Trine's Health Professionals Interview Day // Morgan's OTD Admittance Interview

 Back in Morgan's senior year of high school, she was accepted into Trine University's direct entry program for Physical Therapy.  That simply meant that if she maintained the requirements established for the doctorate program, she would be guaranteed entrance into Trine's grad school upon the completion of her three year Exercise Science program.  After three semesters, Morgan is still working in the Exercise Science major where she has maintained all of the requirements, but back at the end of 2024, she made the decision to transition into the Occupational side of therapy instead.  Unfortunately, this means that she now has to re-apply for admittance into the grad school, but this time for the newly created program for Doctor of Occupational Therapy, or ODT.  She completed the application process last weekend and then she was to have her interview on Friday the 7th for the cohort that would begin in May of 2026.

In August of 2024, Trine opened the "Brooks College of Health Professions" at a new location just thirty minutes south of Trine's main campus.  The building is gorgeous, both inside and out and houses six different healthcare fields, including Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Nursing, Surgical Technology, RN to BSN, and Physician Assistant Studies.  

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During the three hour program, we were all given a tour through all three levels of the building (and the basement which includes a workout room, student lounges and study areas, and the cadaver lab) and we were able to see top of the line classroom technology and state of the art laboratories, along with meeting the faculty for the OT program.  Morgan also had 30 minutes to have her one on one interview with the Trine faculty and then we spent the remainder of the time going through the Occupational and Physical Therapy rooms and engaging in some patient / doctor activities where Morgan could demonstrate and work through some patient care ideas in front of the faculty.  I am sure that she was nervous knowing that they were watching her to see if she would be a good fit into the program, but she said that she felt like the interview went really well and she is excited about what the program has to offer.

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Here are a couple of pictures from the Pediatric learning center.  

They also had a fully functioning "home lab" where you would go into the home and find ways to help a patient adapt to their environment.  For example, she could demonstrate how to modify kitchen drawers or bathroom and laundry facilities to accommodate for their various needs.

We also were able to participate in activities to demonstrate how an occupational therapist would help someone with back injuries dress themselves and put on socks and shoes without bending or twisting.  And in this picture, Morgan is wearing goggles to see how patients with challenges to their vision may have trouble reading or coloring.  There was another area where we looked at different ways that young children may grasp their pencils and we were asked to grasp a pencil the same way and then write notes.  By doing that activity, we were able to see how holding a pencil in different ways will change the look and effectiveness of handwriting and also which ones need to be changed and which ones are still effective.

Overall, it was a very informative day and I know that she left feeling really excited about the possibilities ahead.  Now we just wait until they make their decision on who has been accepted into the program.

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If you want to see more about the facility and what they offer, check out this well-done video that was created to showcase the health programs that they offer.  

Morgan's Drop-Off at Trine // Year #2 About to Begin

 As soon as we left Melayna's cross country meet, we headed up to Trine so Morgan could pick up her keys and get checked into her apartment.  She will be sharing a place with five other girls this year.  It's a three bedroom apartment and two girls will be put into each room.  Morgan had a roommate that she knew a little but then two weeks ago that girl decided that she would not be able to stay on campus so Morgan was recently assigned a new roommate whom she has never met.  We are praying that it goes well and that they are able to become good friends over the course of the year.

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Always sad to say goodbye.  Nolan likes to pretend that he doesn't care, but he really does miss his sister when she's gone.

And then we loaded the van and got it all ready to go.

Last year Morgan had to check into school on a Friday morning and Marissa was in high school so she didn't go with us last year.  Since she hasn't ever been on Trine's campus, she asked if she could go with us this year and it was nice to have her along with us to help us carry things and get Morgan all settled in.

Morgan went to the student union and was able to check in and get her keys and then just as we arrived to the front of her dorm, it started to sprinkle.  Thankfully her room has a deck in the front and we were all able to carry her stuff to the covered deck and just hand them to her over the railing.  Then Marissa helped her carry all of it to her room.  We also lofted her bed just a little higher so she could slide her refrigerator and storage under the bed.  Then she could put things away later after we left.  We also ran to the Dollar General to pick up some groceries before saying our goodbyes outside the dorm and then heading back home.

