Samantha Bennett is a second-year occupational therapy assistant student at LBCC. She is originally from Monmouth, Oregon, but she currently lives in Salem. Bennett has been working as a server since she was 18 and has been married to her husband for 25 years. She and her husband have two daughters, an 18-year-old graduating from high school this year and a 20-year-old who also attends LBCC. Bennett is a highly empathetic and compassionate student who is passionate about working with both children and patients of all ages.
An occupational therapy assistant (OTA) is someone who works under the supervision of an occupational therapist (OT) to help people better participate in independent daily activities, mobility, and improve their quality of work and life.
What made you choose occupational therapy?
So there’s a lot of medical programs to choose from, and I knew I wanted to do something in that field. I really like the holistic approach of OT. That’s what drew me to it. It focuses on helping people regain independence and confidence in their lives, and then it empowers people to live full lives. So it’s not really medicating people. … Also, I had a stepdad with multiple sclerosis, and he lived with that for 40 years. He had in-home OTAs that would come help him with his ADLs (activities of daily living), and they taught him a lot of compensatory strategies, how to use adaptive equipment, and really helped him a lot. So seeing that kind of sparked my passion for the field.
What brought you to LBCC?
Originally I was looking into diagnostic imaging, so for the last few years I’ve been taking just one class at a time, some at LB and some at Chemeketa. So I was at Chemeketa and transferred to LB because I was interested in diagnostic imaging. And then I actually did a job shadow at a place that does diagnostic imaging, and I figured out that wasn’t really for me. There wasn’t a lot of patient interaction, and it just seemed kind of boring to me. So I looked into other things, and I actually went back to Chemeketa. I took a year of anatomy over there. I was thinking about doing nursing, and then I just thought, why not just do OT? LB is one of the only OTA programs in the state. I know I didn’t want to be in a four year program, and at this age, I didn’t want to do a job that was quite as stressful as nursing.
Could you describe what a typical day looks like for you at LBCC?
Well, I’m a distance education student, so I’m streamed into the classroom from home. So I think there’s about four traditional students this year that go to Lebanon for in-person classes. And then the rest of us are distance education students from all over the state. I think we even have one that lives in Walla Walla, Washington. There’s 17 students in my program, it’s pretty small.
So typically, depending on the term, I have class three days a week, starting at 10 a.m. On a typical day, I’ll wake up around 8, get ready for the day, have my coffee, prepare my materials for the day, and then I’m in class from about 10 to 4, with an hour break in between the classes. Then I use a break to eat lunch, take my dog for a walk, and get some movement in. After class is over on the evenings that I’m not working, I’ll make dinner for my family, take a couple hours to decompress, do some chores around the house, and then I’ll sit back down and get my reading and assignments done. Then on the four nights that I work, I’ll go to work pretty much right after class and then get done around 9, and then come home and try to get a couple hours of work in before I go to bed. It’s very structured. I don’t have a lot of free time right now.
Which classes did you take during winter term?
I took documentation, therapeutic use of self, anatomy physiology, and activity analysis. So those are all OTA courses, and then there’s corequisites that you take along with them. This term I had abnormal psych.
What type of patients or settings do you feel most passionate about working with?
So I’m really passionate about working with children. I mean, I’m really passionate about helping all types of people. I think I’m just most drawn to the pediatric population. I’d really like to work in a pediatric clinic or a pediatric unit in a hospital. I don’t really want to work in a school, but our second year of school is field work, so you get three different sites to do your field work. I’m really hoping that I’ll get one site that’s a pediatric and then two totally different sites because I’m really open to just seeing it all and then kind of deciding where to go from there.
Are there any role models in your life who you look up to?
I have a half brother that lives in Eugene, and I really look up to him. He is quite a bit older than me. He’s 12 years older than me, and so I’ve always looked up to him since I was a kid. He just has a really good outlook on life. He teaches me a lot. He’s been living with a traumatic brain injury for the past four years, which has been really hard, but also really great to watch him try to overcome things. He’s just the strongest person I know. So I’d say, yeah, my brother.
What has been the most challenging part of the OTA program?
Definitely time management. Taking care of my family and my household while working and going to school is a lot. And then it’s really important for me to take a little bit of time for self care, too. So creating daily schedules for myself has been really key to my success in the program so far.
How do you find those moments of self care?
Well, getting a walk in every day, for one, that’s taking care of my dog as well as myself. I make sure I either get a little chance to sit down, watch a little TV, or read a book. I really love reading. I don’t get to do a lot of reading for fun while I’m in school. But during my breaks, I always have a few books set aside to read while I’m off. I like fiction. Kristin Hannah is one of my favorite authors. She has a lot of books that I really like, but I’m not picky. I’ll read pretty much anything you put in front of me. Other than that, I spend time with my family. That’s important to me. I like to cook. Cooking’s fun and relaxing for me. I like to listen to podcasts a lot. Mostly murder podcasts.
What has been the most rewarding part of the program?
I’d say just developing skills and gaining confidence to prepare for my career. It’s a pretty big change from waiting tables, and so I have a lot to learn. So yeah, just getting those skills developed and I’m learning a lot every day, and that’s very rewarding to me.
What are your goals for after LBCC?
My expected graduation date is June of next year, so 2026. After you graduate from the OTA program, you have to take the NBCOT exam, which makes you licensed to practice in Oregon. It’s a really tough exam and it’s like four hours long. So I plan to study a lot for a month after graduation and then take the exam sometime in July, probably. And then during my first year of employment, I also plan to take more college courses to become fluent in Spanish. I think it’d be really good to have that skill in this occupation because there’s a really big population of Spanish-speaking people here. And I think it’d be really effective to form therapeutic relationships with the Spanish-speaking population if I could communicate with them directly instead of through interpreters. So that’s my first two years goal to get that done while working.
How does the role of an OT differ from an OTA?
So the roles are really closely related, but they each have very distinct responsibilities. The simplest way I would put it is that OTs evaluate, plan, and create individualized treatment programs for their patients. And then the OTA carries out those plans and they work directly with the patient to implement the therapy. So OTAs work under the supervision of OTs, but they have direct, hands-on interaction with the patients.
A lot of times the OT isn’t even in the room while they’re doing the therapy, so they really have a lot of independence. And OTAs do a lot of documentation. But the OTs are definitely more involved in paperwork, they have much more paperwork than we do. And then after you have three years of experience as a certified occupational therapy assistant (COTA), you work really independently and you’re only required to have contact with your supervising OT once a month.
What advice would you give students who are interested in the OTA program?
I’d say if you’re passionate about helping people, then this might be a good option for you. You have to be compassionate and empathetic. I feel like those are the kind of traits that you are not going to learn. Those are traits that lie within you, but make sure you research the field before ending up in the program to see if it’s a good fit for you. And then I’d say working on developing time management and study skills before entering the program while you’re going through your prerequisites would be a really good thing. You need to be strong in those areas to be successful in the program.
This article originally appeared in the April 2025 edition of The Commuter.
