Stumbling into a career that’s a perfect fit

Learn how Becca Jacobs followed her mother’s path to find a rewarding OT career.

“I would love to be able to inspire somebody to keep pushing themselves to succeed. I hope I can be that teacher for somebody.”

For Becca Jacobs, working in healthcare is somewhat of a family business. Her mother is a physical therapist, and her sister is a speech therapist. “My mom worked in nursing homes when I was growing up and sometimes took us to work with her. We’d hang out and play games because they always had puzzles and stuff there. I remember thinking I liked saying ‘hi’ to the patients, but at that time, I was very little and had blonde curly hair, and the ladies there told me they wanted to steal my hair (laughs). Despite that, I always had it in my head that I wanted to do rehab because I loved what my mom did.”

When it came time for Becca to go to college, she started applying to schools with rehabilitation programs. She landed at Boston University, whose rehab program covered speech, occupational, and physical therapy. However, at the time, Becca was unsure which specialty to pursue. “On the first day of class, they sat everybody down and put us into sections based on whatever profession we were going into. I was in the ‘undecided’ section, and they handed out all the syllabi. I hadn’t heard much about OT, but when I started looking through the OT program syllabus, it just felt right. So even though I kind of stumbled into it, it fits me to a ‘T.’”

The Boston University program was a five-year bachelor’s to master’s program. About halfway through the master’s section, BU started a post-professional online OT doctoral program, so she applied and got into that program as well.

After Becca graduated, she moved to Philadelphia and worked in geriatrics for four years, specifically in home care, which she found very interesting and fulfilling. Her job consisted of going to patients’ homes and working on things like fall prevention, helping them learn to walk again, and getting them to a place where they could dress themselves or cook their own meals without needing to take a break.

“My mom has been doing home care for 20 years, so I figured I would go that route eventually. But I got this great opportunity right after graduating to work with really fabulous mentors. I loved going into people's homes and helping them where they needed it rather than trying to recreate their environment in a clinic. It just felt more meaningful that way. I could see where they were having issues, change their environment, or give them recommendations for equipment or strengthening exercises in a way that would help them succeed. I also loved the challenge of not knowing what I was walking into.”

For Becca, an especially important aspect of helping her geriatric clients was listening to their life experiences. She loved helping them remember that their identity was defined by so much more than their condition or rehab. “As a healthcare provider, I ask them to tell me what’s going on with them right now, what’s important to them, and what they want to be able to do. Because that's what OT is. It's about the patients’ meaningful occupations and what keeps them going. They often simply want to be able to play with their grandkids or get dressed and walk down the street to the local coffee shop because they love to sit there with their newspaper. Seeing them achieve their goals of just getting back to their life was so rewarding.”

Becca says the psychological component is what makes occupational therapy so different from physical therapy. “OT is very behavior-based and psychological-based. Our goal is to change our patients’ habits and routines and adjust them so that they can complete their activities and work with whatever their bodies are doing. For example, if they're unable to use their hand, we work on how they can still put their pants on or make a batch of brownies with one hand.”

After Philadelphia, Becca and her family moved to San Diego, where she began working at Rehab United. While she works with various populations, women’s health and maternal care have always been her passions. That includes providing specialized care in pelvic floor, an area of physical and occupational therapy that works with the muscles in the pelvis and the whole body to help with incontinence, constipation, pain with sex, and other pelvic pain. “When I started researching maternal health and I came across pelvic floor, it just fit. I feel like that's a theme with me. I find something, and that’s it; it clicks. I am incredibly decisive.”

Becca has been an adjunct professor at a few universities throughout her career. But when it came time to devote more of her career to teaching, she asked around through her professional network and found the job listing for Associate Professor of OT at ӣ��Ƶ. “It really fit everything I was looking for. Then, I met ӣ��Ƶ MOT program director Adele Breen-Franklin, who is also from Philly. She’s hysterical, brilliant, and fun to work with. When I met her, I immediately felt like I was talking to somebody I've known my whole life.”

Becca will be teaching the functional anatomy course starting in the fall of 2025 and likes that it’s focused on teaching anatomy as it applies to daily functions. “I wish I had learned anatomy this way. For example, learning what the bicep does and how it helps you to bring a glass of water to your mouth. I'm very excited about approaching the course through this methodology.”

Becca is also looking forward to being more active in creating the coursework and curriculum, which is new for her. She loves that the MOT program at ӣ��Ƶ will offer fieldwork every trimester, which is different than what she experienced during her degree program. “Usually, fieldwork is done once a week for eight weeks. In our program, the students will work 8-hour days for five days in the middle of the trimester, so they’re totally immersed in it for a full week. They get to experience what a true work week is like for an OT, and the fieldwork will focus on what they’ve just learned in that trimester. It will be a great way for the students to feel like they're already in the OT world.”

Becca’s excitement about joining ӣ��Ƶ stems from her love of the work and her desire to be a great teacher for her students. “I want the students to feel confident in what we’re providing for them.” Becca shared a story about one of her most memorable undergraduate teachers. “At the end of my first semester, I did not do well in biology and knew I had to retake it. I remember sitting down with one of the OT professors who was my academic advisor. She said, ‘I don’t know you at all, but I can tell you're meant to be an OT. So, if you want this to work, it will work.’ She reassured me about retaking the course, and I will never forget what she did for me. It meant so much, and I will always remember her because she was the reason I kept going with the OT program. I hope I can be that teacher for somebody. I would love to be able to inspire somebody to keep pushing themselves to succeed. It's so rewarding to be an OT, and I'm sure it will be very rewarding to be a professor.”

Author

Elizabeth Quinn

Elizabeth Quinn is an independent writer and producer whose work spans theatre, podcast, film, and television mediums. She brings over...

ӣ��Ƶ