{"id":19751,"date":"2013-03-18T09:16:43","date_gmt":"2013-03-18T13:16:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=19751"},"modified":"2021-07-09T16:19:46","modified_gmt":"2021-07-09T20:19:46","slug":"wounded-healer-rehabilitation-services-student-takes-circuitous-route-to-collegiate-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2013\/03\/18\/wounded-healer-rehabilitation-services-student-takes-circuitous-route-to-collegiate-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Wounded healer: Rehabilitation Services student takes circuitous route to collegiate success"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Kate Richardson thrives in one-on-one interaction with stellar eye contact and observation skills.<\/p><\/div>\n

Senior rehabilitation services student Kate Richardson has been in college for eight years and she\u2019s hoping to make it 10. There have been many times she\u2019s wished her degree had come faster, but she\u2019s determined to leverage her path of struggle and persistence in a career that helps others.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal in life has always been to make a difference in people\u2019s lives and this seems the best way to do it,\u201d said Richardson. \u201cI want to do counseling because words are so important. They can hurt or they can heal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richardson holds a 3.7 GPA and is without doubt one of the most engaged students in the program. With less than a year to graduate, she\u2019s hoping to continue her studies at Wright State in the Master of Rehabilitation Counseling program.<\/p>\n

Richardson believes she is a wounded healer, \u201cwhich is basically someone who\u2019s been through the junk and come out the other side,\u201d she said. The junk she\u2019s dealt with has been substantial.<\/p>\n

From a young age Richardson was a dedicated student and was determined to go to college. Though her family struggled, she knew if she did well in the classroom, she had a free ride in her home state of Indiana because of the Indy Scholars program, which she made a commitment to in the 8th grade.<\/p>\n

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Richardson is hoping to continue her studies at Wright State in the Master of Rehabilitation Counseling program.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201c<\/strong>Basically they said, keep your nose clean, keep your grades up, graduate from an Indiana high school and we\u2019ll pay for college at an Indiana public university,\u201d said Richardson. \u201cThat was fine by me. I was extremely academically driven as a kid. I always loved school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Less than a year later her mother, whom she lived with, was killed in a traffic accident. The driver of the vehicle ran a red light and crashed into another car.<\/p>\n

After the tragedy, Richardson had to make a choice\u2014move in with her estranged father in Ohio and give up her Indy Scholars commitment, or make other arrangements to protect her future. She chose the latter and lived with friends, cousins and her grandparents for the rest of high school in an effort to maintain Indiana residency.<\/p>\n

However, during the spring of her senior year, just as she was about to chooses a college, she learned her father had claimed her that year on his taxes. That made her a resident of Ohio.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey told me I couldn\u2019t have that scholarship anymore,\u201d said Richardson. \u201cI was crushed. I didn\u2019t know what I was going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richardson\u2019s resilience kicked in and her determination drove her to succeed in the Buckeye State. She began taking classes a couple at a time at Sinclair Community College while she worked. After several years at Sinclair, Richardson found her calling\u2014occupational therapy. \u201cIt fit me well because I love medical, and I love people,\u201d said Richardson.<\/p>\n

In its simplest terms, occupational therapists and therapy assistants help people participate in the things they want and need to do through the therapeutic use of everyday activities (occupations). Occupational therapy professionals help children with disabilities participate fully in school and social situations, help people recovering from injury to regain skills and provide support for older adults experiencing physical and cognitive changes<\/p>\n

But Richardson soon found out the waiting list for the program at Sinclair was three years long. She switched gears and enrolled at Wright State.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy experience here has been so gratifying. In every class I feel like I\u2019m at home. I just love learning about rehab stuff,\u201d said Richardson. \u201cMy roommates laugh at me because I love doing any project for my classes. I hear about an assignment and I\u2019m like: \u2018Project!\u2019 I get to learn!\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019s still not quite sure which population she wants to work with most, but her indecision stems from a warm heart that just enjoys helping others so much.<\/p>\n

\u201cI enjoy working with kids; maybe the foster care system working with families and reunification?\u201d she said. \u201cBut I also like working with people with disabilities. I like working with older people too, and college-aged people, so it\u2019s just a hard choice for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatever she settles on, there\u2019s no doubt the community will benefit from her unwavering compassion and persistence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senior rehabilitation services student Kate Richardson has been in college for eight years and she\u2019s hoping to make it 10. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":19760,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,744,725,715,2089,719,4298],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-education-human-services","category-home-news-sidebar","category-news","category-social-work","category-special-categories","category-student-profile"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19751"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43481,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19751\/revisions\/43481"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}