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The occupational therapy program opened its doors at Keuka College in 1988 to meet the
needs of future OT professionals by focusing on developing excellence in clinical evidence
based practice from medical to community environments. Occupational therapy services are provided
for habilitation, rehabilitation, and the promotion of health and wellness to those
who have developed or are at risk for developing an illness, injury, disease, disorder, condition,
impairment, disability, activity limitation, or participation restriction.
OT addresses the physical, cognitive, psycho-social, sensory perceptual and other aspects of performance
in a variety of contexts and environments to support engagement in occupations that
affect physical and mental health, well being, and quality of life. Peter Talty came to Keuka
on a part time basis in 1987 and assumed the Chairs position in 1991 as a full time professor.
Prior to joining Keuka he owned and operated his own private OT practice, providing services
in diverse settings. He also was on the faculty at the university of Buffalo where
he received the outstanding teacher award for the school of health related professions
in 1980. He also received Keukas professor of the year in 1991, Excellence in Teaching
award in 2001 and 2006, and OT department professor of the year in 2006. After teaching
over 2000 OT students, in three OT programs, Peter knows they are engaged and he knows
what they want. Students want to be productive and they want meaningful and relevant assignments.
They also want to be challenged but not overwhelmed. The question Peter always anticipates in the
students minds is, what does this have to do with OT?
Here is what it is in a nut shell. I put this on there because I made this up. I put my
name down there, see. The ability to analyze the action, figure out what is going on anatomically
and biomechanically, and to then create solutions are some of an Occupational Therapists greatest
assets in practice. Like I told you, on the days I am good I can do this. Over and over
again throughout my career it served me very well, so that the time you spend learning
applied anatomy should not end at the end of this course. Always keep thinking about
it. There is a nation wide shortage of occupational
therapists. According to the board of labor statistics data, employment in 2008 was a
104,000. The projected employment needs for 2018 shows a twenty-six percent increase or
131,000 occupational therapists. From day one to graduation, an OT education costs approximately
150,000 dollars and there is little scholarship support for the graduate year. Peter has always
felt that the profession of OT has not reached its peak in terms of new areas of practice.
He believes that engaging people in occupations is the key to health and wellness.
The Peter Talty Scholarship exemplifies his commitment to these principles. This new scholarship
in Peters name will be awarded only to graduate students who demonstrate a commitment to the
concept that through occupation people can achieve wellness and prevent multiple diseases
and disabilities. This commitment can be demonstrated through their field periods, fieldwork experiences,
lifestyle, classroom work, or volunteer experience. I have always believed that the real power
in occupational therapy is how we use time and how we use occupation. And I thought about
coupling those occupations and how we utilize time with addictions and looking at the way,
when people decide to make a change in their life and move away from addictive behaviors
whether its overeating, not exercising, whatever, might be alcohol or drugs or whatever the
case may be. Once they take that out they have this big void in their life.
I always thought an occupational therapist could help them plan an effective way to fill
the void. So what were doing, following that theme, we have created the Peter Talty scholarship
foundation. And what it is, is that were going to be asking people to make donations so we
have enough money in it so we can give a scholarship out each year to a graduate student. The student
would have a 3.2 average and the student would demonstrate a commitment using occupation
to promote wellness and health. And it might come through field periods,
might come through a field work experience, classroom, laboratory, volunteer experience,
somewhere along the long they will have demonstrated this commitment and they would write a paper
in this affect to the committee to determine who would get this scholarship. So we are
asking people to make a donation into the scholarship fund.
We need to raise 15,000 dollars within five years in order for the Peter Talty scholarship
to become viable. And this is where you can help. Your contribution can get Keuka continue
to produce high performing OTs with a commitment to wellness and prevention.
If you have felt along the way that I have said something to you that has helped make
you a better Occupational Therapist, a way to show that appreciation is to make a contribution
to our scholarship so we can support the students coming behind you, so we can continue to promote
and graduate the strong Occupational Therapists we have been doing in the past. Thank you
very much.