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AOTA - “Be Heard-We’re Listening” Student and Recent Graduate Session- June 25, 2020

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* * * * >> Hello, everyone. Hello. >> It's great to say hello, everyone. And there is so many everyones.

That's wonderful. >> So I think we are ready to start. Wendy, I heard we are good to go. >> Yep, I'm good to go. Good to see you. >> Good to see you as well. So I want to welcome everyone this evening.

I'm going to go over a few housekeeping rules before we get started and then I'll pass this back to Wendy. So I am Dr. Varleisha Gibbs, I am the vice president of practice engagement and capacity building here at the association, and so we are really thankful that you can join us this evening for our second listening session. And we really want to make sure that this evening that we're hearing from our students, and our new graduates. We certainly open it up to all. Our priority is to hear from them and their perspective.

We had over 500 registrants for the session, which can certainly attest to the importance of this topic. We want to hear from as many as possible.

And we realize that we may not get to all of them. We will try our best. Please try to keep to one comment, question if possible. Sorry, I have some feedback. Let me cut that off. We do ask if you're hearing a question or statement that is similar to your own, unraise your hand. So how you're going to be able to get in line for a question, statement, share your story, go to the participant box on the bottom of your page on zoom.

And you are able to raise your hand and we can select you from there. Again if someone is giving a very similar comment, we ask that you unraise your hand if it's a question that is already being addressed. For those that are on YouTube live, we invite you to share your comments, questions, stories in the chat box.

And we have a moderator there, Katie who is going to send that over to Sabrina and then address it here on the zoom. You can participate just as well, and interact and engage on that platform.

So unless you are being called we ask you to mute yourselves. Once you are called upon, you can unmute your mic and turn your camera on to have a conversation, if you have that capability. And so for the listening session, it is being

recorded. So this will be shared publicly following this session. If you're a participating

AOTA member, we invite you to continue this conversation on the community platform after the event. Go to AOTA.org and look at CommunOT. If you're not a member, join there to continue the dialogue.

We can continue to look at diversity, equity and inclusion moving forward as an association and AOTA community. With those items and housekeeping out of the way, I want to acknowledge that this is a trying time for our country. First we had the COVID-19 pandemic and now dealing with death and trauma in the community. This is a time for deep feelings. I'm going to introduce the president of AOTA Wendy Hildenbrand to acknowledge the trying times that we are all dealing with. Right now.

>> Thank you, Varleisha. I always appreciate Varleisha getting this started. She helps to provide some of the frame. [No audio].

Thank you, Hazel. I caught that. Oh, that is great. I just wanted to say hello, and thank you to Varleisha for getting us started this evening, and giving us the parameters for us to move forward in this second listening session.

Before she handed it my way, she was, you know, mentioning the context in which we find ourselves right now. As a nation, and as a profession, as a society situated in the middle of some very difficult times. A lot of hurting. A lot of grieving and certainly a challenging time for making sense of what's happening around us.

Whether we're talking about a pandemic called COVID-19 or whether we are talking about the public health related issues going along with the death of George Floyd, and the systemic racism. Many of the lost that we're dealing with. Tonight, in addition to acknowledging that, I do want us just to take a brief moment of silence. This has been a hard time, and I would like for us to just pause, center ourselves.

And be clear about why we are here tonight together so. >> People are trying to get into the chat room and they cannot get in, just for

you to know. Okay. Thank you. I would like for us to come back together, so that we can

continue to move forward with our time together tonight, and the important conversations that we're having around systemic racism, around Black Lives Matter, around the community that we are all a part of here as an occupational therapy profession.

I do want to again ask if you are not on talking, if you can please mute your microphone. Life is happening behind all of us, it would help us stay focused and be able to hear kind of what's happening here. So anyway, thank you.

So name is Wendy Hildenbrand, I'm the President of AOTA and I am honored in many ways this evening. One, to be among so many students and our profession as a whole this evening. But also to be sharing this time, very specifically with student leaders, student contributors and also with Dr. Hazel Breland.

I do want to just respond to something that I already see here in the chat. And I want to be sure, Vaz or Vaz, I'm not sure of the pronunciation. Can we just say and address out loud that wrongful deaths of Black people in our country are due to systemic racism. Yes, we can say that out loud. We are dealing with circumstances that are not okay in any shape or form.

We know this on some level as a country or as a profession, that there are many of us here. And I can speak for me, that do not have the same experience that

many of you have in your day-to-day lives and in your day-to-day work, and certainly in your day-to-day position as a student in an academic program, as part of our profession.

So we don't want to dance tonight. I appreciate you putting that there and calling it. But I do want you to say -- or I do want to make sure that you hear me say, this is an opportunity for us to have frank open dialogue. And sharing your stories, your concerns and the pieces of this need, this response that we need to take on as AOTA, to do better.

Okay, so I just want to say thank you for putting that forward. I appreciate you doing so.

I do want to. If I can, I would like to just finish a couple of things and then hand this over to Hazel, because I was saying this is something where I get to learn and many in the leadership get to learn. And we're going to learn from Dr. Hazel Breland who I'm just thrilled is here as part of our evening tonight. Also, recent occupational therapy doctor graduate, Marquie Price, and student, Ronald Drummond, who serves on the Steering Committee this evening. Brendan Cook, and Naomia Rivera who is Incoming Occupational Therapy Assistant Vice Chairperson of the ASD Steering Committee, and I'm excited she is going to be part of our inclusion task force at AOTA, work that we'll be doing over the next several months. All of you students and recent grads who joined us this evening, thank you, thank you, thank you. I am so glad that you have made the time to join us tonight. We met Varleisha. Sabrina is on here AOTA vice President of Professional Development and she will be helping us tonight sending in questions that are sent in from the YouTube live. So we got a lot going on here and we're going to get to it. It's an important time in our country, though. In our profession, and in our personal lives. The death of George Floyd has sparked a necessary movement to recognize and demonstrate that Black Lives Matter in all facets of our society, our world here. So the AOTA Board of Directors is committed to greater diversity, equity and inclusion, as it relates to workforce composition, government, association practices. As it relates to you as students, diversity, equity and inclusion are woven throughout our

Values, ethics for the future. We are overdo in putting the words and principles into action. If it's

something that I am very clear about, we have got folks on this call that are all about action. And so we are certainly looking forward to the ways that we can respond with you in an active-solution focused manner forward. We know there are things we must do to ensure our association is inclusive.

