Following a week of orientation, 44 students in the Class of 2025 were officially welcomed into the profession of occupational therapy during Duke Occupational Therapy Doctorate (OTD) Fall Convocation on Friday, August 12, 2022.
The students heard from Dr. Arameh Anvarizadeh, OTD, OTR/L, FAOTA, associate professor of clinical occupational therapy at the University of Southern California’s Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy. Dr. Anvarizadeh is also a founding member and chair of the Coalition of Occupational Therapy Advocates for Diversity (COTAD).
Dr. Anvarizadeh celebrated Duke OTD’s founding mission envisioning an inclusive world where all people flourish through access to and participation in meaningful, health-supporting occupations, the activities of everyday life. She encouraged the students to be “inclined to be part of shifting, tilting, and making a mark on the side of history that breaks down barriers, checks privileges, and rises UP for all people.”
After receiving a customized teleidoscope (a kind of kaleidoscope, with a lens and an open view, used to form kaleidoscopic patterns from objects outside the instrument, rather than from items installed as part of it) representing the beauty, uniqueness, and diversity found in all people, the students recited the Duke OTD pledge, committing themselves to “learning my profession by being receptive to what I can learn from those around me, gathering what I have to teach others, and engaging in scholarship and lifelong learning for more occupationally just society.”