The Last Chapter of my Life as a S/OTA

I have been working extremely hard to become a certified Occupational Therapy Assistant and I am in my final stretch to become one. I am currently a Level II student working at a facility that is contracted through a developmental disabilities board. I am at a location the hires individuals diagnosed with a developmental disability to work on jobs they are contracted to perform. It is a completely different realm than what I am used too (which is the medical world) and within the past three days I have learned so much. It is a completely different setting than what I am used and along with learning about OT and gaining knowledge of my career and how to become a COTA, I am also learning about job production! Many companies come to our business and have us perform tasks. We have a group that collates glass dishes into a box for sale, those boxes you see at Target, Wal-Mart, Kohl's, we do them. We have another group folding t-shirts and sealing them in plastic bags for distribution to stores. The major project we have going on that many of our groups work on his bagging rice husks. First off, I never knew that rice was basically enclosed in this husk. Second off, I never knew how important rice husks could be in the steel world and more importantly in making steel wheels for trains. The husks are important because they won't melt or burn unless they are heated to 1,800 degrees F. This is important because as iron workers are melting and setting the steel wheels they need a product that will help maintain holes in the wheel (for the screws to attach) and will help cool the wheel down effectively without causing cooling errors. This is where these rice husks come into play. Iron workers throw the husk on and the holes are filled and the rice cools the steel down because the husks are a natural cooling agent. Learn something new everyday!!!! I also learned the difference between habilitation and rehabilitation. Habilitation is where everyone is constantly learning new where as rehabilitation is where there was an injury and the person is re-learning a task or knowledge.