Eleven years ago, Janet O’Flynn, Dean of FSRL, sat down to write about what she had done over the weekend.
She had attended the graduation of rehabilitation technicians completing an 18-month certificate program offered through a partnership between Loma Linda University and the Adventist University of Haiti. But what began as a story about a graduation quickly became a story about what might come next.
The rehabilitation technician program was entering its final year. Its graduates had gained valuable training in Haiti, but there was a new question to answer: What opportunities would exist for those who wanted to continue their education and become occupational and physical therapy professionals?
At the same time, FSRL was just beginning.
Read Janet O'Flynn's original blog post
22 September, 2015
WHAT I DID OVER THE WEEKEND
I just got back at mid-day Monday from a remarkable event. For four years now there has been a way to earn college credit in a rehab field, from an American university, without ever leaving Haiti. Loma Linda University (LLU) in LA has been partnering with the Adventist University of Haiti (UNAH, using the French acronym) to offer an 18 month certificate program for rehab technicians. On Sunday I attended the LLU/UNAH graduation ceremonies on the UNAH campus in Carrefours, just a little west of Port-au-Prince.
You might think that I wouldn’t know anyone who was graduating, but that would be incorrect! I knew two people in the graduating class, and one more in the class that is still in progress (NEXT year’s graduating class). The reason is that I have an OT colleague named Autumn Marshall who runs the pediatric therapy program at a mission way up north. She has been taking these rehab technicians for fieldwork (or clinical ed) for at least two years now, and then sometimes they are so excellent that she hires them! Some of her students and staff were in Carrefours for the graduation. So, just as for an out-of-town wedding, we were all in the same place at a guest house just off of the UNAH campus for two nights and three days, coming and going from festivities. I got to know Nahum and Nicholson, two of the most congenial, appealing, friendly young men on earth. For that reason, I had someone to cheer for at the graduation!
SURPRISES!
I also recognized a third student, named Farah. I remember Farah from our first meeting, at St. Vincent’s in April 2013, where ten or more representatives of rehab agencies discussed the pros and cons of starting the FSRL program. She represented UNAH. Since that day, she has completed a master’s degree in nursing, by going overseas to Thailand (!). She then enrolled in this rehab tech program, because of her interest in rehabilitation, and there she was, receiving the certificate on the stage!
The even bigger surprise was that the timing for the opening of our new program was a perfect fit with the timing of the closing of the rehab technician program. The
LLU program is in its final year, and their leadership team members have been doing a lot of thinking about whether there’s any way to provide for further education for their recent graduates in Haiti. They had a question in mind: “Wouldn’t it be great if there were a four-year bachelor’s degree program in OT and PT here in Haiti, so our graduates could go on to become professionals?”
CONNECTIONS
In that connection, I met the program director, Dr. Everett Lohman III, and the program coordinator, Sondra Capisio. They were appreciative of the effort we have been making to accommodate the conscience of Adventist students who observe Saturday as the Sabbath. [I have committed to recording any Saturday classes that are offered through the FSRL curriculum, i.e. in years 2,3, and 4, so those students can review the recordings on Sundays.] And that brought us to talking about how we could provide transfer credit into the FSRL program, so that they would have a somewhat shorter course of study toward the bachelor’s.
And THAT brought us to talking about how LLU could encourage their volunteer OT and PT faculty to spend time teaching for us, once the rehab tech program is closed. There might be some books and supplies we could inherit, and even the use of a therapy clinic for classrooms, for a lab. These two program directors are visionaries, able to think of possibilities and ask “why not?”
LOOKING AHEAD HAPPILY
So this weekend of connections may be the beginning of a university partnership that will allow the idealistic and capable graduates of the rehab tech program to continue, at FSRL, to get their bachelor’s degrees. A connection with the rehab techs is something we have always wanted to do: the circumstances seem to have brought it about earlier than expected!
– Janet
Janet wrote about conversations happening that weekend around transfer credits, volunteer faculty, books and supplies, and even potential classroom and lab space. These were early conversations about how one program ending might connect with another just beginning.
She ended the post looking ahead — hopeful that these new connections might create a pathway for rehabilitation technicians to continue their education and earn bachelor’s degrees in Haiti.
Eleven years later, we know what came next.
Reading Janet’s words over a decade later gives us a rare glimpse of this work before anyone knew exactly where it would lead.
What we can now describe through graduates, clinicians, patients and years of work was, in September 2015, still a possibility being discussed over the course of a weekend.
The original title of Janet’s post was simply “What I Did Over the Weekend.”
Eleven years later, we know that weekend was part of a much bigger story.
