OPT for Refugees

1) I am just a kid from Florida. I have worked with mentally disabled kids and adults throughout the past four years through Camp I am Special in Green Cove Springs and Best Buddies. This sparked my passion for occupational therapy. I am predominantly white but I am also Filipino. This identity has made me a bit divergent because I have never felt like I do belong to a specific race. I am just human. I am also a humanist and I have a lust for travel so I wanted to find a way to incorporate occupational therapy and travel to satisfy myself and to make the biggest impact on the world as possible. It is my personal philosophy that it is not how you spend your money, it is how you spend your time. I see this venture as something I could do for a majority of my life. 2) I am offering the service of holistic Occupational and Physical therapy to help relieve some disabilities caused by the displacement of war. Occupational therapy, according to the American Occupational Therapy Organization ...

I am going to combine two and three because I did not get enough feedback to differentiate the two.   The biggest thing I had a problem with was memorizing the speech. I didn’t memorize the speech this time but I practiced and I just did it on the fly. I also did it in a dress shirt this time and I recorded me speaking inside instead of outside. 

My customer would no longer be practicing their hobby, due to their displacement unless they have the resources available to do so. They could be any one with any skillset. They would have walked vast distances in all kinds of weather and would have been exposed to the elements. They may sleep in tents or just outside. They do have children and families although some of their family members may have been killed or they could have been separated.  Some of their children may have been victims of war or genocide. They may have adopted orphans who have lost their parents, or they may be children themselves.  If Muslims, they would rely on the Quran for guidance and faith. They could or could not support Bashar al Assad. I have seen many PBS Frontline specials and I know many Syrians are divided on the conflict.  They could be any age although I can say that they probably feel much older due to the adversary they have endured.  They could have many health issues, or only ...

1.        1. Creativity – I value my creativity probably most overall. I have been an artist my entire life and I paint with oils many weekends. I enjoy looking at situations or problems and finding new ways to solve them. Throughout the past five or so years of my life I have been continuously updating and dreaming the life I want to live later on and I believe I have the creative competency to put those dreams into effect. · Open Mind About my “People” – I am American, which can mean a lot of things. Americans come in all shapes and sizes with all different kinds of physical features that make them unique. I am quarter Filipino and white, whatever that means. I see all humans as one peoples and the world as our home. Many people do not have this view. Labels separate us into ethnicity, or race, and divide us into peoples. This is not all negative, as there have been beautiful cultures created because of this. For the purposes of my NGO I bel...

I know I was supposed to stay in the same segment however I could not get ahold of more than one organization before Wednesday of this week and since I cannot interview the same people/ organizations I decided to interview individuals who have received treatment from Physical or Occupational therapy. 1st Interview: I interviewed my boss who has been going to physical therapy every day for the past couple of weeks. I asked him how he chose which place to go to in town and he said that he relied on asking people he knew who have gone through PT before. He said that price does matter but that whether or not it is effective or not is the most important. He talked about how he hurt his shoulder and that it is important that it heals in a timely manner. 2nd Interview: I asked my uncle about his experience with occupational therapy. He is a low income veteran so his only option was the VA. He talked about his experiences with the VA and mentioned that their quality varies but that they are ...

1. The sheer quantity of money that Carnegie gave away during his life time, mostly his later years, surprised me the most. I admire his wits, his perseverance and his will to move up the social latter. I aspire to have the courage and the gumption to charm those above me and make friends with those who can propel me forward. Not everybody has this ability and it is something I do admire very much. I also admire his love of books and the fact that he funded the building of so many libraries across the North Eastern United States. Andrew Carnegie had humble beginnings. He was an Irish immigrant born into a working class family. Much of his young life he struggled in hard working jobs with long hours. Something I don’t admire about Carnegie is that he worked his workers so hard. This led to the Homestead Strike in 1892. Carnegie had left the United States during this conflict. 2. Carnegie was good at saving and investing. Albeit not always legal, Carnegie’s continuous inve...

1.   The first couple weeks of this course I had been leaving these assignments for Friday to complete. Once we started to interview people each week, I found it highly beneficial to start contacting people before Monday, as many people have busy work schedules. I have developed a work schedule for this class, getting as much of each assignment done by Wednesday in order to have a stress free Friday night. 2. For the third week of assignments I had thought I submitted both links for both assignments however I found out a couple weeks ago that I had not. This brought my grade down by 7 points and I went from an A to a B. I was pretty angry because I did all of the work for the assignment on time and the T.A. is super impersonal about grades however I want to get an A for this course because I do not see any reason not to. Although it was just a small mistake on my part, I just need to trudge through and not fall off the boat. Tips: · Look ahead and plan ahead a...

1) I am just a kid from Florida. I have worked with mentally disabled kids and adults throughout the past four years through Camp I am Special in Green Cove Springs and Best Buddies. This sparked my passion for occupational therapy. I am predominantly white but I am also Filipino. This identity has made me a bit divergent because I have never felt like I do belong to a specific race. I am just human. I am also a humanist and I have a lust for travel so I wanted to find a way to incorporate occupational therapy and travel to satisfy myself and to make the biggest impact on the world as possible. It is my personal philosophy that it is not how you spend your money, it is how you spend your time. 2) I am offering the service of holistic Occupational and Physical therapy to help relieve some disabilities caused by the displacement of war. Occupational therapy, according to the American Occupational Therapy Organization is an evaluative process that is personalized for each indi...

Interview 1: (UNHCR Needs Assessment) I sent UNHCR Needs Assessment sector when we first started setting up interviews and they responded last weekend so I got the chance to interview them this week over the phone. Essentially they confirmed that there is a need for outside organizations to come and provide aid. I asked where the most need is any she said it really depends and that every couple weeks to every couple months, NGO organization members can be reassigned to different places and camps. She also stressed that there is a need for physical and occupational therapy in urban settings as well as in refugee camps. She also said that there are already occupational and physical therapists working with UNHCR. They told me that they work with sister organizations and rely on volunteers to fill the needs of the refugees. Interview 2: (WHO Geneva Headquarters) I called the WHO’s Headquarters and got switched to the office of the Syrian Arab Crisis. I asked about where the most nee...