OT Students Interaction Topic 1: Getting to know you

KawJemilyn

Hi Claire! Thank you for joining us here!
It seems like you already have experiences in being an OT. Do you have some fun experiences, stories or tips for us? We're on our 2nd year in BS OT and there's like 3 more years before we can take the board exam and get our own license.

Best wishes! 🙂

csimpson33 wroteHi I am Claire from the University of Salford, UK 2nd year full time student, i have worked in occupational therapy for 7 years and really enjoying the process of qualifying as a therapist.

Alexia Nicole

Hey! 🙂 I'm Alexia Guevara, a 17 year-old OT student from University of the Philippines - Manila.

In my case, choosing BS Occupational Therapy for college was a spur-of-the-moment decision. I was actually into Human Kinetics since I wanted to pursue a dancing career. Fortunately, after my first immersion in an OT clinic for our major class, I discovered that occupational therapists promote dance therapy. I am an active member of our university's dance varsity and we invite known dancers across the country to have workshops with us. It became a bridge for me to meet and learn from people who also offer dance therapy for adults such as ballet and hip hop for PWDs. It is my goal to work in a clinic with dancers who have hearts for our PWDs.

Excited to know more about you guys! 🙂

Alexia Nicole

Hi Rose! I'm Lex. 🙂 The idea of handling adults with learning difficulties sounds really challenging and at the same time satisfying! I actually have plans of working for them when I graduate. Can you tell me more about your experiences in a community hospital and a residential home?

Rose Snook wroteHi I'm Rose and I'm just about to start my second year at Coventry University. I'm a mature student and currently I work part time as a Health Care Assistant in a community hospital and a residential home for adults with learning difficulties. I love to help people and really enjoying making a small positive difference in someone's life. I hope to be able to make a bigger contibution when I qualify. I love the holistic whole person perspective that an Occupational therapist uses to support thier client.

Byeul

Naja Forchhammer OT wroteHey Byeul, so nice to hear from you 🙂
I have been doing yoga for some years, and I am so happy, that it is possible to integrate it with OT 🙂
Yeah, I love the outdoors too! I just got back from my internship in Brazil, where I was so lucky to travel around a bit and visit an amazing natural park!
Are you also interested in yoga?

Byeul wrote
Naja Forchhammer OT wroteHey guys 🙂
I'm Naja, a 27 year old OT student from the Metropolitan University in Copenhagen, Denmark.
I'm very interested in OT, and I think it's amazing how you learn to help people live a meaningful life, no matter where they're from or what they need help with.
I've been doing exchange in both Berlin, Germany, and in Parnaiba, Brazil. In October I'll start writing my thesis about OT and yoga and will be finishing my education in January 2017.
Besides studying I'm running an Instagram account (regarding me and my work as an OT), and a Facebook page. At the moment I'm preparing different posts for the Global ADHD Awareness Month, which will take place in the month of October. If any of you are interested in following it, you can find it under Naja Forchhammer on Facebook 🙂

If you've any questions, please feel free to ask 🙂

Best regards Naja.
Hi, Naja! So glad you could check out our forum.
I checked your instagram account and I noticed you're a fan of the outdoors aside from yoga. Just out of curiosity, is yoga something you've been doing for quite some time now or are you able to engage in it because of OT? 🙂

That's great to hear! I look forward to being able to go to places and do some travelling to enjoy nature too - hopefully after some years when I'm older haha.
I haven't tried yoga myself; it would be interesting to try it some time tho, especially since you are able to incorporate it with OT. 🙂

Byeul

Hi, Michelle! So nice of you to join us. 🙂
Wow that's really amazing. You must be a really passionate person to look for a profession that you could pour your time into. May I ask what made you decide to try and pursue OT?
Wishing you the best of luck in your next placement and looking forward to hear more from you!
-Byeul

Michelle77 wroteHi everyone ?
My names Michelle and I'm just about to start my second year of occupational therapy at Salford University, UK. Really enjoyed reading all your introductions...what a great idea this is!
So about me...I'm 39, a mother of 3 and I'm brand new to occupational therapy. My previous experience centres around customer service roles and I spent 3 years as a police officer. I've always wanted a career I love and one where I can help people, and this is definitely it. I've really enjoyed my time at university so far though it has been a steep learning curve in regards to academic writing. I'm making progress though that's the main thing.
I don't have any preferences as yet regarding specialist areas of OT, though I'm really looking forward to my next placement in mental health. It's my first mental health experience so any tips would be greatly appreciated?