Last Thursday we had the first listening session which was very well attended and had a more general audience. But we heard from our Black community, our Black professionals, students, the people of color in our community. And the stories and experiences shared were so valuable, and I took away so much that night, as did many people that were a part of that call.

So I really look forward to the opportunity for us to do the same tonight. I don't want to spend more time on that. You can go and watch that recording. It's on AOTA's website. And the time that you would have there, might give you some background, further background about the board, the task force and things along that line. We know that we're not the experts. And we know that the AOTA Board of Directors is not a diverse group of people on the surface.

We know that volunteer leadership overall is lacking representation by persons of color. So this is something that we need to address. That's why we need to hear from you. We need to hear from the experts with experience, with emotion related to social injustices and certainly to systemic racism.

A critical part of this process is going to be us knowing what to do, helping us be informed about what are the best recommendations and ways that we can move forward to support occupational therapists, occupational therapy assistants, as clinicians, educators, students, and also our patients and clients of color as well.

So on that note, I mean for me, tonight is a listening opportunity. I can't thank you enough for letting me be part of this time together. And on that note, I am going to hand this over to Dr. Hazel Breland who is going to continue to set the stage for our evening here. So just thank you so much, all of you.

>> Thank you, Wendy. Good evening, AOTA. I am Hazel Breland and I'm humbled to be with you as a co-host this evening for this essential conversation. Unfortunately, related to a very unfortunate circumstance.

The final I am in my daily I am affirmation says that I am effective. I am an effective influential, innovative and productive leader, mentor, and scholar, who honors God to promote independence, equity, justice, and well-being in the lives of others.

That is the final affirmation that I say to myself on a daily basis. So tonight I invite you to foster an atmosphere of authentic communication. Let's agree to be respectful, and to engage without assumption. I ask that we initiate trust of each other by making eye contact through the use of our videos when we speak. As we practice deep listening, let's demonstrate that we value what others say. Listen to learn. And listen to understand, rather than to seek agreement. And the final piece of my introduction, I just want to share a personal story with you.

I am currently a faculty member entering my 14th year of academia. And I am actually a faculty member at a university where I was not admitted into the occupational therapy program.

Never the less, I believed in this profession after being introduced to it from my father, having an injury and receiving therapy. So I obtained my Bachelor's in Occupational Therapy from Howard University. I practiced at National Rehab Hospital for Inpatient Rehabilitation and I went on to the University of Pittsburgh. Where I earned another Master's and Ph.D. Then I returned to South Carolina, Medical University of South Carolina. Like I said, I'm entering my 14th year of practice. So just be assured that we all have a story. So tonight I encourage you all to share your stories with authentic honesty, and for others to listen, to learn, and listen for understanding. Thank you very much, and I'm happy to be a part of this important conversation this evening.

And so now we're going to ask Ronnie Drummond to introduce himself. >> Name is Ronnie Drummond and I'm the current chair of assembly of

student delegates for the Steering Committee. For those who do not know what ASD is, our mission is to support all members of AOTA by their interests, concerns, and advancing professional contributions.

By doing that we provide a forum for development of student leadership and advocacy to work to enhance the viability of our profession. So what my goal here for tonight is, is to understand, understand exactly how we got to this point that we are in

right now as a country, and how we as a student group within AOTA, can make formable change and action. We need to get the conversation going how to use those actions with our platform, to further engage with AOTA and AOTA students and future practitioners.

And just really find of build our own program for students. This is really our first step as well. This first part is our listening session and then we want to, as ASD, have future programs to be able to really listen to what the concerns and interests are of our students and our constituents, and what we can do going forward to help make AOTA programs thrive and become stronger.

Not only that, but make our profession bigger, better and stronger as well. We have a couple of new individuals coming into ASD which you will hear tonight. They're going to be taking off this July 1st and we're very excited for that. But we really want you all to feel that this is a safe space to really be real and to call these issues what they really are, and to be open and honest so that we all can learn and grow and have ideas for action.

If there are suggestions for what you want ASD to do or anything that, you know, any sort of interest or any sort of concern that you think that we can tackle, if you don't have the opportunity to speak up tonight, we'll be looking at the chat, we'll be looking at the YouTube live chat and making sure that we're taking notes on our end. Listening, learning and trying to take that first action step.

So with that, I will pass on to our incoming OT vice chair, Brendan Cook. >> Good evening, everyone. My name is Brendan Cook and I'm a third

year student at St. Louis. I'm the incoming OT vice chairperson of the ASD Steering Committee and when we talk about the goals for tonight, my hope is to share my personal experiences to portray a real and authentic image of the mental, trauma, and fatigue that we as Black students face every day.

We as Black students are living in a world currently and in the past that cultivated and perpetuate racism in every shape and form. The systemic environmental barrier of racism not only serves as a limitation in occupations we find meaningful but can darken the horizon of mental freedom. Platforms such as this allow us as a society and profession to press reboot so we can reconstruct and redeem. If you guys don't want, I want to talk on the terms diversity and inclusion. Diversity is not inclusion.

I need everybody to say that. Diversity is not inclusion. So I was talking to my mother who I love dearly. I'm a big mama's boy. I told her about some of my experiences throughout undergrad and graduate school. And the way I described diversity and inclusion is with the analogy of a puzzle piece set. So in the puzzle piece set, let's pretend every student represents a single puzzle piece in that set. With that said -- oh, as a Black student, it feels like we don't even belong in the puzzle piece set. And worst case scenario, it feels like administration and people in general would want to change who we are to change the puzzle piece when we are destined and worthy to be in the puzzle piece set.

Ultimately we feel like we cannot be ourselves in the academic setting or even outside of the academic setting. With that all said, thank you guys again for allowing me to be on this panel tonight with these great individuals and my hope is I would love to share some of my personal experiences that I have gone through, to portray this image of mental fatigue and mental trauma.

That is real and going on right now. With that said I'll pass the mic to Naomia.

>> Hello, everyone. My name is Naomia Rivera and I'm a student at Tumu Medical Institute in Arizona. I am extremely grateful to be with you here tonight to have this very long overdue conversation.

