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Current Student News
The NYU Steinhardt Department of Occupational Therapy congratulates our two 2012 Frieda J. Behlen Occupational Therapy scholarship recipients: Teresa Nydegger and Amanda Waynick. For additional information about this year's award winners, please click here. The Frieda J. Behlen Occupational Therapy Scholarship is an endowed fund created principally by gifts from NYU OT alumni to honor the memory of Frieda J. Behlen, founder and longtime chair of NYU's Department of Occupational Therapy. The scholarship takes the form of a tuition award applied toward summer courses.
The NYU Department of Occupational Therapy is pleased to announce that it will be hosting its 2nd Annual January NBCOT Exam Prep course offered by Therapy Ed. The course will be held in the Department on Tuesday, January 17th and & Wednesday, January 18, 2012. NYU OT students are eligible for a $30 course tuition discount (please follow the instructions on the NYU OT registration form. Please visit http://www.therapyed.com/nbcot.htm for additional course information.
The American Occupational Therapy Foundation Scholarship Program is accepting 2011-12 Online Applications:
AOTF Press Release – Foundation Announces Opening of 2011-12 Scholarship Competition
Eligibility and Availability
Instructions for Applicants
Online Application
The NYU Steinhardt Department of Occupational Therapy congratulates Marjie Citron '11 on the award of the 2011 Samuel Eshborn Service Award. This prestigious award is presented to graduating graduate students in recognition of superlative and extraordinary service, exhibiting the value of strong leadership in school activities in NYU Steinhardt.
The NYU Steinhardt Department of Occupational Therapy extends its warmest congratulations to this year's Frieda J. Behlen Occupational Therapy scholarship recipients: Molly Schmidt and Rebecca Fishman. The Frieda J. Behlen Occupational Therapy Scholarship is an endowed fund created principally by gifts from NYU OT alumni to honor the memory of Frieda J. Behlen, founder and longtime chair of NYU's Department of Occupational Therapy. The scholarship takes the form of a tuition award applied toward summer courses. Read more...
The NYU Department of Occupational Therapy is pleased to announce that it will be hosting a January NBCOT Exam Prep course offered by Therapy Ed. Our first course will be held in the Department on Wednesday January 5th and & Thursday, January 6, 2011. Please visit http://www.therapyed.com/nbcot.htm for registration information.
Congratulations to Tzu-Ying Yu, on the successful November 2010 defense of her dissertation, "The contribution of haptic and kinesthetic perceptions to handwriting in children ages 6 to 8 years." Yu was the recipient of a prestigious Dean's grant to support a pilot study for her dissertation and presented her work at the Dean's Grant for Student Research Colloquium in October of 2010.
In cooperation with the Islamic Center at NYU, students, faculty, and staff of the Department of Occupational Therapy contributed to the relief effort for victims of the recent floods in Pakistan. According to the United Nations, this is the most severe incident of flooding in eighty years, with six million Pakistanis in need of lifesaving assistance.
OT students, faculty, and staff donated food items to help those affected by the crisis; five packages containing an assortment of non perishable food items were assembled and will be shipped to Pakistani families in need. The effort was led by 2nd year Occupational Therapy Professional Program student Salma Malik, with the aid Department Administrator Ayanna Lee; Salma would like to extend her thanks to all of the participants who made the effort a success.
In response to the earthquake in Haiti, Steinhardt OT students organized a donation drive this semester to provide self-care products to those in need. The drive was organized under the leadership of Joanna Dritsas and Michelle Carrol, as part of the 2nd-year professional program's class gift, and completed with the help of Department members Ayanna Lee, Karen Buckley, and Sally Poole. For Dritsas and Carrol, it offered a chance to integrate occupational therapy theory into their aid to the Haiti relief effort. They solicited the involvement of OT students, faculty and staff in assembling self-care packages, including toothpaste, soap, and shampoo, to be sent to families affected by the earthquake. A total of 125 supply packages were sent to Haiti through the AFYA Foundation, a humanitarian aid organization founded by Steinhardt OT alumna Danielle Butin ('85).
