How Art Connects with Medicine: Lindsey Parenteau

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Lindsey Parenteau-Oshel, Class of 2011, Jacksonville, Florida Updated Story

What are you up to since the last time you shared your story? Since I last shared my story, I graduated with my Masters in Occupational Therapy and moved to North Florida to live with my husband as he pursues his career. A job offer came up for an OT in the school system, and I could not resist. I currently work as a school based OT specifically with kids in elementary schools. A typical day for me in the school generally goes with seeing students with ALL types of disabilities either for individual time or in a small group to work on different goals that help them to be successful and as functional as possible in class and throughout the school day. Typical goals we usually address focus on helping with handwriting skills, cutting skills, transitions between classrooms, attention during seated classwork, and self care tasks like dressing or opening containers during lunch. Often times, my job involves providing teachers various adaptations to skills such as writing with different pencils or grips, using adapted paper with lines and colors, providing assistive technology like ipads or eye gaze devices to assist with reading/writing or providing resources on sensory strategies to allow students to have movement breaks and increase attention. All in all, I love every aspect of my job especially getting to use fun crafts and games to allow my students to be as successful as possible.

How'd you get here since the last time you shared? Last time I shared, I was just getting started in the OT field while in graduate school. I truly did not even know what it meant to be a therapist because my only experience was through book learning and teacher lectures. Since then, I've become a licensed "OT" in Florida and have gained so much experience out in the field learning more than ever being hands on. Initially, I started work at a Skilled Nursing Facility helping various patients that have had injuries/illnesses such as strokes, dementia, knee replacements, etc. gain independence back to their daily lives. The work was fast paced and typically you would only work with a patient for a few weeks and they would go home. This job was not the route I had envisioned for my career and sought out to find my true passion, working with kids.

What are your goals now? Have they changed? My goals and to try to get through this first school year as successful as possible and hope that I did a good enough job to be picked up for more school years to come. My goals have definitely changed as I see the realistic side of actual work and adulthood living on my own with my husband far away from Nashville. I still think some day it would be amazing to have my own clinic for kids to come and receive therapy, and maybe 30-40 years from now, become a professor to teach the next generation of therapist. But for right now, I'm keeping my goals to being the best I can be right now for the students I current have everyday.

 
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Lindsey Parenteau, 2011, Nashville, TN September 20 2016

What are you up to? I am currently enrolled in the Masters of Occupational Therapy program at Tennessee State University. I was 1 out of 30 students chosen from a pool of 500 applicants for the program, so I am still in shock and very thankful. What is occupational therapy, you ask? Well, it can help you get back into your work or job, but it can also be much more than that. Occupational therapy is the therapeutic use of everyday activities or occupations that are meaningful to the patient to promote independence in function. The profession works with all age groups and many different types of disabilities, both physical and mental.

How'd you get here? I have always loved art and music but I also knew I wanted to use my time helping others and making an impact in their lives, specifically children. As I was choosing my future profession, I tried my best to pick something that incorporated both of those aspects I enjoyed. Luckily, OT focuses on using crafts and participation as a type of therapy, so I knew it was the perfect route to go for me. I graduated from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga with a Bachelor of Science degree in Rehabilitation Science. OT is a very competitive field so I had to work hard to keep up a high GPA so that I could be accepted into a graduate program.

What are your goals? My number one goal is to get through the program so I can get started with my career. Once I get my Masters of Occupational Therapy, my dream is to become a traveling OT and pick up contracts around the around the globe. I couldn't pass up such an amazing career opportunity that allows me to travel and get paid at the same time.

Advice for WHS Students? If you have a dream or goal that seems unreachable or unrealistic, don't give up on it. Make it achievable.  I went a direction that allowed me to incorporate art and creativity in a purposeful way. I still get to do what I love everyday, but I choose a path that allowed me to grow and have a stable career that I truly enjoy.

If you could travel anywhere tomorrow, where would you go? I would go to London, England in a heartbeat!

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Pharma Life: Jennifer Donato

Jennifer Donato, Class of 2011, Nottingham, MD

What are you up to? At this moment, I will be starting my career as a clinical pharmacist at Frederick Memorial Hospital in Frederick, MD and will be taking an exam to transfer my Connecticut Pharmacist License to Maryland so I can practice in the state of Maryland.

