OTD News Volume VII, Issue 2

Student Occupational Therapy Association (SOTA) Page 11 OTD News, Volume VII, Issue 2 By: Melissa Harden, OTD-S The Student Occupational Therapy Association (SOTA) at NSU’s Tampa campus has continued to be involved on campus as well as in the community. Members are encouraged to participate in service learning opportunities in order to advocate for occupational therapy and support those who are in need. This year, SOTA students completed a total of 613 service hours. These hours were completed nation- wide with organizations such as: the Alzheimer’s Association, American Cancer Society, American Red Cross, Autism Speaks, Merrill Animal Clinic, USF-Byrd Alzheimer’s Institute, Florida Occupational Ther- apy Association (FOTA), CarFit, Pacific Beach Farmer’s Market, Central Park Nursing and Rehabilita- tion, Florida Occupational Therapy Education Consortium (FLOTEC), churches, public schools, triath- lons, NSU-Tampa Open House events, NSU OTD new student orientation, and many other amazing outreach opportunities. This year, SOTA recognized members who completed the most service learning hours. First place was Tara Johnson (Class of 2016) who completed 106 hours. Tyler Lacertosa (Class of 2017) came in second place with 84 hours. Third place was Cheryl Mae Granada (Class of 2017) for completing 45 hours. SOTA would like to congratulate Tara, Tyler, Cheryl Mae, and all of our members for the outstanding job they did to make NSU and the community a better place. If you are an OTD student and would like more information on SOTA and the many things that we do to add to the NSU experience for our members, please feel free to attend one of our meetings and con- sider joining our organization. Meetings are held at 1pm on the first day of institute. Dues are $25 per year or $15 per semester.