Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Tina's Introduction











Hi! My name is Tina, I’m from a small town just north of Rochester, MN. Not to worry though, I’m a big ‘ol Packers fan. To sum it up I’m a country girl at heart, but I’m thrilled to be moving to the big city.

And yes, that is me scuba diving :) One of my favorite things in the world to do. If you ever get the opportunity to learn take it!

This is my first year at UWM, my sophomore year of college, and I’ll be living in Sandburg North. I transferred from UW-Eau Claire to UW-Milwaukee to pursue occupational therapy. Since declaring OT as my major I’ve found there are two general responses - 1) “You’re going to make a great occupational therapist!“ And 2) “Wait, so will you be helping people find jobs?”

Occupational therapy is similar to physical therapy but instead of movement rehabilitation (as in physical therapy) occupational therapy is more of a skill-building career. Ideally I would like to work as a pediatric occupational therapist, helping young children who have a variety of challenges in their lives to learn, grow, and become more self-sufficient.

Since high school I’ve bounced through an impressive number of majors- biology, religious studies, English, communication disorders, nursing... Occupational therapy feels like a perfect fit though; I’ll get to do hands-on studies in anatomy & physiology (my favorite subjects), I’ll get to help children one on one, and I will be trained in a skill that I can use as a health care volunteer abroad someday.

During high school I took Mandarin Chinese at the local community college. My professor was amazing; it is thanks to her that I discovered my passion for foreign languages and cultures. I’ve never been outside of the country, not even to Canada. I was planning on studying Arabic at UWM and then going to Egypt, but after seeing Eat Pray Love (Great move. Go watch it, now!) I’m completely inspired to spend a year absorbing the language, culture, and art of Italy instead… Or I guess it’s “Italia” to me now that I’m learning “Italiano” ;-) And let me just say, it is awesome to be enrolled in a university where I can switch my class schedule from Arabic to Italian overnight, such diversity!

As of right now I’m consumed with packing, shopping, and tying up loose ends here in Rochester before shipping myself, and my belongings, 5 hours East. Oh fewf, that’s going to be such a long day! I’m so excited for my first Brewer’s game tho, and for the UWM campus kickoff events. Seriously, I’m finding it hard to sit still. This year is going to be fantastic!

4 comments:

  1. Totally jealous about the scuba diving thing!!! I want to visit shipwrecks on a tour sometime before I die.

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  2. I've dived a few shallow wrecks in the Florida Keys but nothing too fantastic. I hear there are some beautiful war airplane wrecks in Japan that have turned into coral reefs that I would really love to see before I die.

    There are scuba diving classes at UWM, they're just too far off campus and too late at night for me. :(

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  3. There are some "Discover Scuba" classes offered for free at the Klotsche Center during Campus Kickoff. You'll get an event guide when you move in, and if you're off campus you can pick them up at the bookstore. You learn to scuba in the pool.

    Schedule is also available online here: http://www.campuskickoff.com/schedule.cfm

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  4. Cool! I saw that on the campus kickoff lineup, but I didn't think they were actually diving!

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