I look forward to hearing from you and getting involved in the topics lined up xxx

shmays

Hi Everyone! It's so great to see this student forum being utilized to the max. As a current 2nd year MSOT student in the US, I'm really curious to learn more about OT in the Philippines and schooling at UP.

avaguila1

Hello everyone! Again, I am Alyssa, a 2nd year OT student from UP Manila.

I want to introduce to you my college, CAMP. The College of Allied Medical Professions (CAMP) in UP Manila offers a 4-year degree program of BS Occupational Therapy unlike other schools in the Philippines which have a 5-year degree program. Our college really lived up to our mission on providing our PWDs an environment where they can freely perform their occupations by ensuring that our building itself is PWD-friendly. Also, our mentors always ensure that in every lecture we are able to meet the intended learning outcomes for that specific discussion.

The CAMP community is filled with beautiful, friendly people. In our block, it is where I found another family. We treat each other like brothers and sisters. With them, going through college got easier and they make it more fun. I feel so blessed to be part of this crazy bunch of beautiful people. My blockmates are also one of the reasons why I get to love OT more. I hope you also have such great friends who are with you in your journey in becoming an OT.

avaguila1

csimpson33 wroteHi I am Claire from the University of Salford, UK 2nd year full time student, i have worked in occupational therapy for 7 years and really enjoying the process of qualifying as a therapist.

Hi Claire! How was your experience during those 7 years? I would love to hear your story!

avaguila1

shmays wroteHi Everyone! It's so great to see this student forum being utilized to the max. As a current 2nd year MSOT student in the US, I'm really curious to learn more about OT in the Philippines and schooling at UP.

Hi shmays! Thank you for visiting this forum! We would love to see you be part of the coming discussions where we could learn more about OT not only in the Philippines but also globally through stories/entries shared here in this forum.

Personally, I also like to know about OT from other countries as well. Do we encounter the same problems? How do people from the US see OT and how does it differ from how Filipinos view it? I hope through our shared stories, we can answer these questions. 🙂

avaguila1

Michelle77 wroteHi everyone ?
My names Michelle and I'm just about to start my second year of occupational therapy at Salford University, UK. Really enjoyed reading all your introductions...what a great idea this is!
So about me...I'm 39, a mother of 3 and I'm brand new to occupational therapy. My previous experience centres around customer service roles and I spent 3 years as a police officer. I've always wanted a career I love and one where I can help people, and this is definitely it. I've really enjoyed my time at university so far though it has been a steep learning curve in regards to academic writing. I'm making progress though that's the main thing.
I don't have any preferences as yet regarding specialist areas of OT, though I'm really looking forward to my next placement in mental health. It's my first mental health experience so any tips would be greatly appreciated?

I look forward to hearing from you and getting involved in the topics lined up xxx

Hi Michelle!
I am glad you found the career you want. I think everyone wants to be able to do what they love and we are lucky to be able to find it in OT. I still do not have a lot of experience in mental health so I cannot provide you "tips". Instead of giving tips, I just want to tell you that you can do it! As long as you love what you do, you can do everything you want though it could be difficult at times. I hope this helps.

avaguila1

K.V.Rivera wroteHi guys, I’m Keith! I’m a 2nd year BS Occupational Therapy student here at the University of the Philippines Manila.

Like many others, I barely knew anything about Occupational Therapy before entering my course. I’m going to admit that I entered the course so that I could use it as a pre-med course. Yet as I continued to study my major subjects I grew more and more to love Occupational Therapy. It seemed as though the more I learn and the more I knew made me love the profession.

It is for this reason that I want to have advocacy as one of my main points when I practice. I first noticed it in my family. They barely knew what I was studying, they had this assumption that everything that Occupational therapy covers would be under the traditional meaning of Occupation; which often relates to actual work rather than anything that our clients finds meaning in. I would also ask former classmates of mine and they would, more often than not, reply with the same thought in mind. Not many schools had a talk regarding our course, and that may be a reason why not many apply for it. That is why o would love to go back to my high school and maybe give a talk to students, informing them of what Occupational therapy entails. I’m sure that, like me, they would grow fond of the profession if only they knew more about it.

I’d love to hear your thoughts about advocating our future profession, both here in the Philippines and all over the world.

Hi Keith!
I also had the same idea on my mind before! I would love to go back to my high school and advocate OT. We usually have career talks and I think that would be a perfect opportunity for us to introduce OT to the students. I also think that awareness is the key for our profession to grow more here in the Philippines.

