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!