G.O.A.L.S.: Academic Enrichment Interview

I interviewed Dr. Lindy Weaver who is my current research advisor and a current Occupational Therapy (OT) Faculty at OSU. Dr. Weaver received her Bachelor’s of Education from OSU in 2005. She then continued her schooling here at OSU to receive her Master’s  in Occupational Therapy in 2008 and her PhD in Philosophy in Health/Rehabilitation Sciences in 2016. Currently, Dr. Weaver is doing research, teaching, and still practicing OT. She has taught the following courses:

-Therapeutic Use of Self and Groups
-Mental and Cognitive Functions
-Occupational Therapy for School Age and Adolescence
-Mental Health Fieldwork
-Independent Study: Pediatric Specialization

Many of the courses that she teaches relate to her primary professional areas of interest, including:

-Pediatrics
-Adolescence
-Mental Health
-Autism

Because of her interest in Mental Health, Dr. Weaver has been practicing OT and completing research at the Nationwide Eating Disorder Clinic. This is also where I help her with research. I know that Dr. Weaver has many plans for future research projects and enhancing evidence-based practice into daily healthcare routines.

The route to becoming an Occupational Therapist (OT) has changed a bit since Dr. Weaver was in school, which was not too long ago. Now, OT is moving to a completely doctoral program, similar to Physical Therapy graduate programs. By 2027, OT graduate programs will all need to be accredited as doctoral programs and we will not need to get a Master’s degree at all, just a Bachelor’s degree. I will be applying for OSU’s OT clinical doctorate program next summer and I believe that with Dr. Weaver’s guidance, I will be an excellent candidate.

Year in Review

I have been preparing to go to OSU since I was in the 6th grade and joined the Young Scholars Program. YSP has prepared me for college in so many ways; academically, financially, and even mentally! I expected to come here and know exactly what I needed to do and how I was going to do it. That is not how it ended up when I got here. Even though OSU was everything I expected and more, the change in lifestyle was challenging for me. This is my first time living on my own and being away from family and friends, so that has been mentally difficult. I expected to be better at time management, since I went to such an intense high school, but with balancing work, school, observing, doing research, volunteering, an E-Board position, and being a member of several clubs; it got the best of my time management skills. I thought that being a member of HSS would help me meet many different people that had similar interests with me and wanted to go into the health field, but even this did not come true.

Even though my first year at OSU was not what I expected, I do not think that I would have changed my decision to go here and have such a challenging first year. I have seen so much personal growth in myself into becoming the person that I hope to be, so I do not regret my journey in getting here. I learned to be more independent, because I could no longer rely on my mom. I also learned how to prioritize things and stay completely committed to a few things instead of half-committed to many things. I have even made best friends that are not interested in the health field at all, but that I connect with on a deeper level. HSS has helped me find a place that I can go to for professional development, but even though the people in HSS share similar interests with me, that does not mean that they are the best choice as friends for my mental and spiritual wellness. OSU has allowed me to learn how to surround myself with people that do not necessarily think like me, but care about me. I have learned much about myself from observing the careers that I am not interested in and seeing why they do not satisfy my personality. I have also become more self-aware of myself and why I do certain things. This realization was extremely important to me, because I want to be the best version of myself and realizing why I am the way I am and being proud of it, is not something that many people learn to do.

For my second year in HSS and at OSU, I hope to become an even better me, because I believe that there is always room for progress. In HSS, I want to learn more why others choose to go into the health field and to explore more into why I want to. I always hear, “I want to help people.” but any decent human being wants to help others, because it makes them feel good about themselves. I want to learn why other people will go out of their way to help others even if they do not know how to help them. At OSU overall, I want to continue to do well in my classes and network to meet and connect with more OTs. I also want to continue to build lasting relationships with the friends that I made this year. Even with the challenging year I have had, I learned that I am capable of doing the things that I set my mind towards, so I am not worried about my next 3 years here at OSU, because I have the support that I need and I will become the support for others that need it.