I'm changing careers coming into occupational therapy. I'm a 12 year air force veteran and I have spent the last 20 years of my life working in a primarily white male dominated career field of biomedical engineering.

So I am not a stranger to being on an island by myself. Every day of my professional career. What I hope that we get out of this session today is that this is a space not only where you can share your experiences, but also where you come to recognize that you are not alone. Because in many situations, most of us, we are the one and only Black student in our classes. We are the one and only -- or maybe there is two or three. But in either case, we are definitely the minority.

So I want you to recognize that you are not alone. You are not experiencing these things by yourself. And I have definitely gone through most of them with you. For me, the primary thing that I wanted to bring while we're in this forum, is the duality that we as Black students operate under every day when we walk into our classroom.

We are two people. I tell everyone, I am Naomia at school, in my professional life and at time, I am Nay.

There are some similarities between those two people but in a lot of cases, there are very different behaviors and actions that have to take place, depending on the context of my environment. So I just ask everyone to please open your heart and open your mind to receiving these conversations. Reflect within yourself. And then also as students, we have the power to affect change within our programs. Although our instructors, our administration, they might be stuck in a time that is far flung from where we currently are. As students, through our student OT association, through our SOTAs, we can organize together.

And normal hi what happens is the few people that are stuck lagging behind because they want to hold on to something that is no longer relevant, they eventually come kicking and screaming and that's what our role as students falls, and I hope that you all recognize the power that you have.

So with that being the case, I would like to introduce Marquie Price who is our recent graduate.

>> Thank you, Naomia. Hello, everybody. I just wanted to first off say thank you for the opportunity to be here and share. I am humbled to be able to say something today. And I'm hoping that I can be brief. I talk a lot. So I'll be real quick because I really want to hear what you all have to say in the audience.

So I just graduated this May 20th, 2020 with my doctorate in occupational therapy from mid Western University so I'm currently studying for my board exam. I am taking it July 14th. I said that in front of a lot of people. I hope I pass it. Really and truly I feel very thankful to have just graduated and then be able to receive an e-mail from the president of AOTA with one of my professors. I am very humbled to be here. Thank you, Wendy for having this and thank you to the board members for having this and thank you to the participants for being here.

So the way that I decided to kind of share my story of being a Black OT

student, and a new Black occupational therapist, I broke it up into three different parts. OT school interview, OT school itself and right now after OT school. So the first time I realized like, okay, I am going into a profession where I need to try to filter myself as a Black woman, was in my OT school interview process.

I don't know if you all see me using my hands a lot, but getting my nails done is a huge part of my identity. I love like the gold flakes and I have a butterfly on this one. I also have purple braids right now. I have purple hair.

So during my OT school interview process, I very intentionally took my acrylic nails off, made them short and made sure that my hair was done in a way that is more widely socially acceptable.

And I remember specifically thinking, I need to make sure my outfit is also not too flashy or whatever negative adjective you want to attach to it, that are attached to -- those stereotypes attached to Black women. Especially Brown skinned women. That was the first time I thought I have to assimilate until I feel like I'm comfortable or more so that others are comfortable with your presence in this space. So moving on to being admitted to OT school thankfully, in school, at my school I was the only Black student in my cohort that started with 50 students.

And so that was the elephant in the room multiple times. I think that you know if something came up and one of my classmates made a statement about Colin Kaepernick, there is 49 heads turning my way. Is Marquie going to say something about this, make a comment? Things like that come up typically.

If there is another Black person in the room, if you make eye contact and roll your eyes and say that's ridiculous, that's enough. I'm the only one. Even though I had compassionate loving friends, Black friends, LGBTQIA+, it never could happen. It's not, I'm not saying that to explain. That is an objective statement. That is what it is.

That's what I experienced. I was in field work one time on my eight week out of my 12 week level 2 rotation, and I had been treating a child, and their parents saw me for the first time on my eighth week that I have been treating their child for eight weeks. After they saw me, they e-mailed my CI and said, oh, I have been meaning to tell you, Marquie makes my child feel uncomfortable. I don't want her to treat him anymore. I want you to treat him.

I couldn't say anything about that. I don't think it's the truth. But it could be the truth. I find it challenging when you can't call that out and vent it to someone who might truly and genuinely might understand, oh, come on, they really forgot to tell her after eight weeks. So to progress to now after OT school, as a new Black OT grad, I am trying to focus to study for my board exam, the most important test so far. My dad made me feel a little better about it.

He called it just a big final over everything that I have ever learned. That felt more attainable to me so I thought I would share that with you. Preparing for my last final ever and in the midst of my and my loved ones and the Black community's well-being, being a hot topic on social media and the news, it's very distracting, disheartening, frustrating, infuriating to think to myself, like I can't even focus to study like some of my peers can.

Because some days I wake up, today would have been Tamir Rice's 18th birthday. That put such a somber mood on my entire day. Some people don't even think about that. I'm about to wrap up quick and open the floor to everyone. I don't

want to end on a note of being a Black OT student was a negative experience. Being a Black occupational OT therapist is a negative experience. I recently

wrote a poem and one of the lines that I wrote in it was that we as Black people don't find joy in darkness. We are joy in darkness. So we know being Black is a blessing. I love being a Black woman. Being a Black OT student was an amazing experience. Being a Black new occupational therapist is an amazing experience. I want to share three quick positive things that happened to me surrounding my Blackness while I was in OT school as well. During my OT school interview, this is not the school that I ended up attending, but the first interview I ever had for occupational school, I was interviewed by Dr. Shirley Blanchard. The first Black occupational therapist I ever saw in my life.

Thank you to my school. Shout out. Things that they have said that stuck with me still. I think about them when I'm in my clinical rotations and capstone. I think of Dr. Blanchard just as much as my interview. In OT school, I shared a negative experience about field work. But one of my field work patients was an older adult. He was a Black man. He told me one day that he needed me there because he felt like he was going to lose it with all these white women telling him what to do.

To be there in the hospital as a Black woman, he said we need more like you. Is what he said. He wasn't my patient. I was just observing and shadowing that day. And for OT school, to be here and speak to you all. I saw this quote on Instagram yesterday and I have been thinking about it ever since.

It said even the phrase inviting Black people to the table, still shows ownership of the table, and ownership of who gets to come or not. So this is not like an invitation to come here.