The NYU Steinhardt Department of Occupational Therapy is pleased to announce the 2010 Frieda J. Behlen Occupational Therapy scholarship recipients- Stacey Suplizio, Jessica Sibley, and Rachel Turner. These three outstanding students have each been selected to receive a $2,000 tuition award for the summer 2010 semester.
Siaw Chui Chai, NYU OT PhD candidate, will be presenting "Study of Hand Span and Active Hand Mobility in Healthy Adults," Co-authored by Professor Jane Bear-Lehman, and Professional Program students Mary Ford, Rachelle Schwartz and Yael Weichselbaum at the 8th Triennial Congress of the International Federation of Societies for Hand Therapy (IFSHT) in Orlando, FL. The presentation is scheduled for Thursday, June 24th during session CS.1.1.
Congratulations to Tien-Ni Wang on the successful defense of her dissertation in the March of 2010. Wang defended "The Relationship Between Postural Control and Fine Motor Skills in Preterm Infants."
The NYU OT Professional Program's second year class has donated $320 to GHESKIO to assist with Haitian relief efforts. GHESKIO is an independent Haitian organization in Port-au-Prince affiliated with Weil Cornell Medical Center, that provides free care to individuals with HIV/AIDs. Since the January 12th earthquake GHESKIO is providing humanitarian assistance and emergency care to those affected by the disaster and continues to provide life-saving medications to people with HIV/AIDS.
AfterCollege has announced that Marjie Citron of NYU is the recipient of the September 2009 AfterCollege Occupational Therapy Student Scholarship. Marjie is currently a second year student in the MS OT program. Congratulations to Marjie!!
OT Class of 2010 Donated $300 to the Adaptive Design Association
The OT Class of 2010 recently donated $300 to the Adaptive Design Association (www.adaptivedesign.org). This association does wonderful work to assist people in need. They make adaptive equipment and positioning devices, mainly for children with disabilities. OT students had previously spent time at ADA working on creative solutions and building appropriate equipment for kids. Our students gained a memorable experience during their project at the ADA facility, and the Class of 2010 has called attention to this valuable organization through a generous donation.
Congratulations to Shalini D'Souza and So Yeon Ahn (OT Post-Professional program) and their Developing Assistive Technology (E40.2900) classmate, Amanda Bernsohn (Tisch ITP) on their selection as one of nine finalist groups at this year's National Science Foundation sponsored RESNA Student Design Competition. As finalists, the group was invited to present its battery driven, reverse gravity leg bag emptier project at this year's 2009 RESNA conference in New Orleans. Travel was funded by NSF with additional support given by the NYU Tisch ITP program. At the conference, Holly Cohen (Rusk Institute for Rehabilitation Medicine), who currently serves as a Clinical Mentor for the Developing Assistive Technology class also presented a poster highlighting an earlier collaborative Steinhardt OT /Tisch ITP project.
NYU OT Participates in the 2009 NAMI NYC-Metro Walk. On Saturday, May 9, 2009, over a dozen NYU Occupational Therapy students and several NYU OT Alumni joined the NYC team of OT's Walk with NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) to fight the stigma of mental illness, and to raise money for educational and support programs of NYC NAMI (http://www.nami.org/). Clad in their student designed purple NYU OT NAMI Walks T-shirts, the group left from the South Street Seaport and walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and back again, joining the ranks of OT's from Beth Israel, St. Luke's, Columbia Presbyterian, St. Vincent's, SUNY Downstate, York College, LIU, Stony Brook, and Columbia U. MNYD supplied the banner leading the team of OT's Walk with NAMI. This year's walk netted over $300,000 which was raised by consumers, family, friends, medical professionals, faculty, and students.
