HANCEVILLE – The Class of 2016 for the Occupational Therapy Assistant (OTA) program at Wallace State Community College started with 42 students and ended with the same number as they walked across the stage recently to receive their pin and diploma.
“This cohort is very special because they are graduating in the 50th anniversary year of Wallace State Community College,” said Allen Keener, OTA Program director.
“This class is my first class full-time here, so they will always be very special to me and I’m always going to remember all of our good times, bad times, but mostly the great times, said Kelly Krigbaum, the program’s academic fieldwork coordinator. “Your class has very many personalities. Some of you are very quiet, some of you not so much. But I truly believe that all of you are going to be fantastic OTA’s and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for you.”
Gail Hyatt, the retired academic fieldwork coordinator and a current instructor for OTA said someone asked her if she was glad to see the graduating students go. “The answer is yes,” she said. “It’s kind of like pushing the little birds out of the nest. We’ve lived together for a year and spent a lot of time together and gotten to know each other very well, and we’ve seen you grow as a person and in your knowledge about occupational therapy and it gives us great joy on this night to be able to send you out there and know that you have given your best this year and that you’re going to continue to do that.”
As they enter the workforce, Hyatt told them the world is waiting to see wait the have to offer.
“You’re going to be dealing and working with people who are suffering and they need you to be more than just an occupational therapist assistant,” she said. “They need you to be a listener, an empathizer, an advocate, a champion for them. They need you to recognize them as a student, as a mother or brother or grandmother, a vital human being that deserves to be treated with dignity and humanity. They’re looking for eye contact, for just a touch, a smile. They’re looking for someone who will see past the deformity, the forgetfulness, the confusion, the wrinkles. They may forget your name, but they’ll never forget how you made them feel.”
Class president Heather Hawkins said the past year “was the longest but somehow the shortest year of our lives.”
“We have all sacrificed something to be here today,” she added. “I want to ask you not to forget how hard we each worked to be sitting here tonight. Don’t forget that 14 months ago you wanted nothing more than to be sitting in one of these seats. The hours of prerequisites, the sleepless nights of studying and the carpal tunnel from trying to keep up with Ms. Krigbaum during Medical Conditions. So you when you get to work on those days when the case load looks to be almost unbearable, remember that day, 14 months ago and remember this day and how you feel and how proud you are and how hard you’ve worked.
“To Mr. Keener, Ms. Krigbaum and Ms. Hyatt, thank you so much for teaching us that Occupational Therapy is about adding life to days.”
Keener encouraged the students to always remember why they chose Occupational Therapy as a career and to not get caught up in the minutiae of the day-to-day. “You went into this because you wanted to help people and make a difference in their lives,” he said. “That is what you need to think about every day when you go into work.
“So when the demands of the job seem overwhelming, remind yourselves of your most important role, that is to do whatever it takes to help that patient who is depending on you to regain the ability to participate in that activity or occupation that is so valuable to them that they can no longer do. To you, they may be a patient on your list for the day, but to them, you are their everything because you have the knowledge and the ability to drastically improve their lives.”
“Your goal should be to inspire your clients every day and hopefully one day someone will look at you and say I didn’t give up because of you,” Krigbaum told the graduates. “What more could you ask for?”
The Occupational Therapy Assistant program at Wallace State is a five-semester program that offers an Associate in Applied Science degree. The first two semesters are made up of prerequisite courses, with the final three semesters focusing on program courses. The program boasts a 100 percent success rate for its students taking the National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts employment of occupational therapy assistants to grow by 43 percent between 2014 and 2024 as the demand will grow in response to health needs of the aging baby-boomer population. The median annual wage nationwide for occupational therapy assistants in May 2015 was $57,870.
For more information about the Wallace State Occupational Therapy Assistant Program contact Allen Keener at 256.352.8333 or allen.keener@wallacestate.edu or visit www.wallacestate.edu. Registration for Fall 2016 is currently underway, with classes starting on Aug. 17. Registration will continue through Aug. 23.