Right now we are working to dismantle systemic racism that we see in our profession and in our communities. So right now I just invite you all to share your thoughts of experiences, suggestions or anything that you would like to share to resist and to dismantle the systemic racism that you see as someone who is aspiring tore an occupational therapy practitioner and as one who is aspiring to be a positive member in the community.

So with that being said, I would like to open the floor up to anyone to raise their hand with any comments.

>> Okay. Thank you, Marquie. I appreciate that. I'm going to ask for those who want to raise your hand to share a story in the participant box, I will call your name in the order of receiving it. As expressed, please feel comfortable with sharing your story. As much as I want to share mine this evening, this evening is for us to hear from you. We all have our own. I told Marquie and the other students that I have been there myself certainly.

We want to listen to the audience. We're going to start with Brielle Mayes. Go ahead and unmute yourself.

>> Thank you. Hello everyone, my name is Brielle. Thank you to AOTA for providing this platform. I do have a story to share like many others do tonight. My story begins with me being a proud Jersey girl, I'm from New Jersey. And I had -- I didn't really know what OT was until college basically.

But that's an entirely different story. Right. So when I had decided to apply to OT school, I had decided that okay, I was going to go above and beyond because my mother -- my parents always told me that I would have to work twice as hard. That

being said, let's say for example the school is asking for 50 hours. I ended up doing 150. I observed five different settings. I had a 3.5 GPA. Graduated cum laude, was involved in many services in my time in undergrad and I had good recommendations and everything.

And so I applied for -- New Jersey only has three OT programs so I applied for all of them. My top program that I wanted to go to was literally around the corner from my house. I could walk to class and it would be great. Right. I was like of course I wanted to go there. I really thought that they liked me because I had been welcomed to the first rounds of interviews. I believe it was like early December.

And so I met my interviewer who was with the chairperson. And I'm thinking it went well. I didn't hear from her. Turns out, I got rejected. And I wanted to know why because I'm kind of somewhat like a perfectionist. I was like what can I do better, you know. In case I don't get in the cycle, what can I do better?

So I called the department. And they were basically -- she basically -- I don't know if it was the secretary or someone, someone basically said, well we basically try to make -- we want the right fit. We're trying to look for people who will fit in with our faculty and our students. And mind you, this is my hometown. I'm from that town in New Jersey. That town is a melting pot. I mean, I grew up with literally my neighbors of all colors.

How could I not fit in? I didn't understand what that meant. And so for me, I was very disheartened and frustrated. But something in me knew not to be discouraged so I had -- in undergrad I always dreamed of going to HVCU. I went to predominant very, very racist private school in New Jersey. I won't name the name.

I wanted something different. I applied to Howard University. I don't want to get emotional right now. I see my Howard family is on. Hey ya'll. Basically Howard was the only people that took a chance on me. Like when I went in for my interview, I felt like me. I didn't feel like -- someone before said they had to kind of take off who they were. I did not feel that way when I went on the interview, as I had previously. I felt like I can really be myself and also being from New Jersey, when I did my observation hours, I had never seen anyone, any OT that was Black.

Literally it was like a unicorn. I'm on my interview with these wonderful women. And I'm like oh, my gosh, it's Black excellence. I do have some white professors. They are amazing as well and treat me so well. We are treated well at Howard. We are taught cultural competence. Taught to see the patient for who they are and what they love to do.

That is OT. And at Howard I felt like I can always be myself and I really am very proud to be a part of the program. But yes, I was very frustrated. I know many other people from New Jersey. Half of my classmates have the same story that I do.

I even have a classmate from New Jersey. His story is very similar but I would just like to say I know that I also do kind of want to go back to the whole diversity inclusion thing.

My mom and I went to the open house for that university. They had said, oh, we're so proud. We're so diverse. We have students from everywhere. And I asked where are they from? Oh, Kentucky, Illinois, I don't know, like Colorado. How is -- how? How is that diverse? I don't really understand.

But at Howard, I have classmates literally from everywhere even international.

To come from something -- a place that is so -- we're celebrated to be who we really are, and to have that representation to be nurtured under a faculty that looks like you. And even as mentioned before, when you go on to field work as level 1 student, it's chocolate city.

The patients would say to me, I feel very comfortable with you. Please continue and go out to DC. You matter. Hearing that, that meant a lot for me. Thank you again for this platform. I don't want to keep talking. I talk a lot. I want to shout out to my HU family. I love you guys. Thank you so much to AOTA for this opportunity.

>> Thank you, Brielle. We appreciate that. Thank you for being so open. So now I'm going to invite Judith Adams. If you're still wanting to speak, go ahead and unmute yourself.

>> Sure. Good evening, everyone, and thank you to AOTA for bringing the forum to us. Tonight I am happy to say that I am an occupational therapist in the Howard University inaugural doctoral program run by Dr. Alicia Banks. I'm also 20-year occupational therapy practitioner.

Tonight I bring to you recommendations. I share the sentiments of so many of my fellow occupational therapists and students. We at Howard recognize, and are grateful for this opportunity. Tonight I would like to share with you some recommendations that we think would be helpful for the American Occupational Therapy Association to understand diversity.

I think as Brielle just mentioned, inclusion of persons from different backgrounds. I am personally from Guyana. I have Latin American and Caribbean influence. You will find people from Africa, other countries and America. I think the department does a great job at integrating so many different people.

So once those people come together, you have a plethora of cultures and in the cultures, you have diversity. I think that AOTA can also utilize the services of Howard University because we're actually neighbors.

I think there could be so many rich opportunities and ideas if you reach out to us, and I know that we are more than willing to collaborate with you. As we proceed with our doctoral program, we are beginning to understand more and more what benefits to the society that occupational therapy could contribute. Especially in light of the current climate where most of the people who are feeling the impact of social injustice, I think you can utilize it. We understand. We have been there. We live it every single day.

So I invite American Occupational Therapy Association to collaborate with Howard University. Accept our students when we come to you to volunteer. I would recommend that you open up your volunteering services and listen to us. I think something that's going to be important, I think we are very aware of when people are saying things and mean things. When people are saying things, we feel discouraged and you can have more of these mediums and you may find that we may not engage as much. So what we're looking for is when you have these mediums.