G.O.A.L.S.

G.O.A.L.S
Academic Enrichment/Upperclassmen Interview:

I interviewed Anna Smith. She is a Resident Advisor in Park-Stradley Hall. Although she is only a 3rd year, she is graduating this semester, Spring 2017. Anna is a Speech and Hearing Major, Pre-Occupational Therapy. I am a Health Sciences Major, but I still wanted to interview Anna, because we are both Pre-OT and I felt like I could learn much about how to prepare for Grad school from her. Anna chose her Speech and Hearing Major, because it was something completely new to her and it is not a general major. It is specific for students that want to go to grad school and pursue things like Speech Language Pathology. Although this is not her intended career choice, she finds it interesting and thinks that it will help her with OT.

Anna wants to be an Occupational Therapist, because it is holistic and diverse. She finds the connection between mind and body extremely important and feels as though, OT bridges them together well. With such a diverse population needing OTs, you get to work anywhere that you want; this includes, hospitals, schools, homes, day care facilities, nursing homes, universities, community centers and workplaces. You can also work with any age group, because young and old can benefit from Occupational Therapy. Anna also likes that OTs get to collaborate with other health fields. We get to work closely with PTs and nurses to make sure that the patient is fully taken care of. You can learn more about your job, by paying attention to what other jobs do. Anna’s mother and sister are both OTs, so she does admit that she was biased towards this career choice, because of the success of her family members with OT.

Anna’s Speech and Hearing Major helped prepare her for OT,  because it taught her intervention strategies to learn how to interact with patients and their loved ones. She also learned how to work with a team, since the speech language pathologists expressed how they work together to find the best solution to a child’s speech disabilities. Since Speech and Hearing is a major that is intended for the students to continue to grad school, she gained much grad school mental and academic preparation. Unfortunately, this major did not help with the pre-requisites for OT school, so she selected the classes needed when she was finishing her G.E.s for her Bachelors degree.

Anna is also preparing for grad school by taking a gap year to retake the GRE and apply for OT schools for the 2018 cycle. For Occupational Therapy school, you need a certain amount of documented observation hours. Anna did hers at Riverside Hospital in Columbus and back home in Dayton, Ohio. At Riverside, she mainly worked with middle-aged adults. In Dayton, she observed an Outpatient Pediatric center where she learned how much she enjoys working with children. Even without ever working with the elderly, she is still keeping a geriatrics specialization open, because she wants to explore more into OT. She is hoping to go to OSU’s OTD program, but is applying for backups at Toledo, Pittsburgh, Colorado, and Kettering. I wish her the best of luck in getting into OT grad school, because she has shown me how passionate she is about OT throughout this interview. Good Luck Anna!

 

G.O.A.L.S.

Leadership Development:

I have been a leader at OSU in many ways. As SPARK Board’s Treasurer, I believe that I gained the most experience in becoming a leader, because I also learned how to be a follower. I managed thousands of dollars for Park-Stradley and helped organize and staff events that we put on, but sometimes I needed to be a leader by stepping back and letting the other E-Board members do their jobs. I have also been a leader at OSU by stepping up in the community and getting informed. Education is most important in trying to lead others and by learning as much as possible about different cultures, I have connected with my followers on a deeper level. I have also learned that I have much to learn to becoming a leader. It can be a quality that you are born with, but most of the time you have to learn how to be the leader that you want to be by seeing what type of people you enjoy being lead by.

 

G.O.A.L.S.

Service Engagement:

Throughout my first year at The Ohio State University, I had the pleasure to volunteer at so many places. Because HSS offers so many opportunities to volunteer with them as a group, I did not volunteer with one organization for the entire year. I am also a member of the Pre-PT/OT Club on campus, so I volunteered with them often. Some of my most memorable places that I volunteered with throughout the year was Buckeyes for a Cause and MLK Day of Service.

