Episode Five: What advice would you give future students?
Shirley O’Brien:
I’m Shirley O’Brien and I am the coordinator of our post-professional online occupational therapy doctoral program, and I am so excited to have quite a breath of really qualified post-professional students here. What advice would you give to any future students who are looking at the program? What do they need to know and do?
Dr. Jenn Veenendall:
The OTD program here is so supportive, like we’ve already talked about, so yeah, I think just be comfortable asking questions because you’re going to get your answers and you’re going to get a lot of support both from your peers and from the staff.
Dr. Christina Bretz:
I also think my advice would be just do it. I for so many years I had that fear of this would be too much for me to handle, I can’t do everything and find that balance, and it took one day at a soccer practice where a mom, a speech pathologist, said to me “You need to do this. You’ve been talking about it and just go do it.” And so, that was the night that I applied and so I think, you know, it’s just getting over that fear and saying I can do it and I can do both and I can do them well.
Dr. Whitney Cook:
I completely agree with that because I always say don’t let the fear of the unknown keep you from pursuing your dreams because I’m a first-generation college graduate and never did I think it would be possible to attain my occupational therapy doctorate, but also just be successful and enjoy the whole process even though there were ups and downs. And also saying that this faculty is so supportive and finding balance when I started the program, my son was 18 months old and I didn’t have to have my doctorate for my job, and so I promised my son that I was not going to take any time away from him.
Dr. G. Ebony Seay:
If you do have questions, if you don’t understand, just say it because you can’t get help if you don’t say anything. And the other aspect of that is to kind of just be comfortable with yourself because you’re going to go on a journey. Now, how your journey goes is determined by you, however you will have one, and it will have some ups and downs. It may have more downs than ups, but it works out. You just have to kind of go with it and you find out a lot about yourself.
Interested in earning a post-professional OTD?
Earn your online occupational therapy doctorate degree from a regionally accredited university that has been an online education leader for more than 15 years. Our flexible, online format provides students the ability to complete coursework and assignments according to their schedule.
Complete the form to learn more about how EKU’s online OTD program can help advance your career.