Here is their living area.  Right now the couches are all squished in there but after everyone moves in and gets their room settled, the chairs will be put back.

There aren't any kitchens in these apartments, but they are all allowed to have refrigerators, air fryers and microwaves so all of the girls have a lesser meal plan and will eat more meals back in their rooms, I'm sure.

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Saying goodbye is obviously never easy, but it does help knowing that this is her second year and she already has friends and a familiar campus.  

See you in just TWO weeks!

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On Sunday night, Morgan sent a couple of pictures of how her room turned out once everything was put away and it was decorated.  I think it turned out really cute.

She's Home!!

 She's home for the summer!  Yay!

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Morgan took all of her final exams this past week and finished up one presentation and then I was able to help her move out of her dorm on Thursday.  After a final lunch in the cafeteria, we waited for her room inspection and then she turned in her room keys and we headed back home.  We are all so excited to have her back in the house for the entire summer!

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Isn't Trine just the prettiest this time of year?

Morgan has been bringing a little home with her last few visits, so it only took us three or four trips back and forth to get it all loaded back up.  (I also think she acquired some more clothes this year.  LOL!)

Now she just has to find a place to store it in our house all summer long.

Trine SOAR (Student Orientation and Registration) Day // College Prep

 It was almost exactly a year ago when I wrote this post about Morgan making college visits to Trine, Indiana Wesleyan, and Liberty University.  She liked all three of her visits (and would eventually also visit Grace College and Indiana State University), but Trine University did eventually win out due to her acceptance into their DPT program and she made her final decision to attend Trine back in the month of May.  

This past week, we were scheduled to attend SOAR (Student Orientation and Registration) day.  We arrived at the Trine campus around 8:20 on Friday morning and immediately went to the Student Center so she could check in and we both could receive our information packets.  Then the students were divided up into groups based upon their majors and the parents were divided the same.  As the students were touring campus and getting their ID's made and learning how to log into their computer portals, the parents were learning how to take out last minute loans, what to bring to campus, and other important information like that.  Then after a great lunch, Morgan and I walked across campus to meet with her academic advisor and to finalize her fall semester.

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This is the new SDI building on campus.  It's more for the computer science and engineering majors so Morgan won't have any classes in there but I'm sure she'll make use of the study labs and large coffee shop.  The exercise science department is right next to the SDI building and it is also a newly renovated building so she will have state of the art exercise labs and facilities which we are excited about.

The administrative building near the center of campus...

...and just other pretty brick buildings scattered around the small campus.

I did not get any pictures of the exercise science building but all of her fall classes will be in the same building except for one.

After she met with her advisor (and found out that her earliest class is a 9:00 a.m.), we went to the campus bookstore to waste some time until her roommate arrived to meet us.  Then once Rachel and her mom arrived, we headed over to their dorm so they could take some measurements and look at how their rooms would be set up.

Morgan will be staying in honors housing her first year so this dorm is for freshman honor students and it has a lot of open room in it's lobbies to facilitate group learning and study groups.

Rachel and Morgan both chose to have their beds put at "mid level" so they had to measure to see how much storage room they will have underneath.

Not to worry... if it doesn't fit under the bed, there is plenty of room in this walk-in closet!

The typical room set-up where they are staying.

There are small dressers under each bed and two desks.

One room was set up like this...

... and the second room was more like this.

There are actually two bedrooms in each room so four girls will live in the space and share one really large bathroom.  They will also share a living area that includes a dining table and a couple of couches / chairs.  This is not the exact table that is in their room but it will be similar to this.  Since we live in the midwest, Morgan may play quite a bit of euchre at this table.  LOL  

The girls are messaging back and forth to decide who will bring in the fridge and a microwave and other items that they can have in their rooms.

Outside of their room, there is this really large lobby area with multiple tables, chairs, and a microwave and cooking area.  They also have free laundry facilities on each level.

This is their exact room but the door was locked so we couldn't get in to see it, but I'm sure that it looks the same as the "sample" room and I'm excited to see how the four girls finish decorating.

Although Morgan has talked online to her roommate and suite mates, I do know that she really enjoyed meeting Rachel in person and feels much better about sharing a space with her.  They are both really quiet but sweet girls and I hope that they build a really sweet and long-lasting friendship over this next year.