We can see genuine follow-ups. If you pick up a phone, we will get an answer. If you ask how can we get involved in the diversity group that you have in Howard University, like when we call, can have someone return a call to us, instead of not understanding who is in contact, how its been operated.

So it's about opening up your resources and following up with us. And I think as you can hear from everyone tonight, we are willing. We want to be one. We want to be part of you. And I just wanted to touch on one thing that is being echoed tonight.

Diversity and inclusion. I notice in the 2020 vision, a pillar was added. The four corner stones. It means we're going to put you there. When I hear about a fifth pillar, it really does not support a structure, but it's just added there. So I think another good idea would be to incorporate us into the four corner stones.

Rather than building something that is solid. Because if that is neglected, then we all get separated again. So once again, I would like to say thank you. And please reach out to us and utilize us because we are here and we're willing. We can spread the word to all parts of the world where we are coming from.

>> Judith, thank you. We appreciate that. All righty so we are going to move on to one more story and then I'm going to -- or whatever comments you have. This is for Alexis that has her hand up and then Sabrina is going to pop in with another question from our YouTube viewers. So Alexis, if you want to go ahead and unmute yourself.

>> Hi everyone. My name is Alexis Raybond. I consider myself a recent graduate, and I will say I attended Washington University in St. Louis. And so as a student, I wanted to speak on this particular meeting, because as a student, my experience as a Black student who went to a predominantly white institution was very real and very much stuck in my mind.

And I feel like while you're in OT school, very much at that point is when you learn to identify your identity as an occupational therapist more so, because you're gaining knowledge and things of that sort. I have personal issues with how the occupational therapy education is in our country. I agree that diversity is not just the different states that you come from, or maybe we have folks from urban areas and rural areas. Diversity is diversity and experience, and looks. And cultural identity.

I hear the term cultural competence a lot. How do you become culturally competent in a culture? I'm not cultural competent in my own Black culture because there are Black folks from Chicago up north and there are Black folks from the South.

That's a different identity to a certain extent so I want OT programs to really practice what they preach. Give students an opportunity to have those diverse experiences. Speak about them in OT language. There are occupational injustices going on all the time. Breonna Taylor could not sleep. That's an occupation. Ahmaud Arbery could not run and job. That's an occupation. So I do not want us to make students of color to feel timid enough to go after those things that are occupational injustices and to bring awareness to other students that may not have had prior experiences before with students of color, to understand how that all connects to occupations.

Because we are occupational therapists or wanting to become occupational therapists that will serve the needs of many. And another issue that I have is the silence when it comes to these type of occupational injustices in the program. Why are not -- why is there not an opportunity to formally share about these experiences as students that may have had a racist experience at their particular school program?

People need to start writing about it, studying about it, and figuring out ways to address it. Also issues with interviewing. Are there enough questions about how

you will handle different people that look differently than you? Because that's very important. I know Marquie mentioned her nails and her hair. My hair is curly and not naturally straight. I did go on an interview in OT school where I did happen to straighten my hair. But I shouldn't have had to feel like that when I was entering this profession.

So I just really want to push the OT programs to really look at themselves, and to not -- encourage students not to be like themselves, as they are developing their identity, as professionals. I know my program spoke a lot about professionalism and communication. Professionalism is not a look. It's how you show up.

It's now you act when you are there. Are you able to meet the needs of those that are there? And the OT programs are not able to meet the needs. And I can honestly say out of my class of 90 plus students, I was one of three Black people and if I had not had my Black classmates there to look at when we would hear interesting conversations that would go on in class, that happened to be race based, I wouldn't have made it. I wouldn't have made it.

It would hurt my heart sometimes when I would go into school when I had a final exam or big project that was due, and there was nobody there that could understand why I was sad that day about things that were happening with Black Americans here in this country. So I really want to push the programs to really identify their identities. Are they actually meeting the needs of students? Are they actually connecting them with people that look like them? Representation is important while they are there if they don't necessarily have the faculty and the staff there. There needs to be formalized ways in which students can reach out to those who are advocates that look like themselves and the profession so that when they go out into the profession, it's not a unicorn to meet a fellow occupational therapist that looks like them. I'm sorry if I took up too much time.

That's the main thing that I wanted to talk about. >> I just wanted to say you did not take up too much time. It was worth it.

Hazel, did you want to respond to that? >> No, I simply want to say to Alexis, thank you for your honesty. Thank

you for sharing your truth. And as was said earlier, I hope we all realize that an experience is not -- it's someone's reality. Whether you know it to be your reality or not. And we are here to listen. And we said that we wanted you to share your stories so that you can be heard.

And so Alexis, know that we heard you. And each of the students who have spoken before, as well as my colleague Judith Adams, we heard each of you. Brielle, we heard you. Thank you for your honesty.

>> And if I could add. I just want to make sure that you don't interpret my silence as silence. I want to make sure that you know that I am listening and taking in every bit of what you're saying and it is a burden on me to take this on, and know that our academic programs need called out and you're doing it.

That AOTA needs to wake up and you're bringing that to our attention. I appreciate that. I recognize we have got a wonderful space here where it is a supported hard conversation. So I just want to just thank you for trusting this space and each person on here with your story, and with all the emotion and all the reality that's coming with it. I just want to say thank you.

>> Thank you, Wendy. And it is -- I got a message from a colleague that it's very emotional hearing from our students because we have been in those positions before. Thank you for being open to all of you. That's the purpose of this platform. So I am going to invite Sabrina to share questions or comments from the other end.

>> Hi, everyone. So this is not necessarily a question per se from YouTube. This is an individual who e-mailed staff earlier on today. But is very relevant to the discussion that we're having here this evening. The student wants to know and here is some of the context in the question that she asked.

So with respect to what is going on, she said that she and some of her peers tried to engage her OT Department, OT or OTA Department about their concerns and that it was not well received by some of the faculty, and they were actually met with some defensiveness.

So the question that he or she asked is what role do the students have in developing actionable change? And what role does the faculty and department have in developing actionable change?

>> So I'll go back to my earlier comment in my introduction talking about SOTAs, organizations. We, as representatives on the ASD, we hear you. We hear you. We're experiencing it with you. And July 1st, which is when I take office and Brendan takes office, but with the help of everyone on the Steering Committee and partners on the board of AOTA, we are admitted to hard charging this issue and bringing about some actual action items.

