Building a Bridge

Following my graduation from New York University (NYU) with a Master of Arts in Occupational Therapy, I launched my career at the United Cerebral Palsy of New York City (now called ADAPT Community Network). There, I worked in the Adult Day Program with individuals with various disabilities. Subsequently, I took a position with the New York City Department of Education in a District 75 middle/high school where I worked with youth with disabilities. Serving adolescents and young adults both in the community and school settings made me acutely aware of a variety of challenges encountered by youth with developmental disabilities as they get ready for the transition to their adult life. Many students appeared to be unprepared or underprepared to succeed beyond the sheltered school environment. I realized that often there was a misalignment between the kinds of skills students were being taught in schools and the type of skills that are essential to make a successful transition from school to adulthood.

As I became more concerned with this issue, I decided to enroll in NYU OTD program to undertake an inquiry into school to adulthood transition. Building a bridge is a metaphor that conveys the essence of my experience as a doctoral student. My OTD study resembled constructing a bridge, a bridge that enabled me to move from my current practical experience to a new place with advanced knowledge and more robust critical thinking skills. The process of developing programs related to secondary transitions serving as a path for students to transfer from school to adulthood could also be viewed as a similar process of building a bridge. Bridge building is a communal effort and so is the process of creating successful transitions for students with disabilities. Fostering collaboration between different professionals to improve the quality of life of those whom we serve requires building bridges between different disciplines.

The process of building a bridge involves three main stages that represent my three professional goals. First, setting the foundations and supports for the bridge. For this stage, my goal involved expanding the breadth and depth of my knowledge on secondary transition. Second, assembling the structure. For this stage, the goal was to design an intervention for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) that could be used in school settings to facilitate the secondary transition. A transition requires a bridge-like structure and the career-exploration curriculum I designed provides that structure so the students can successfully begin their post-secondary journey. Third, crossing the bridge. During this stage, when the sound structure of my bridge was completed, I focused on my third goal which involved disseminating the findings of my inquiry. I have presented at numerous conferences and graduate courses in furtherance of letting other professionals and aspiring future therapists take on the journey and cross the bridge with me.