Francine Seruya, Gwen Weinstock-Zlotnick, and Mara Cohen Podvey all successfully defended their dissertations in Spring of 2009. Seruya defended "Does Practice Setting Influence the Professional and Organizational Commitment of Pediatric Occupational Therapists," Weinstock-Zlotnick defended "How Occupational Therapists Specializing in Hand Therapy Consider Participation During Initial Evaluation: A Look at Diagnostic Reasoning," and Cohen Podvey defended, "Experiences of Families Who Receive Related Therapy Services as They Transition From Early Intervention to Preschool Special Education.
Tzu-Ying Yu, a Ph.D. candidate in occupational therapy, was awarded the NYU Steinhardt 2009 Dean's Grant for Student Research. This grant will enable Yu to test and confirm the methodology she will use in her final dissertation study, and will ensure that all five measures in her study can be appropriately used. Yu's dissertation will examine the contribution of haptic and kinesthetic perceptions in predicting handwriting legibility and speed in typically developing 6-8 year old children.
Peggy Swarbrick, PhD, OTR, CPRP, received the first-ever Karen Stern Award at the New Jersey Mental Health Partnership conference. She received the award for excellence in research and advocacy relating to mental health issues. Swarbrick is the director of the Institute for Wellness and Recovery Initiatives, Collaborative Support Services of New Jersey, and is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Psychiatry Rehabilitation and Counseling, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-School of Health Related Professions.
The NYU Steinhardt Department of Occupational Therapy is pleased to announce the 2009 Frieda J. Behlen Occupational Therapy scholarship recipients - Susan Braham, Janelle Carbo, and Razia Khan. These three outstanding students have each been selected to receive a $3,000 tuition award for the summer 2009 semester. Funding for the award is derived from interest earned on the Department's endowed Frieda J. Behlen scholarship fund and also from funds raised by NYU OT alumni.
Gwen Weinstock, a Ph.D. candidate in occupational therapy, received the American Occupational Therapy Foundation Dissertation Research Grant award for 2008. This prestigious award provides financial support for data collection and analysis. Gwen plans to defend her dissertation in the spring of 2009, with Jane Bear Lehman as the Dissertation Chair, and Jim Hinojosa and Sherri Weiser as committee members.
Tien-Ni Wang, a Ph.D. candidate in occupational therapy, earned second prize for her oral presentation at the 27th Annual Conference of the Taiwan Occupational Therapy Association. The paper that Tien-Ni presented was based on a course taken during the winter session of 2008 at NYU Steinhardt on structure equation modeling and factor analysis. Tien-Ni is currently collecting data for her dissertation in Taiwan.
Shu-Yuan Hu and Rita Fleming-Castaldy both successfully defended their dissertations in November of 2007. Hu defended “The Sensory Balance Test as a Screening for Possible Sensory Integration Deficits.” In this study, she investigated the relationship between upper extremity stability and motor accuracy in young children.
Fleming-Castaldy also defended her project, “Consumer-Directed Personal Care Assistance (PCA) and Quality of Life for Persons with Disabilities.” Using a survey design, this study compared the perspectives of persons who use a consumer-directed PCA model to those who use an agency-directed one. The relationships found between self-management and satisfaction with PCA and quality of life support the value of consumer-directed PCA programs for disabled persons.
Students Biked for MS on Sunday, October 14, 2007. NYU OT students participated in a charity bike ride benefiting the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS). The MS Bike Tour took riders of all skill levels on routes around the island of Manhattan, with courses ranging between 30 to 100 miles. The NYU team (captained by second-year student Maia Watkins) raised more than $1,300 to support NMSS's educational programs, services, and a national research initiative. Said Assistant Professor Yael Goverover (who also biked in the event), "We would like to thank all the people who supported us by joining our team or donating to this important cause. It is great to know that our students and faculty are involved in community outreach projects."
Joselyn B. Goldstein and Andrea Johnston, students in the Professional M.S. Program, are recipients of Steinhardt’s 2007 Samuel Eshborn Service Award. The Award recognizes graduate students for superlative and extraordinary service work and for displaying the highest standards of leadership in school activities. Goldstein and Johnston were nominated by the Department’s faculty. Congratulations Joselyn and Andrea!