Like Alexis said, there is always a lot of talking about diversity and inclusion, and people do things that are not necessarily actionable. They put them down on paper just so they can refer to them to say that we did them. And that is not the stance that we as the current ASD Steering Committee have.

And it's not the stance that the current AOTA leadership has. But as a student, your student occupational therapy associations, you have power. There is power in your voices. There are more students than there are faculty. There is power in numbers. You have to come together on the same page and do those analysis of the environment. Be frank, this is not good. Call out your classmates. You have to call people out regardless of what color you are.

There are people of all races on this call and if you're wrong, you're wrong. You're right or wrong. There is no gray area when it comes to this topic. You need to call out your classmates. Silence does not help but organizing as students, our voices are huge. We are the future of the future. All 342 of you on the call. We are what the world is going to think when they hear the term occupational therapy future.

We start that now. You don't need permission to organize. Don't need permission to enact change. Part of being an OT practitioner is practicing empathy and recognizing the lived experiences of others. And we all recognize that regardless of what color we are, whether we're the same ethnicity or not, we don't understand each other's lived experiences. But what we can do is open our hearts and minds and be empathetic and speak out when something is clearly not right. That's what you can do. There are channels within your institution, that if you have diversity, equity and inclusion section within your institution, reach out to them.

Have them come in and do a presentation to your SOTA so that you understand what actions you can take within your organization to enact change.

Reach out to us in the Steering Committee so we can support you. We don't know those things are happening unless you tell us. Not that we're living in a bubble but we are all students and new grads and trying to navigate this new life as OT practitioners. But I'm also trying to navigate life as a Black woman. And I'm trying to navigate life as a mother of a Black daughter who also wants to be an OT practitioner. So I am heavily invested in bringing about some change. We have to organize. If you take nothing away from this meeting, it is to speak up and to organize as students.

>> Sabrina, I would also like to add to that. As a profession, we do a great job of bringing students to the opening ceremony at the AOTA conference. At the time of the business meeting, it's an empty hall. If we're talking about orienting students to the profession, it's business meeting of what will happen. It gets us pumped and excited. But we need to be excited about the business that we just talked about to show up and be present at the Annual Business Meeting and put forth items that are actionable that the board can hear from the membership to make changes for the organization.

>> Thank you, Hazel for that. Since we're talking about student organizations. There was a question in the chat with regard to how to get involved with ASD. And I'm going to address that to Ronnie and then back to Sabrina.

>> So I did reply to that particular person but essentially two ways to get involved through ASD. One is through your school SOTA. Depending on each program, elections are either in the Fall or the Spring. That's up to the SOTA. But the way to get involved in the Steering Committee is September or October is usually the call for applications are put out. And that is where the available positions will be noted. And kind of your opportunity to read and see what you have interest in and what you want to pursue.

And then from there, elections are typically done the second or third week of January for a couple of weeks. And if anybody has any further questions about that, I can put my e-mail in the chat here.

>> Okay. Thank you, Ronnie. Sabrina, you're back on. So Marquie sent me a couple of questions in the chat. How can we increase chances for minority students to find out about the field of occupational therapy and increase the odds for getting accepted into the programs?

>> I think -- can I say something about that one specifically? So I pulled this question from the chat because it made me think about a time

when I was in undergrad. And I worked at a school on the west side of Chicago in an underresourced community. And it was predominantly, if not solely populate by Black students. So it was pre-K to eighth grade. It was a grammar school in the city. The school did not have a library. I had never -- I was 20 years old. I will never forget that. I have never experienced a school without a library. There was a public library and sometimes they would do field trips to the Chicago Public Library but the school itself, there was no library of books for 3-year-old students up to 13 or 14-year-old students to just go pick a book to read during school or after school.

And thinking about it now as an occupational therapist, I'm seeing me being the only Black OT student is not where the issue starts. Similar to what someone was saying before was Breonna Taylor was participating in occupation when he was murdered. Students not having a library is occupational deprivation. I don't see how

there isn't more action from us. One of the things that I want to try to do as an occupational therapist is to

have an initiative as simple as organizing a book drive somewhere or trying to look at -- so we look at communities as patients sometimes. So the if I'm looking at a Black community, as an OT I can branch outside of the box of whatever I'm supposed to practice as or whatever I'm supposed to do, and try to reach out and organize.

In order to address community issues like that. I think the challenge is so where do you even start? So if there is -- should there be -- I don't know, something from ACO that requires some type of participation in communities who are under served. So in the necessarily Black communities but could include Black communities or some type of initiative from AOTA where you all compile a list of locations around the country that can be used as level 1 field sites but double as community service.

So something like that, I feel as occupational therapists, where we could come into play because educational disparities start way before whether or not I as a Black student had a scholarship to go to OT or OTA school.

>> Can I just address the issue? There is a question there that speaks specifically to ACO so I just want to provide some clarity for everyone that son the -- on the call. I think from last week's call and today's call, everyone tends to focus on educational standards. And ACO telling programs what to do. This goes beyond education, too. If you're thinking about the practice world, how many managers, supervisors do you see who are people of color when you go to the hospital, private practices, community centers? So let's think a little broader, too. With respects to ACO, they are governed by ASDE and their primary purpose is to look at quality elementary level program. For them that come up with a standard that -- how was it -- I want to make sure I use the right terminology. To demand support and develop and pipeline the programs, it doesn't do that.

It doesn't directly deal with education of occupational therapy education, but what they can do, there is a standard that deals with socio cultural diversity, but it doesn't specifically talk about race, racism and that type of thing.

The new set of standards are being fully implemented or have to be fully implemented by July 1st of this year. They go through five year cycles. What you guys can do at that point, most of you guys will be practitioners, you can then appeal to ACO because they're going to convene a committee. The educational standards committee that reviews the standards and going to convene the committee. At that point you can make some recommendations about what needs to be in the curricula. So if you feel that, you know, sorry I think it's Alexis, you talked about occupational justice also deals with their specific things that relate to race, why not include that in the curricula, you can petition them to potentially put that into the curricula. Stuff like mandating pipeline, can't do that.

There are 550 programs all over the United States. It's vastly different and based on the vision and mission of the institution, as well as the curriculum they have come up with. So that, you would set programs up for failure by doing something like that.