I volunteered five different times for an hour each time with Buckeyes for a Cause. I helped make bracelets and cards to be given to children at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. This organization has a great cause, because they pay attention to the encouragement that the children might need while they are recovering in the hospital. This experience is extremely memorable to me, because I learned how to make cool bracelets and it allowed me to indirectly benefit ill children. I learned the importance of consistently volunteering for one place, so that the people you are volunteering for know who you are and that you care about their cause. I hope to volunteer with Buckeyes for a Cause all-year-round for my second year at OSU.

For MLK Day of Service, I joined HSS’ Molly Cogan at the MLK opening events to learn about the importance of MLK day. This event was so memorable for me, not because of the actual work we did while volunteering, but because I learned more about the race issue in the United States and got to see Black Fraternities and Sororities step and show their culture. The Black Gospel choir on campus also sang the song “Glory,” which was extremely heart-warming and beautiful and the need for change inspired me to want to volunteer more often and spread love to others. During the actual volunteering, we went to COSI and made lab kits for distance learning programs. This was interesting, because we made sure that the students that cannot attend in-class labs, can do so in the comfort of their own home. I hope to volunteer for MLK Day of Service again next year!

Career

All the work that I have put in throughout the semester has finally paid off! By working on each of the steps of my Strategic Life Plan, I have realized what I want to do with my school and work career. I have set personal goals towards being as healthy as possible in all the aspects of wellness to help myself on this journey and I have done tons of research to determine what it takes to become an Occupational Therapist. I know that this will be a difficult and long journey, but I am passionate about helping people and this is the way that I want to do it. I have already taken some steps towards becoming an OT by starting research with one of the OT Faculty here at OSU. Her name is Lindy Weaver and focuses primarily on pediatrics and mental illnesses, which are the main areas that I want to work with. I have always loved children and hope to positively mold the youth with my work.
I have confidence in getting into the OTD program at OSU, but I have still established a backup plan with the Master’s program in Applied Clinical Research that is entirely online. This will allow me to expand my Health Sciences major and hands-on experience. The research, volunteer work, and courses that I am doing now will still benefit me in this backup plan, because the work that I put into my school career is not just to get into the OTD program, but it is for me. I want to educate myself in different aspects of life and grow to be the best person that I possibly can become. One semester down, many to go! But Luna’s got this.

Below are pictures of Lindy Weaver, the Cleveland Clinic (near home, where I hope to be an OT), my nephew (he is the youth that inspires me)!

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About Me

Hey everyone,

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My name is Leslie Luna. I usually go by Luna since it sounds cool and means Moon in Spanish. By the way, Spanish was actually my first language because I am from Puerto-Rico. My two older sisters, parents, and grandparents were all born in Puerto-Rico, but I was born and raised in Akron, Ohio. Go King James!!! I went to Akron Public Schools for my education, but do not let public schools fool you. My high school, Akron Early College High School (AECHS) was extremely rigorous and makes almost every student want to go to a “regular” high school. By going through this school, I graduated not only with my high school diploma, but also with my Associates of Science. I am currently an incoming Freshman to The Ohio State University, but I have Junior status from all my credits. Hopefully my hard work in high school will allow me to finish the Occupational Therapy Professional Program as soon (and at as little cost) as possible. I am majoring in Health Sciences and minoring in Psychology to reach my OT dream of specializing with children. I think that I want to become an OT, because I have a passion for helping people and I want to help people while they are still young and have a greater chance of changing their lives. Besides focusing on school, I like to play softball/baseball and volleyball. Even playing catch with a football is fun to me. I also like to read if I have time. I love all different kinds of music and I like to say that I do not ever really judge a song by its genre. If I like it, I like it. Simple as that. So that’s all about me. I am excited to know all about everyone else. GO HONORS AND SCHOLARS CLASS OF 2020!!! GO BUCKS!

Love,

Leslie Luna