Sam Agura

Hi everyone! It's me again, Sam Agura from UP Manila 🙂

While a lot of people don't really know what occupational therapy is in our country, I've known about it since grade school and more or less already made up my mind to take it up for college even then. I learned about occupational therapy from my uncle who is a physical therapist and he's one of the reasons why I chose this course. Knowing that it mainly deals with helping people overcome their disabilities and limitations and helping them optimize their potential to live a productive and quality life, I was hooked from the start. It also helped that I've always wanted to go in the medical field and taking this course now has made me realize just how important rehabilitation medicine is.

Like I've mentioned before, we're a pretty small population of OT stuents in our university. As such, we're more or less familiar with one another. I'm looking forward to hearing more from the OT students abroad and learning from their experiences 😃

I'm also looking forward to hearing inputs from other OT students from all over in our upcoming topics. Hear from you soon!

pdregalario

Sam Agura wroteHi everyone! It's me again, Sam Agura from UP Manila 🙂

While a lot of people don't really know what occupational therapy is in our country, I've known about it since grade school and more or less already made up my mind to take it up for college even then. I learned about occupational therapy from my uncle who is a physical therapist and he's one of the reasons why I chose this course. Knowing that it mainly deals with helping people overcome their disabilities and limitations and helping them optimize their potential to live a productive and quality life, I was hooked from the start. It also helped that I've always wanted to go in the medical field and taking this course now has made me realize just how important rehabilitation medicine is.

Like I've mentioned before, we're a pretty small population of OT stuents in our university. As such, we're more or less familiar with one another. I'm looking forward to hearing more from the OT students abroad and learning from their experiences 😃

I'm also looking forward to hearing inputs from other OT students from all over in our upcoming topics. Hear from you soon!

Hi Sam! I wish I was introduced to OT as early as you were but that is not the case... I hope to hear from you soon too!!

gvyrastorza

Hi everyone! Hope I'm not late to the party! I'm Ito Yrastorza, a 2nd year OT student at UP Manila. You can call me Ito, Greg, Greggy, Four, Iv, Ivy, or anything you can think of haha! I'm pretty much aware of most of the OT students from UP, but I'd like to get to know the OT students (and practitioners) on the forum. I'll admit, it's kind of... quiet around here.

I'm going to try posting around in my free time, but for the meantime, hi everyone! Let's get to know one another!

K.V.Rivera

shmays wroteHi Everyone! It's so great to see this student forum being utilized to the max. As a current 2nd year MSOT student in the US, I'm really curious to learn more about OT in the Philippines and schooling at UP.

Hi Chloe!

While the workload does seem to be heavy at times, I personally enjoy studying here at UP. Personally, I enjoy our majors the most since they seem to always make me want to learn more. The topics about the different OT theories and the developmental milestones of a normally developing child really make me appreciate studying to be a future Occupational Therapist.

I would love to hear more from you especially in the next few weeks as we start new topics to talk about. 🙂

Felix Isaac Tiburcio

Hey everyone! I hope I'm not too late with the discussion but I'd love to share my "OT story" as well. I'm Felix Tiburcio, a 2nd year OT student at UP Manila.
Initially, I wanted to apply for a psychology or biology course for college as I did not have any idea what occupational therapy was. I was first introduced to OT by my rehab doctor (because I had a minor case of scoliosis, which I have until now) where she described it as a healthy mix of clinical psychology and physical rehabilitation. Being the ignorant student I was (and still am), I abandoned all my psychology and biology dreams with the hopes that an OT course would more than suffice for it!
And in my first year of OT education, that basic assumption turned out to be so wrong. After discovering the true nature of the OT profession, I was initially hesitant to shift because I was overwhelmed by the scope of OT practice, but after a couple of months and a few fieldworks, my initial thoughts about the course was soon replaced by a great appreciation and a deep love for OT. Call me poetic, but I was moved. Although I'm only at my second year, I'm looking forward to my future OT education and my eventual OT career.
That's all there is to know about me! I'm looking forward to meeting all of the OT students involved in this discussion. God bless!

gvyrastorza

Also, something I've noticed, quite a few of the posters here (myself included) have mentioned what life is like as an OT student, but not really about how they got into OT in the first place. (Again, I say quite a few as many of you have already done that)

So, I'll start by saying I first learned about OT from my tito (uncle). He's a practicing OT in California, and after a few talks with him, I realized I really wanted to try out being an OT. Especially since the people in my hometown really need it. So I decided to apply for it when I was in high school. I just want to help out back at home in any way I can, and I find this is the way I want.

That's kind of the gist of things for me. I really want to hear from those people with only one or two posts, how did you learn about OT? And what pulled you into taking up the profession?