>> Can I add just a brief comment on that as well? Because I mean, I'm glad you provided that clarification as far as ACO is concerned, but one of the things that I'm hopeful will be a result of the diversity inclusion task force, as well as conversations

that we will be having, listening sessions like this, in July, with academic, you know, with admissions who want to come together in the same way.

You know, I mean academia has -- I mean, they haven't had these hard conversations. They're not looking at these issues in a strong, hard way. I mean I say that as a person who teaches at a university. I know the conversations that are happening and not happening at my own institution. And there are many things that are not satisfactory by me, you know, by my standards. That's hard. And it's requiring hard conversations about systemic racism. It's requiring hard conversations about what is going on in our society. And it is requiring hard conversations about why are people afraid to reach out to their students and say, how can we be here for you.

And help us know how to best support, learn, all of those things. We're trying to do that. So that part, I mean just like the profession as a whole, has had better and worse times I think, where we have been willing to engage in conversations and able to engage in conversations.

We have struggled. I think this is a time when these conversations are happening. These conversations have to continue to happen and the actions need to be to follow through of the conversations. Christina Reyes Smith is very involved and an incoming board member who is going to be starting her time with the AOTA board on July 1.

I have known Christina for quite some time and I'm excited she is an addition to our board. I mention that because she was a part of a group that brought forward -- hazel had mentioned some of the business of AOTA and where some of the things might happen. The representative assembly is the voice opportunity there. You guys, you know, connecting with the representative from your state, there is an ASD representative to the RA if I have my governance structure, is that right, Ronnie? They're a voice within the representative assembly and the assembly work that was taking place very recently, there was a comprehensive motion brought forward.

About academic programs needing to look at and address issues of diversity, equity and inclusion in programs. And how can we as an association do a better job of doing that. That work is going to be going to the task force.

And there is work that's going to happen, so please do not -- please don't be discouraged by that. We know we have got to put action in place for there to be trust in those outcomes but I want you to hear that we continue to work with that.

>> Okay. So we have -- last week we had a very wonderful conversation and so one of the individual students who was on that call is here. I ask you to briefly share again, Diarra Webb.

>> Hi everybody. I'm Diarra. I'm currently a first-year student at DMU and spoke about my application process last week. But like a lot of the Black women on this call, it has been a difficult journey for me as on OT. I applied to a lot of different PWIs. Famu gave me a chance.

To piggy back what Brielle said earlier, I went above and beyond. I did not only apply to the PWI, but I e-mailed program directors to sit in on classes. And I made it a habit to kind of made sure I showed myself and was present and again I was still denied access into these universities which can be very disheartening. And I think Alexis also brought up a good point.

In understanding her experience as a PWI, at a fundamental level there is a

lot of responsibility that needs to be placed on educators. If you're going to be participating in this field, again you have to practice what you preach. This is a field about advocacy, diversity and inclusivity and you need to mold that into the workings of what you're doing for the students and need to be a voice for your students of color. It's really disheartening to see that so many Black people feel like they cannot be themselves authentically.

You know, so yes, I just encourage a lot of educators, we're talking about these actionable steps. You know, accountability is everything.

You know, sometimes you have to relearn and rework and figure out ways to be antiracist and perpetuate that into your practices. That's the only way we can progress forward as a field. It's extremely important that you practice what you appreciate because we're always talking about diversity and advocacy and inclusivity.

If you don't fundamentally understand what the words mean, your actions are not necessary. You have to dig deep and do the work. As students, again, you want to make sure you're producing culturally competent and justice seeking occupational therapists. You don't want to continue to perpetuate the same stereotypes so yeah it's important for educators to put in the work. And I am happy that Dr. Salvant is that your name?

>> Yes. >> You brought up a really amazing point about how we as students and

practitioners can take that power and make sure that we are challenging these educational standards and talking to the people. So not only should we be having a conversation on the individual level, could be talking to the higher ups, too, to mold the field into something that is equitable.

>> Well, I don't have much to say after that. But one thing, can you please say your name for me again. For someone that is named Varleisha, I want to make sure I am saying the name correctly.

>> I appreciate it. It's Diarra with a D, like Tiara with a D. >> Thanks, Diarra. Hiba, I'm going to let you go ahead and speak if you

can unmute. >> Thank you. Just to echo what my colleagues said. I'm Hiba and I was

one of two Black students at my school. I recently graduated from MGH institute of Health Professions in Boston. So being one of two Black students, much like all of you have said, it was a difficult experience.

I'm envious of those who said they felt like they had a family. I struggled a lot the last few years being in a city like Boston. If you're familiar with Boston, it's a tough city to navigate as a colored person. It may not seem that way on the surface.

That along with being in a program where being a minority is tough. Classes make micro aggressions and that affirmative action is reverse racism. I have heard these things.

It's not okay. In a profession where we are to be focused on patient care -- I don't know what other way to say it, but weed out these types of individuals during the interview process. I feel like it needs to be a more direct conversation. How will you deal with X type of person?

How will you deal with people who don't look like you? How do you deal with people who don't agree with your political views because that's something that we often

have to deal with as colored people. When I walk into a room and I might see a patient who is wearing a MAGA

hat, how do you think that makes me feel as a Black person? Those are things that we have to deal with and I think that those conversations need to go on the other end, right at the beginning. That's one suggestion I do have going forward.

I think that needs to be really more enforced with academic programs. I was really fortunate to have a faculty that was very open, although they were predominantly white although they made a very conversation effort to be as inclusive as they could be, and I'm appreciative of that, but there's still work that needs to be done. I was also fortunate enough to be part of a pipeline program through Thomas Jefferson University. It was called the Thomas Jefferson step up program.

And shout out to Janel, she was in there. And it was eight women of color, not just Black. But that's the reason I went to graduate school. I did not get in the first time. First-generation American. My parents are from Sudan. English is not their first language. That is not something that I just knew how to do. That is an experience for a lot of people of color.

It's really important to give us resources. It's not about equity, but equality. I don't know why many institutions are not using it in this way. They're not in the same playing field as their colleagues.

Programs need to be doing more out reach like this and I encourage AOTA to look into these programs and start these conversations at your own school. Why are these types of programs not already existing in more institutions? Those are just my two suggestions going forward about how to increase diversity inclusion in schools rather than just talking about it.

