Saturday, November 17th, AOTA/NBCOT National Student Conclave, in Pittsburgh, PA

Saturday, November 17th, AOTA/NBCOT National Student Conclave, in Pittsburgh, PA

Today started at 6am (5am to my Central Memphis brain) after a night of tossing and turning! Registration was at 7am and went smoothly. We got our name badges. I ran into Holly Hendryx, who is current OT Vice Chairperson of the ASD Steering Committee and has the position I am running for!

Breakfast was my only real complaint for the day – it was limited to sugary breads/muffins, yogurt, and sugar fruit drinks. And it was expensive. I got a bread, yogurt, and grapefruit juice for 6.50! The main issue I have with it is that it was a hypoglycemia nightmare.

By 730 I had sat down with some Ohio State University girls, all of whom were very nice. One of them (Sarah) is running for Communications and Advocacy on the ASD Steering Committee, which is the same position my classmate Brooke is running for. She was a pro at walking around greeting people. I'm a little shyer that way, I was envious.

Due to technical difficulties with the Powerpoint, we got started with the welcome ceremony/key note address around 815 instead of 8am. Penny Moyers, president of AOTA, was supposed to speak, but there was a death in her family this week and so she could not make it. Instead, Dr. Florence Clark (sp) spoke to us about the Centennial Vision. I'm telling you guys, my blog is the epitome of Centennial Vision!!! Anyway…that was fine. Then we all bolted because there were four concurrent sessions from 9am to 10:30 and most of us wanted to be in “Empower your future: Fieldwork Education Strategies for Personal Satisfaction and Professional Success”. Kim Dickinson, current ASD Steering Committee Chairperson, was on the panel, since she is currently in her Level II fieldworks.

Then we spent some time with exhibitors. I ran into Josh who helps run the RehabCare blog, it was fun to meet him in person! I had been wondering if he'd be there. We got lots of free pens and stuff from the various vendors. And of course valuable information as well. 😉

The second session I went to was “How to be a successful agent of change: helping your new colleagues understand occupation-based practice”. This was essentially a lecture on avoiding cone-stacking and arm bike, unless you can really clearly articulate why what you are doing as a preparatory method will help that client with their future occupational performance/participation in meaningful activities.
 
Then it was lunch, which was MADLAM or whatever that word is. Oh yeah, bedlam. It was yummy pizza and pasta and salad. There was more Centennial Vision discussion as well as networking going on. I sat with some Virginia students.

Then I choose to go to the session on “reimbursement and documentation primer for the new graduate”. Unfortunately the room was so hot I thought I would die. Plus, while I know it is important material, it wasn't what I really needed at this point in my OT student life. So I ended up sneaking out guiltily, but took a much needed 15-minute nap. I am sooo tired. At least I didn't drive 9 hours to get here like the Wash U. girls did!

Then it was time for an introduction to NBCOT to learn about our national qualifying exam. I ended up randomly sitting with some Wash. U girls (12 of them were there), and I ended up actually sitting next to one of my opponents for OT Vice Chair! Her name is Erin and she's pretty cool, but I'm going to try and hate her anyway. Just kidding. She is great. But vote for me anyway. 😉

And then finally, I went to “tools for transitioning from student to entry-level practitioner”. By then it was 620pm and I had been on my feet for 12 hours and I am exhausted. BUT I'm going to go back downstairs soon because at 730pm a group is going out to eat etc, led by Pittsburgh native students, and we might get to go ice-skating as well. I have a few pictures and a little video, but not as much as I'd like. I'll probably get that up tomorrow.

I'm missing a sheet where I wrote down some information I wanted to share that I think is in my bag…plus this is plenty long. I'll flesh it out later. Just wanted to type some of it out while it was still fresh. I think I'm going to lie down for about 15 minutes before going downstairs.

So far, with the exception of crushing crowds at break, it's gone incredibly smoothly and everyone is really, really nice!

Nov 17, 2007 | Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: none