特洛伊加拿大2008届硕士.S., O.T.R.
从他早年开始, Troy Canada has believed that occupational therapy can make a real difference in people’s lives. 现在, 他有二十多年的行医经验, 他正在通过新学院攻读OT博士学位 职业后在线课程 在利记sbo. We caught up with him recently to talk about his experience as a therapist and his plans for the future.
When I was a young kid, probably eleven or twelve, my mother had a stroke. She wound up getting occupational therapy and physical therapy. And I saw what the OTs did, as far as self-care stuff, to get her back to being a mother. 当她完成治疗后, 她恢复了所有的功能, 我小时候就想过, 这就是我长大后想成为的人. 我从头到尾都记在心里, 只要我有机会, 我开始了这条职业道路. 它一直是我的指导力量.
I did eight years active duty in the Air Force and twelve years in the Air National Guard, 总共20年. In the late 1990s I went back to school and got my BS in exercise science, 然后是2001年我在职业治疗的同事. 在那之后，我报名参加了 Utica的OT周末项目 拿到硕士学位. I’ve worked as a therapist at Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital in Plattsburg, 在纽约工作了二十多年.
当我参加周末课外活动的时候, 我在卫队里, 在医院做全职的OT助理, 周末也要回学校. 很忙的时候. 最重要的是，我还打过半职业橄榄球. 在项目快结束的时候，我们又有了一个孩子. Looking back at it, I don’t even know how I did all of that.
周末加班是每隔一个周末. It was the only way I could earn my masters degree, with everything else I had going on. My lifelong dream was to be an OT, and that program allowed me to do it. 我和Paula Carey谈过, 项目主管, 一开始, 她帮我实现了这个梦想. 我毕业于2008年的OT周末项目.
几年前, I heard from one of the faculty members at Utica that they were starting a doctoral program. I was interested, but the pandemic hit, and so that sort of put a hold on everything. Then one day I was on 脸谱网 and an advertisement for the doctoral program came up. So right away I got ahold of Professor Julie Bush at Utica, and she told me all about it.
I think familiarity with the institution was a big part of why I chose Utica’s program. Some of the professors I had for the Weekend program are still there. 每个人都乐于助人. 这个项目一有了，我就马上开始了. 我从没想过要去别的地方.
The program is entirely online, and you can take it at your own pace. 你可以选择走得快或慢. 我要采取更激进的方法. I’ve been taking all of the classes I could that were available each semester.
As a therapist, my drive all along has been to help people. 如果我没有账单，我就免费做了.
It turned out to be a good time for me to have the time to do it. I started out with taking a business course, that was my first elective, and an OT theory course. I’ve been averaging between two and three classes per semester. I’m just now winding down from this semester and I’m taking one class over the summer. 我的计划是在明年春天(2023年)完成。. I will be one class short of graduating at the end of the fall semester, 所以我得在春天再修一门课.
凯拉·马切斯，我们一起去尤蒂卡攻读硕士学位, 我们也在一起读博士. We’ve been taking the same classes, so she’s been helping to direct me. 她也是尤蒂卡的教员.
有时候在治疗中你会变得有点停滞不前, so this program has gotten me back to the underlying theory that makes up OT. It is helping me to refocus and get back to some of those foundations, 所以在这方面是值得的. 这是我没有预料到的. The doctoral program has brought me a lot of knowledge that benefits my patients and allows me to help my colleagues as well – I share a lot of the things I learn with them.
最终我想从事教学工作. 当我从医院退休的时候, I want my next role to be as an Occupational Therapy professor. 这个学位将帮助我实现这个目标.
这是我传递爱的一种方式. The therapists that worked with my mom paid it forward to me, 这让我成为了一名治疗师. I hope I can bring other people into the profession as well by sharing my knowledge and experience, 因为你永远不知道你会有什么样的影响力. 我都不记得我妈的心理医生叫什么了, and I’m sure the person doesn’t even know how much they influenced my life just from them doing their job. But it inspired me to be passionate about the people that I work with and the patients that I see.
我不认为这是理所当然的. 这就是为什么我的每一次互动, 在我的内心深处，我真的认为, 好吧, 你不知道你将如何影响这个人. 确保你是在帮助他们实现目标. 让它成为一种积极的互动.
每一个交互, 来自财政援助, 给图书管理员, 给教授们, 每个人都很热情，乐于助人. 我和在其他机构上学的人交谈, and they don’t seem to have those same kinds of experiences. I have not had a bad interaction with anyone that I’ve come across at Utica. 每个人都很有帮助, and seemed actually interested in helping me advance my career and my goals. 如果你选择这个程序, you can rest assured that you will have a lot of people in your corner who are going to help you be successful.
我认为它的灵活性也很有帮助. You can take it and go as quickly as you want or spread it out over years. If you wanted to take one or two courses per year, you could do that. 有人想回去攻读博士学位吗, 这是需要注意的, 因为不是所有的程序都是这样的. 其中一些, 你有一个队列, so you have more of a progression where once you start you have so long to get it done. 这个更灵活.
As a therapist, my drive all along has been to help people. 如果我没有账单，我就免费做了. 这是我喜欢做的事情.
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