2020 ISSUE 1
S T U D E N T C O N C L AV E
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After the opening session, students chose from concurrent sessions that ranged from PDPM changes
to panel discussions with recent OT and OTA graduates. After the breakout sessions, the ILOTA President,
James Hill, then introduced the keynote speaker, Dr. Glen Gillen, who completed his talk on “Choosing Wise-
ly”. As a leader within the OT community, the opportunity for students to be able to interact in a smaller set-
ting with Dr. Gillen was an experience that not many students are able to have, and one that many students
will keep with them their whole careers. With this, Dr. Gillen eloquently and approachably explained his role
in the Choosing Wisely campaign and the role that students have as future practitioners to “choose wisely” in
order to become the best practitioners for their future clients as possible. Dr. Gillen also emphasized the im-
portance that evidence-based practice plays within clinical practice and how clinicians should and could be
evidence-based practitioners. He also emphasized that evidence-based practice should be synonymous with
occupation-based practice, due to the fact that evidence strongly supports occupation as a successful inter-
vention. In a presentation that was full of statistics and evidence-based research, Dr. Gillen’s keynote ad-
dress really came down to one piece of advice for the students in the audience: when they go out and begin
practicing OT, they must “choose wisely” in order to truly become practice leaders within the profession.
Following an inspirational keynote address by Dr. Glen Gillen, students had the opportunity to net-
work over lunch, expressing their own visions of what OT means to them. After this, students had the oppor-
tunity to engage in two additional opportunities: tours of SRAlab by SRAlab occupational therapists or one-on
-one resume reviews with a current OT practitioner or administrator. In the afternoon, students continued to
explore more topics of their choice, from a wide variety of concurrent sessions including mindfulness and
anxiety management, resume writing/interviewing for employment, thriving in non traditional fieldwork, OT in
private practice, time management, the OT/OTA relationship, and an NBCOT Exam session, just to name a
few. The day concluded with final remarks and an informal opportunity for students to share feedback about
their experiences. Overall, the 2020 ILOTA Student Conclave was a very inexpensive opportunity to become
immersed, enlightened, and very excited about the opportunity to soon make the transition from students to
practitioners.
Mia’s Personal Experience
I really appreciated the conclave, as someone finishing up their third year in their program. It was
such a great way to connect with my cohort, with leaders in the profession, tour and meet staff at SRAlab,
and help ease the stress (and sometimes anxiety) as we prepare for graduation.
The opening session by Dr. Frank Czuba hit on a few things that I am experiencing during my cap-
stone and doctoral internship. I am currently in a community-based setting that offers free services for people
whose lives have been affected by cancer, which provides
a welcoming community of support, various wellness pro-
gramming, and education. I am the first OT student they
have had at this chapter and have experienced the im-
portance of advocating for our profession. With the help of
my on-site mentor connecting me with a local OT practition-
er, my faculty mentor, and her network of other OT practi-
tioners in the Midwest area, I have been given the tools to
use my voice as an emerging practitioner. Throughout our
OTD program, we have been told to “have a seat at the ta-
ble” and advocate for our profession. Dr. Czuba eloquently
shared that through his experience and research of other
leaders in our field, the public doesn’t always recognize the
value of OT practitioners as being a key player in preven-
Students from Midwestern University OT Program
tion of disease and promotion of health. I appreciated how
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