10 Graduation Gift Ideas For Occupational Therapy Students | The Odyssey Online
Start writing a post
Student Life

10 Graduation Gift Ideas For Occupational Therapy Students

Don't even know what OT is? No worries, I got you all covered!

3345
10 Graduation Gift Ideas For Occupational Therapy Students

Graduation season is coming up! How exciting for those who are graduating, including me! This is going to be a non-Christmas Christmas, because we get to justify having parents around, forcing our close friends to show up, and of course (!) receiving gifts, hahaha!

If you don't know yet, I am studying occupational therapy (OT) at USC. You said you don't know what it is?! Go and read this article of mine about OT. Also, April is OT month, so if you want to know what OT is at any time of the year, it should be now!

Now, you know what OT is and that I'm getting my bachelor's degree in OT (wink ;) wink), or you may even have a friend / relative / child / etc. graduating with their degree in OT, you might be wondering what kind of fun graduation gifts an OT student would want. Here are some gift ideas for occupational therapists, directly from an OT student (aka me):

1. Whiteboard Calendar

Whether we're going straight to the workforce after graduation or continuing to pursue more letters after our names (you know, some of us don't just want OTR/L after our names, we want that OTD/ Ph.D. and all those tongue-twisting letters!), a whiteboard calendar will be a fantastic tool for us to keep track of our assignments, deadlines, clients, caseloads, and all different sorts of errands! I'm still in school studying OT, and I need a calendar to keep me sane.

2. Journal (or other coping tools)

Feeling "burnt out" is a real thing, especially among healthcare professionals. For healthcare professionals (e.g. physical therapist, occupational therapist, case managers, psychiatrists, etc.), "burnout" happens when they are highly emotionally invested in their clients, but feel like not "enough" progress was made (very often due to the nature of clients' illness, policy or system failure, and so on). It's really disheartening when you find out a patient, whom you've been working with for the past two months and seen great progress, suddenly relapsed due to uncontrollable reasons. Journaling is how I've been coping with feeling discouraged or disheartened. If you care about your OT friend/relative/daughter/son's emotional welling being, give them a journal or anything they've learned to use to cope with overwhelming emotions.

3. AOTA Membership

AOTA stands for American Occupational Therapy Association. As members of AOTA, we receive updates on everything and anything about occupational therapy, from open jobs and upcoming conferences to policy changes and up-to-date research. More importantly, the membership fee allows AOTA to pay for lobbying, which is essential to protect OT as a profession on a national level. Why does OT profession need protection? Well, can you, my dear reader, verbalize the difference between OT and PT or personal trainer or life coach? The OT profession needs public recognition and protection of our jurisdiction.

4. Retractable Key Holder

As OTs, we always have a bunch of different arts & crafts supplies, assessment tools & manuals, and door accesses to guard. We also like to keep our stuff organized. As a result, OTs very often have tons of tiny keys, on top of our own house keys and car key. You'd be amazed by how many keys my occupational fieldwork educator has! A retractable key holder will help us keep all keys together safely! It's also super convenient because we don't have to take the entire key chains off of our belt loop (or wherever we usually attach our keys to) when using the keys. Try gifting the graduating OT student you know a personalized retractable key holder: maybe something with their favorite painting, emoji, or slogan!

5. "Punny" OT Gear

Who doesn't love something “punny"? Do I really need to explain? Plus, OTs tend to have an extraordinary appreciation for humor (here's a "humerus" t-shirt) and witty comments (such as this shirt). FYI, creativity is essential to us, if you haven't realized yet.

6. Portfolio with School logo

Graduation means the beginning of work career! Hooray! To help the newly grads appear at least somewhat professional for interviews, gift them a portfolio with their school logo on it! By portfolio, I mean the binder you use to hold all the resumes together, of course (also known as "padfolio"). Don't create a “portfolio" (e.g. resume, cover letter, etc.) for them, please. That's cheating.