Ivanna Co

Michelle77 wroteHi everyone 🙂
My names Michelle and I'm just about to start my second year of occupational therapy at Salford University, UK. Really enjoyed reading all your introductions...what a great idea this is!
So about me...I'm 39, a mother of 3 and I'm brand new to occupational therapy. My previous experience centres around customer service roles and I spent 3 years as a police officer. I've always wanted a career I love and one where I can help people, and this is definitely it. I've really enjoyed my time at university so far though it has been a steep learning curve in regards to academic writing. I'm making progress though that's the main thing.
I don't have any preferences as yet regarding specialist areas of OT, though I'm really looking forward to my next placement in mental health. It's my first mental health experience so any tips would be greatly appreciated?

I look forward to hearing from you and getting involved in the topics lined up xxx

Hi Michelle!
I'm really glad that you joined us here and are planning to stick around for the next 3 topics!
Just wondering, how did you find out about occupational therapy? Are the people in UK well-informed about it? Because here in the Philippines, most do not know what occupational therapy is about and merely think of us as masseurs/masseuses.
Also, I apologize that I can't give you any real tips since I don't have much experience in mental health either. The only tip I can give you is to enjoy your experiences during your placements. Being in a placement you love will surely make you feel like you are not working at all!
Hope to talk to you in the upcoming topics as well!

Ivanna Co

K.V.Rivera wroteHi guys, I’m Keith! I’m a 2nd year BS Occupational Therapy student here at the University of the Philippines Manila.

Like many others, I barely knew anything about Occupational Therapy before entering my course. I’m going to admit that I entered the course so that I could use it as a pre-med course. Yet as I continued to study my major subjects I grew more and more to love Occupational Therapy. It seemed as though the more I learn and the more I knew made me love the profession.

It is for this reason that I want to have advocacy as one of my main points when I practice. I first noticed it in my family. They barely knew what I was studying, they had this assumption that everything that Occupational therapy covers would be under the traditional meaning of Occupation; which often relates to actual work rather than anything that our clients finds meaning in. I would also ask former classmates of mine and they would, more often than not, reply with the same thought in mind. Not many schools had a talk regarding our course, and that may be a reason why not many apply for it. That is why o would love to go back to my high school and maybe give a talk to students, informing them of what Occupational therapy entails. I’m sure that, like me, they would grow fond of the profession if only they knew more about it.

I’d love to hear your thoughts about advocating our future profession, both here in the Philippines and all over the world.

Hi Keith!
I love your idea to give a talk to high school students on what occupational therapy is about! I myself chose OT as my course because an alumna gave a talk in my high school's career symposium. Around 4 other batchmates of mine also chose OT as a result.

Michelle77

Hi Jem 🙂

Thanks so much for your response. I really wish I were a supermom but as with occupational therapy I'm still learning all the time. Children are amazing though aren't they, I really hope you enjoy your child development module. I really enjoyed looking at all the different life stages from birth to old age, its fascinating.

So my reasons for choosing OT...my interest was first gained through my cousin who qualified about 9 years ago and she absolutely loves her job. Prior to that I only had a limited knowledge of what occupational therapy actually was. Now one year in I cant think of anything else I would rather do. We get to help people and the fact that we view the person as more than just an illness or disability is amazing.

good luck with your studies and I hope to hear from you soon x

KawJemilyn wroteHello there, Michelle! Thank you for joining us here @ OTion.
I've got a big WOW for you because of your previous occupation and soon-to-be occupation; it's evident that you're a person with a big (kind) heart because the main agenda of your past and future occupations is to serve the people. (Your children are so lucky to have you as their supermom!)

These past 2 months and the next 3 months, we're tackling about OT theories and childhood development in class; we get to observe children of different ages and check on their milestones. I prefer pediatrics, but my second choice of field is mental health. We surely will be excited when we get to the mental health portion.

What are your thoughts about specializing in mental health? Are there reasons relating to your past occupations that made you choose studying occupational therapy?
Hope that you'll join us in this conversation room until the second week of November! 🙂

Good luck on your academics! Best wishes!

Jem

Michelle77 wroteHi everyone ?
My names Michelle and I'm just about to start my second year of occupational therapy at Salford University, UK. Really enjoyed reading all your introductions...what a great idea this is!
So about me...I'm 39, a mother of 3 and I'm brand new to occupational therapy. My previous experience centres around customer service roles and I spent 3 years as a police officer. I've always wanted a career I love and one where I can help people, and this is definitely it. I've really enjoyed my time at university so far though it has been a steep learning curve in regards to academic writing. I'm making progress though that's the main thing.
I don't have any preferences as yet regarding specialist areas of OT, though I'm really looking forward to my next placement in mental health. It's my first mental health experience so any tips would be greatly appreciated?

I look forward to hearing from you and getting involved in the topics lined up xxx

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