Santa Ana College Outstanding Faculty Member ‘Grew Tremendously’
in Developing Bachelor’s Degree Program
Michelle Parolise - recently named Santa Ana College’s outstanding full-time faculty member of the year - calls her experiences developing the new Occupational Studies bachelor’s degree “extremely rewarding."
Parolise, the program director and department chair, researched current and future health care needs, learned the differences between lower- and upper-division coursework, and developed the curriculum for the program, making certain she had the most accurate and up-to-date information available.
Parolise believes it was her efforts in creating the new program that earned her the outstanding faculty honor. Developing the bachelor’s degree curriculum was the challenge of a lifetime, she says, but was ultimately gratifying. “It helped me grow tremendously,” she adds.
“It’s an extreme honor to receive this award,” she says. “I’m so excited to receive it.”
The first cohort of the college’s Occupational Studies bachelor’s degree program began their studies in fall 2017 with completion scheduled for spring 2019. The SAC bachelor’s joins the long-established occupational therapy assistant (OTA) AA program. Like Parolise, faculty members in the program are occupational therapists themselves.
“The response of the students to this program has been extraordinary,” Parolise says. “Some of the students are fulfilling life-long dreams of getting a bachelor’s degree that they didn’t think they could earn.”
Parolise developed curriculum for the SAC bachelor’s degree program - offering a degree available nowhere in the California State University system - by studying key practice areas from the American Occupational Therapy Association, attending conferences, and meeting with the college’s OTA professional advisory committee, she says.
“I am blessed to have wonderful students in the program,” Parolise notes. “They’re sharp and they make me work hard. The work they produce has been phenomenal.”
Currently, Parolise is developing the program’s final class. “In the capstone course they will take everything they’ve learned through the program and create something new - a piece of adaptive equipment, a new technique, a piece of clothing, or a toy - and present it to members of the program’s advisory committee.
“Students in the class could work with SAC’s fashion department to create a garment easy to use for the differently abled, for instance, or work with the engineering department to use the machine shop to create a new toy or device to assist disabled children or adults,” she explains.
Occupational therapy assistants provide service to individuals with physical, mental, or developmental disabilities in all stages of life, who need to rehabilitate skills to perform self-care, work and/or leisure activities.
Students who complete Santa Ana College’s Occupational Studies bachelor’s degree program will be highly skilled practitioners prepared to work immediately as occupational therapy assistants. They also will be prepared to apply to master’s level OT programs.
Statistics from the Bureau of Labor track occupational therapy as a high-growth area, Parolise says. “With aging baby boomers and an epidemic of children with autism, and as we do better in caring for trauma patients who survive bad accidents, we have a growing need for therapists who help people regain function in their lives.”
“The faculty here all have a passion for the field of OT and the difference it makes in people’s lives,” Parolise declares. “We work with the things that give meaning to our patients’ daily life to help them regain the abilities to participate in the activities that are meaningful to them.”