7. Scrubs (or other professional clothing)

This idea comes from personal experience. Yes, I'm the worst at professional clothing. I usually dress super casually: sweatshirt, jeans, and Vans slip-ons. I can maybe get myself to dress semi-business-casual-ly. But, really, I've failed time and time again at dressing professionally! Now, I've retreated to wear scrubs whenever I can choose between scrubs or professional clothing. If the OT student you know want to work in hospital settings, give them scrubs. Otherwise, give them professional clothing, and teach them how to put things together to appear more professional!

8. Arts & Crafts Supplies

OTs very often make use of arts and crafts as part of their interventions, so supply them with arts & crafts to support their career development! Also, arts & crafts can be very effective coping tools to help prevent “burn out", which I mentioned above.

9. Know What OT Is

Although material stuff is very helpful and exciting, let's not forget your support as a friend/parent/relative/etc. for the OT student can be extremely valuable as well! If you do care about what they do and support them in pursuing this career, take the initiative to actually figure out what OT is and be able to advocate for OT will be your first step! And, dear reader, I got you covered: here's the link to my very brief introduction to what OT is.

10. Be at the Graduation Ceremony

Nothing shows support more unequivocally as being present for your friend/daughter/son's graduation ceremony. They've worked their butts off for the past couple years to earn this moment. Be there for them, give them a hug, and tell them how proud you are of them.

Report this Content
This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
10 things that happen the second Thanksgiving is over
reference.com

To those who celebrate, you just spent an entire day cooking an elaborate meal with all of your favorite foods. You probably ate your body weight in pumpkin pie and mashed potatoes. What happens now? Oh yea, Christmas. It’s time to take out all of the decorations and Christmas themed things that have been sitting in the attic since last year; it’s time to make a reappearance. So, here are 10 things that happen the second Thanksgiving is over.

Keep Reading...Show less
Adulting

18 Things I Want To Do Now That I'm 18

I'm technically an adult, so I'm legally required to live a little, right?

2998
Happy Birthday Cake

For the entirety of my high school career, I was always seen as the goody-two-shoes. I never got in trouble with a teacher, I kept stellar grades, and when I wasn't doing extracurricular activities, I was at home studying. Even when I did go out, it was usually with a bunch of fellow band geeks. The night would end before 11:00 PM and the only controversial activity would be a fight based on who unfairly won a round of Apples-to-Apples when someone else clearly had a better card (I promise I'm not still holding a grudge).

Now that I'm officially an adult, I want to pursue some new things. I want to experience life in a way that I never allowed myself to do prior to entering college. These are the years that I'm supposed to embark on a journey of self-discovery, so what better way to do that than to create a bucket list?

Keep Reading...Show less
Featured

10 Life Lessons from Christmas Classics

The holiday classics that shaped my life

1805
10 Life Lessons from Christmas Classics
Flickr

The holiday season is full of stress, debt, and forced conversation. While we rush through the month of December, it's important to take a step back and enjoy the moments before they're gone. Most families love to watch Christmas movies, but these beloved films provide more than entertainment. Here are 10 life lessons that I've learned from the holiday classics we watch every year.

Keep Reading...Show less
Featured

15 Mind-Bending Riddles

Hopefully they will make you laugh.

201072
 Ilistrated image of the planet and images of questions
StableDiffusion

I've been super busy lately with school work, studying, etc. Besides the fact that I do nothing but AP chemistry and AP economics, I constantly think of stupid questions that are almost impossible to answer. So, maybe you could answer them for me, and if not then we can both wonder what the answers to these 15 questions could be.

Keep Reading...Show less
Entertainment

Most Epic Aurora Borealis Photos: October 2024

As if May wasn't enough, a truly spectacular Northern Lights show lit up the sky on Oct. 10, 2024

21452
stunning aurora borealis display over a forest of trees and lake
StableDiffusion

From sea to shining sea, the United States was uniquely positioned for an incredible Aurora Borealis display on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, going into Friday, Oct. 11.

It was the second time this year after an historic geomagnetic storm in May 2024. Those Northern Lights were visible in Europe and North America, just like this latest rendition.

Keep Reading...Show less

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Facebook Comments