Students receive award at 2024 IOTA Conference
Five occupational therapy students from the University of Southern Indiana made history on November 16 when they were honored as Outstanding OT Students of the Year during the Indiana Occupational Therapy Association (IOTA) Fall Conference. Malea Brownfield, Hope Burkins, Hannah Haithcock, Olivia Stinson and Zoie Tucker were recognized for their high academic achievements and their recent fieldwork experience in Central America.
According to Dr. Jessica Mason, Assistant Professor and Chair of Occupational Therapy, this is, to her knowledge, the first time a USI student has received the state-wide award.
“There were several great nominations in this category, so this is a huge win for our students and recognition for USI's Occupational Therapy and Occupational Therapy Assistant Programs,” she adds.
Mason and faculty colleague Dr. Jenna Thacker, Assistant Professor and Academic Fieldwork Coordinator of Occupational Therapy, accompanied the five second-year OT students to Belize October 21-25 with Therapy Adventures, a Chicago-based non-profit organization dedicated to delivering pediatric therapy services to underserved communities worldwide. USI received a grant from the Community-Engaged Alliance to help fund the trip.
“Currently, there are no therapy services offered in Belmopan (Belize’s capital city), except for what Therapy Adventures is able to provide,” says Mason. “We worked directly with the Ministry of Education in Belmopan to provide evaluations and home programs for children with disabilities. Our students screened 35 children over four days, providing each family with a detailed home exercise program.”
All OT students are required to complete three, one-week level 1 fieldwork rotations as part of OT 695: Professional Practicum Seminar A and B. Mason says the experience in Belize helped raise the USI students’ level of cultural competence.
“We functioned as an outpatient clinic, with minimal equipment, plus we put in long hours every day, seeing patients starting at 8:30 in the morning and working on documentation until 9 at night most nights,” she says. “The students had to step outside their comfort zone, but they handled the workload and cultural challenges with professionalism and grace.”
Because the need for therapy services is so great in Belize, Mason hopes to make this destination an annual fieldwork experience for the USI Occupational Therapy Program. “We feel so fortunate to have collaborated with Therapy Adventures and the Community-Engaged Alliance for this amazing experience, and we cannot wait to return,” she says. “Our students learned so much working with the families in Belize, and we all feel like our involvement there made a difference."
About Community-Engaged Alliance
As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Community-Engaged Alliance is dedicated to advancing the field of community engagement through education, support, and collaboration with their members and additional partners in higher education. Through funding, professional development, and collaboration opportunities, Community-Engaged Alliance supports capacity and enables students to graduate with the knowledge and skills necessary to create positive social change. Visit www.communityengagedalliance.org for more information.
