More than 40 graduate from Occupational Therapy Assistant program

Hanceville, AL — More than 40 students were recognized Tuesday, Aug.  2023年1月，为 successfully completing the Occupational Therapy Assistant (OTA) program at Wallace State 社区 College.

“I would like to commend you all in your commitment in obtaining your dreams to pursue a degree in occupational therapy,” 说 Kelly Wilson, Academic Fieldwork Coordinator for the WSCC OTA程序. “I truly hope it’s a rewarding day for you and your loved 的. I know everyone in this class will do great. You all have huge, caring hearts and I believe each of you came into this profession for the right reason. 他们是 ready to change many people’s lives.”

Program Director Laura Smith compared occupational therapy to nuts and bolts, and how they are integral pieces of a whole.

“Nuts and bolts must be joined together to hold something together,” Smith 说. “如何 accurate does that describe what we do in OT? We join together with our patients using information we have taken from them, such as their goals, their interest, their occupational history, and we join that information with our skills, our knowledge and our ability to analyze the occupation they want to participate in to hold them together and make 他们更强.”

Class program award winner Shelby Reavis gave a visual representation of how occupational therapist assistants help patients learn or adapt to perform daily activities. 使用 a piece of paper that she had her classmates wad up and straighten more than a dozen times, she folded the wrinkled sheet into a swan.

澳门威尼斯人APP下载状态 社区 College Occupational Therapy Assistant Class of 2023 Program Award winner Shelby Reavis, right, addresses her classmates as Class President Kaya Butler looks on, during the group’s pinning ceremony on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023.

“This paper has faced adversity, just like a lot of our patients are going to,” Reavis 说. “And a lot of the adversity that it is facing is because of its condition. 这是 crinkled, it’s been passed through all of your hands, having some effect on it.

“This could be anyone facing a challenge,” she continued. “Not everyone knows how to get from here to the next step. Not everyone is set up with the skills to increase their independence, but after our experience we know how to help them. 我们知道怎么做 小心治疗. 我们知道如何 give constructive encouragement. 我们知道如何 积极地倾听. 我们知道如何 offer appropriate assistance. We put in the work, the time, the effort and we’ve shown we’re really good at what we do. 我们准备好了 to go out there and show what we know.”

Class president Kaya Butler encouraged the family and friends in the audience to congratulate their graduates and recognize their hard work and effort.

“I ask that you walk up to your graduate today and tell them how proud you are of 巴特勒说. “They all put in countless hours, and they’ve risked so much just to be where they are today to give back to the community and you.

“I’m so proud of all of you,” she 说. “Because of you, someone will learn to live life to the fullest again.”

The Occupational Therapy Assistant program is a three-semester associate degree program, with two semesters of core requirements before applying to the program. OTA程序 applications are accepted March 1 to June 1 for fall entry each year.

Registration for the Fall 2023 semester in underway. Regular and Mini Term I classes 8月开始.18. Flex Start terms 8月开始. 9月25日及. 1. Mini Term II classes begin 10月. 19. For more information, visit rht8kcb.yairg.net, call the main campus at 256.352.8000 or come by Lion Central in the lobby of the James C. Bailey Center Monday-Wednesday 7:30 a.m. 到下午6点.m.，星期四7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., or Friday 7:30 a.m. 到2点.m.