirements and work settings.

         Overall, the presentation lasted about 25 minutes, however if I could change anything I would have extended the time to allow for more questions and exploration. I think we covered a good amount of information in the time we had. I could see the students were very interested in what we had to say as they all plan on going into the health care industry. Most of the students had never heard of OT and wanted to know the difference between OT and PT. I wasn’t expecting to get so much genuine interest. I enjoyed teaching the students about what I have learned more than I thought I would.

Between going to the capital yesterday and presenting at a high school this morning it has helped me to be more comfortable with answering questions about the work. It was kind of like a pop quiz every time the student’s asked questions! I’m learning how to be comfortable in a leadership type role as I present information on OT to a group of students or elected local representatives who are voting on bills.