{"id":67252,"date":"2022-10-27T08:58:26","date_gmt":"2022-10-27T15:58:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=67252"},"modified":"2022-10-27T08:59:32","modified_gmt":"2022-10-27T15:59:32","slug":"world-ot-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/world-ot-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Opportunity + Choice = Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"

This year\u2019s <\/span>World Occupational Therapy (OT) Day<\/span> theme: Opportunity + Choice = Justice. The concept hits home for <\/span>Arantxa<\/span><\/b> Amaya<\/span><\/b>,<\/span> a second-year OT student at NAU.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOccupational therapists strive to promote occupational justice, so individuals have an equal opportunity to engage in diverse occupations that are meaningful and purposeful to them,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

This, she said, is what makes OT such a unique profession\u2014a profession she is thrilled to join so she can help those in need.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Pursuing a degree in occupational therapy was not always Amaya\u2019s plan. What she did know early on was that she was interested in a field related to family and child services.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI discovered OT about a year after graduating from the University of Arizona with my bachelor<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s in family studies and human development,\u201d Amaya said. \u201cI decided to get a job in Arizona Early Intervention to learn more about OT and get exposure to the profession. During my time working for Early Intervention, I had the opportunity to learn from and work with an amazing occupational therapist that sparked my desire to pursue OT as a profession.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Amaya, who hopes to use her degree in OT to serve underrepresented communities, said growing up in Yuma heavily influenced her decision to attend NAU. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat caught my interest in the NAU OT program was its dedication to serving Arizona,\u201d she said. \u201cBeing able to learn from my community and give back is significant to me. Having a supportive community in the program has been helpful in my learning and preparing for my career as an occupational therapist.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Throughout her time at NAU, Amaya has advocated <\/span>for OT through the Coalition of Occupational Therapy Advocates for Diversity NAU Chapter, worked with local organizations to implement OT skills and met like-minded friends who helped her grow and succeed. She <\/span>believes the collective experiences she\u2019s had as part of NAU\u2019s OT program prepared her for a successful future. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn the future<\/span>,<\/span> I would like to continue my OT journey in the field of pediatrics. I know I want to serve my community, working with underrepresented populations and advocating for diversity within the profession.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

About World Occupational Therapy Day<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Since its first celebration in 2010, World Occupational Therapy Day has become an important day for everyone in the occupational therapy (OT) field, as this day is used to promote and celebrate the profession at a global level.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The <\/span>World Federation of Occupational Therapists<\/span><\/a> (WFOT) is the international voice of the occupational therapy profession which globally comprises of 107 national occupational therapy professional organizations. World Occupational Therapy Day is the opportunity to heighten the visibility of the profession\u2019s development work and to promote the activities of WFOT locally, nationally and internationally.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This year\u2019s World Occupational Therapy (OT) Day theme: Opportunity + Choice = Justice. The concept hits home for Arantxa Amaya, a second-year OT student at NAU.\u00a0 \u201cOccupational therapists strive to promote occupational justice, so individuals have an equal opportunity to engage in diverse occupations that are meaningful and purposeful to them,\u201d she said. This, she…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":67253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}