Like the talking needs to be done. There needs to be more action so these are just two ways that I think we can do it.

>> Okay. And I do want to add, as we're talking, Marquie is taking notes,

so some of the actionable steps we hope to capture. Go ahead, Brendan. >> I'm so sorry. I wanted to address the psycho social piece of what is

going on today. Just like what she was talking about, you know, Black students really face some mental trauma and fatigue in the classroom. So for example, just to provide a more I guess personal perspective of me. You know, as much as I don't want to admit it and as much as I want to say it's my motive, I suffer from anxiety in the classroom.

You know, being at a PWI, I think somebody said this earlier, you as a Black student feel like you need to do ten times, 50 times, 100 times more than your colleagues and peers.

It's crazy we're living in a world where you're not only educating the oppressors but you're getting oppressed at the same time. So coming into class and dealing with this anxiety, depression and the survival modes that many Black students face.

Could you guys imagine taking a test with all this stuff going into your mind? Some of my classmates are on here and some of my classmates know that when I am taking a test, I'm tapping my foot like this the whole time.

It's my thought and my mind. I got to do this ten times more. If I don't do it 100 times better, I'm not going to be I guess -- I'm not going to get the recognition that I

need. I just really kind of want to address that and it's really hard. Realize that you cannot separate the environment --

>> Sorry, Brendan. Please mute your microphone if you're not speaking. >> Sorry. To wrap it up. For institutions to realize that you cannot

separate the external environments from the student experience. >> I just want to add-on to that. I know being the only Black student and I

don't know about other Black students, too, but you feel like you carry the future of every Black student that comes behind you when you're sitting in that classroom. You feel like if you don't perform well to set the stage that we are capable of being in the space and performing well, that that might limit the opportunity for someone coming behind you.

And that is a lot of pressure. I want everyone on here to think about how it would feel if you carried the weight of every single person that looks like you in a room every single day. So when I'm sitting in a room, I'm not just Naomia Rivera but I'm Naomia Rivera and every other Black woman that decides to be an OT practitioner.

That's how deep this is. To Brendan's point, this is how emotionally and mentally draining that it is. And that's the foundation that we start with. And then academics is built on top of all of this.

>> So there was a recent article published back in 2019 that is entitled "Racial Trauma, Theory, Research and Healing" and it was an introduction to a special issue that was published in -- I'm trying to find the journal really quickly for you. I'm going to put it in chat box.

Brendan has mentioned several times about the stress and anxiety that comes along with it. Race-based stress referred to the actions of an event. Whether this you are experiencing racism, discrimination or micro aggressions.

As we were talking earlier, a lot of the comments about the academic programs, as you students who have a passion for occupational justice, if you're in an OTD program, you have the opportunity to show your interest and express to your faculty member that you have the desire to use your doctoral capstone as a way to address some of the concerns that you have.

Whether it is for individuals who are facing -- who are disabled and during times of natural disasters where states are putting them or saying that they must go to an illegal shelter because none of the shelters are accessible.

I had a recent conversation with our colleague on the line. Sandy Hannonbrook regarding some of the issues happening for people with disabilities. So I think we all just want to take the opportunities that are at hand. Your doctoral Capstone is one of the actionable steps you can take as a student in order to make a change. Capstones are intended to be a win-win for the students. And a site around the need in the area and it's important and aligns with the mission.

I encourage you to use that as well for students who are in doctoral programs. And I think we're at our time. And I see Varleisha just popped back on the line. One of the things that I would say in my closing remarks, Dr. Martin Luther King junior said whatever affects one directly affects us all indirectly.

I think it's real. The conversation that we're having here this evening. I ask you to think about what was just said. If you had to take on the burden and the weight

of everyone that looked like you every single day, if you have to educate those who you feel as if we're oppressing you.

So I ask us all to think about our therapeutic use of self. Let us not just talk the language of occupational therapy but let's give it in everything that we do. And I thank you again for the opportunity to participate in this event this evening. Varleisha, I'm going to turn it back over to you.

>> Thank you, Hazel, we appreciate that. I realize there are a lot of questions and people that wanted to participate. I do want to -- before we close out. I know that we had some people on YouTube, I don't know Sabrina if you have a brief question that we could address. Before we leave, I will give everyone an e-mail address. We will be compiling some of the questions, comments and stories. Sabrina and I will be working on that for additional conversation on that after. Sabrina, I don't know if there is any key points that you want to pull from the chat.

>> I don't want to short change some of the questions and comments that came from YouTube especially some of them dealing with the intersectionality of race and other issues, so disabilities for example.

Because I think we can have a whole discussion, you know, just about the health disparities that exist for individuals who are individuals of color and also have to also deal with disabilities.

But as Varleisha already said, we are going to figure out a way to either one, figure out a way to continue these conversations, number two, collect all of the questions collected in Zoom chat as well as YouTube live and have that in some kind of format. For you guys to utilize yourself or guide us at AOTA.

So thank you very much for participating. It was very enriching and enlightening.

>> Thank you. So we will be reaching out. So I do want to share that we are going to do more, and as Ronnie had mentioned in the beginning for ASD, the Assembly of Student Delegates, they do plan to have additional conversation in different format. This is also help to continue that for our students and new graduates. This would be the first step. We're not just going to end here and I apologize for all of the hands I see raised. I wish I could have gotten to you all.

For more details on upcoming webinars and listening sessions, we will be posting and sending out e-mails. The next one we have scheduled focusing on practitioners is July the 16th and then the week to follow on July the 23rd will be for educators in academia.

So I will give you my e-mail. I don't know if someone in the background wants to put an e-mail address in the chat box for people to reach out. I do believe Ronnie shared his e-mail address as well for ASD and I'm Varleisha Gibbs so you can find me on the website as well. VGibbs@AOTA.org. We want to continue the conversation. We hate to cut it off. Thank you to all who shared their stories. As a staff member of AOTA, it's an objective within our unit. This is something that is a team effort that we hope that you see that all of us are really wanting to address. They may not be on camera but we do have staff members that are watching right now and taking part as well as our board members, as well as our executive director. We want to thank them as well. With that, we are going to close out and hope that you can join us at our next event and again reach out to us and have a good night.

>> Thank you, everyone. >> Excellent job, Wendy.