How'd you get here? I graduated from the University of Saint Joseph School of Pharmacy in May 2018. A short month and a half later, I started my post graduate year one (PGY1) pharmacy residency at St. Vincent's Medical Center (SVMC) in Bridgeport, CT. During residency I gained a ton of experience in different areas of clinical pharmacy within the hospital. After 3 months had gone by, I had to decide what I wanted to do when this residency program was over. In November/December 2018 I had decided to apply to various hospitals across the country for a post graduate year 2 (PGY2) pharmacy residency program in critical care. While applying to the various hospitals, I could tell my heart was not in it although I loved my critical care and emergency medicine rotations at SVMC. I did not receive any interviews from the programs I had applied to and not only did I notice but my mentor at SVMC had noticed I was not heart broken over the rejections. With the help from my mentor, I had decided to finish residency with a positive attitude and see where life would take me. And that's when I decided to move to Maryland when residency was over to start my career and my life too, since my boyfriend was already residing there.

What are your goals? My future goals are to become a board certified pharmacist in pharmacotherapy and to continue to grow as a clinical pharmacist.

 
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Jennifer Donato, 2011, Oakville, CT - January 17, 2018

What are you up to? Currently, I am in my last year of pharmacy school at the University of Saint Joseph School of Pharmacy in Downtown Hartford. This program is unlike a traditional pharmacy school where you do 2 years of pre-pharmacy and 4 years of pharmacy; instead at USJ SOP, you must received a bachelors degree prior to being accepted and then do 3 full calendar years of pharmacy. I am also in the process of applying to pharmacy residency programs.

How'd you get here? After graduating from WHS, I attended at the University of Bridgeport and received my bachelors of science in health sciences. Unlike a lot of people who I knew in high school, I knew that I wanted to do something in the healthcare profession, specifically pharmacy. So during my time at UB, I took prerequisites for pharmacy school, along with your general education courses, and courses in health sciences. It was super stressful applying to pharmacy school because I had to maintain a pretty high GPA in order to be competitive, my personal statement needed to be unique, and if the school was interested in me, I had to go through an interview process. And as a young adult at the time, I had never had to go through a professional interview. While going to school, I also had a part time job at ShopRite Pharmacy in Southbury. This job really solidified the fact that I wanted to go to pharmacy school and become a pharmacist. By March 2015, I knew I was accepted into USJ SOP and was excited to continue on the journey towards a rewarding career.

What are your goals? My goals for the future is to become a clinical pharmacist in a hospital. I would love to be board certified in critical care, where I can work in an ICU. This would require me to do two years of residency.

What has been your biggest challenge? My biggest challenge was during my junior year of college. At UB they have a contract with UCONN where I could apply to their pharmacy school and I'd be looked at as a UCONN student rather than an outsider applying to their program. At the time, I did apply, but unfortunately did not get an interview. Although this may not seem like a challenge to most, I was devastated and had to decide whether or not I wanted to try again the following year and earn a bachelors degree as well. If this didn't happen to me, I wouldn't be where I am today.

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What has been your happiest moment? My happiest moment was this past September/October. I was in Arizona/New Mexico for school, working at Gallup Indian Medical Center. This hospital is for Navajo Native Americans who live on the reservation. They are underserved and struggle everyday. At this hospital, there are pharmacy run clinics where the pharmacists see the patients and change medication therapy depending on what clinic the pharmacist is working in. The clinics ranges from diabetes to asthma clinic, as well as anticoagulation (blood thinner) clinic to HIV clinic. I also had the opportunity to live on the reservation. It was definitely a culture shock. There is nothing for miles around and some people are still live without running water or electricity. It was a meaningful experience to understand how the Navajo people live. On a positive note, I did get to do some traveling and see parts of the United States that I didn't think I would ever be able to see.

Advice for WHS Students? If you know what you want to do right out of high school, go for it! It might not be easy and you may not succeed right away, but in the end it will be worth it. Work hard and don't let others bring you down for wanting to do something different. This is your life and you only get one of them.

If you could tell your high school self one thing, what would it be? Confidence is something that you gain over time.