American Career College recognized the graduation of its second occupational therapy assistant cohort at the ACC-Orange County campus on Jan. 30.
“There are 30 of us in this cohort,” OTA graduate Genevieve Guzman said after the event. “We worked long and hard to get to this point. It's been a really tough journey for all of us. We all are working, some of us are parents, some of us were going through rough times, but we did it.”
During the pinning ceremony, OTA program director Heather Thomas told the cohort that they were entering a new chapter in their education, a chapter that they wouldn’t find in their textbook.
“When I graduated I wanted to write a book about the things they didn’t teach you in school,” Dr. Thomas said. “I was going to call it “Things That Weren’t In the Book.” You’re now at that point in your education and I look forward to you turning the next page.”
ACC's Occupational Therapy Assistant (Associate of Occupational Science) program is a 20-month program that blends classroom, clinical and laboratory learning. Possible job outlets include working with children and youth in schools and daycare centers, working with adults in clinical inpatient and clinical outpatient services or working with older adults in hospitals or long-term care facilities.
“I think occupational therapy makes you realize the little things that we take for granted are what's important, like how to take care of yourself, how to manage your time, your money, the way you just overall treat yourself,” OTA graduate Anthony Robinson said after the event. “It is more than just getting someone better from the different diseases. It's about always getting better.”
