Exploring the Path to Occupational Therapy with Dr. Julie Jacob

The path to success is rarely straightforward, and Dr. Julie Jacob’s journey from military service to directing the Occupational Therapy Doctorate Program at the University of Michigan Flint illustrates that vividly. During her appearance on the podcast, Victor’s in Grad School, Dr. Jacob shared her unique educational and professional trajectory, proving that twists, turns, and detours can lead to meaningful and rewarding outcomes.

Starting her career in the military with a focus on communications, Dr. Jacob completed her associate degree in information systems management while serving. Yet, her passion lay elsewhere. After leaving the military and initially pursuing a healthcare-related degree in med lab sciences, her path shifted again. A challenging math course in undergrad led her to explore other healthcare options, eventually discovering occupational therapy (OT). Through research and coursework, Dr. Jacob recognized OT as her calling, igniting a commitment to lifelong learning and service.

---

The Transitions: Adaptability and Resilience

Each stage of Dr. Jacob’s academic journey—earning an associate’s degree, undergraduate degree, master’s degree, and doctorate—required significant adjustments. From rote memorization in earlier programs to analytical and self-directed learning in graduate school, she had to evolve her study habits and approach. More importantly, she developed robust skills in time management and organization, crucial for balancing her studies with work and family responsibilities.

Dr. Jacob emphasized that succeeding in graduate studies takes significant sacrifice, as students often face financial, time, and personal challenges. “Organization and time management were the biggest pieces that I really had to nail down in order to be successful,” she shared. This lesson resonates universally for anyone embarking on a graduate school journey.

---

The Passion for Occupational Therapy

Occupational therapy is a field dedicated to enhancing individuals’ lives—helping people overcome physical, cognitive, and emotional challenges to engage in meaningful daily activities. Its blend of holistic care and creativity captured Dr. Jacob’s heart, paralleling her own multifaceted journey. “It’s strength-based and the perfect blend of art and science,” Dr. Jacob explained, illustrating why OT was the right fit for her and why it remains a fulfilling profession.

---

Advice for Future Graduate Students

With years of academic and professional experience, Dr. Jacob encouraged students to anticipate the sacrifices and challenges associated with graduate school. It may be demanding, but her story highlights that the rewards—personal growth, professional advancement, and meaningful impact—make it worthwhile.

By embracing resilience, adaptability, and a passion for making a difference, anyone can navigate the twists and turns of their educational journeys as Dr. Jacob did. Let her experience serve as inspiration for your own path toward success.

 

TRANSCRIPT

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:00:01]:
Welcome to Victor's in Grad School, where we have conversations with students, alumni, and experts about what it takes to find success in graduate school.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:00:11]:
Welcome back to Victor's in Grad School. I'm your host, doctor Christopher Lewis, director of graduate programs at the University of Michigan Flint. Really excited to have you back again this week as we, every week, talk about the journey that you're on. And I call it a journey because it truly is a journey. Every person walks a different path when it comes to looking at graduate school, considering graduate school, walking through graduate school to find that light at the end of the tunnel, leading you to the career and the dreams that you may have for your future. And the thing that is so important is that there are things that you can do right now as you are listening today to be able to prepare yourself for that journey and to prepare yourself to find success in that journey. And that's why every week we come back and we have an opportunity to be able to sit down and talk through this, but also you get an opportunity to learn from others that have done this before you. And that's why I love being able to bring you different guests with different experiences that can help you to understand the journey that they went on to then allow you to take some things out of that, to look and consider what you can take out of it to build some tools for your own toolbox that help you along the way.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:01:28]:
This week, we got another great guest. Doctor Julie Jacob is with us today, and doctor Jacob is the director of the occupational therapy doctorate program at the University of Michigan Flint. And we were just talking prior to talking today about the journey that she went on, and it it's a circuitous path. And sometimes for for students like you, you may have a circuitous or you may have a circuitous path that will twist and turn along the way to get you to that endpoint. And we're gonna talk to Julie about that today. So I'm really excited to have her here and for you to learn from her experiences. Julie, thanks so much for being here today.

Dr. Julie Jacob [00:02:08]:
Yeah. Thank you for having me.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:02:09]:
Yeah. I am really excited to be able to have you here today to talk about the journey that you went on. And I talked about the fact that your journey was not a linear path, but more circuitous and the fact that you you had a number of twists and trends along the way. So I always start these opportunities to get a little bit more sense. And I know you got into your degrees first through the military, but then the journey began. So I want to go back because I know that you did your first educational experiences in the military as a part of the military. And thank you for your service.

Dr. Julie Jacob [00:02:43]:
Oh, you're welcome.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:02:44]:
And then after you got out, you did some work. Somewhere along this pathway, you decided to get an undergraduate degree, and you went to Saginaw Valley State University. And while you were at Saginaw Valley State University, you made a decision. You made a decision whether on your own accord or not to continue your education, and you ended up finding occupational therapy. Talk to me about that journey for yourself, and what led you to occupational therapy ultimately?

Dr. Julie Jacob [00:03:15]:
Well, when I was in the military, I was in communications. And so my associate's degree, I took classes while I was in, and my associate's degree is in information systems management. So I took classes when I was deployed, when I was at my main duty station, as I could part time obviously, and got that accomplished. But I knew that I wanted to go into health care. I was kinda like, what do I wanna be when I grow up? And I knew I wanted a health care career. At the time, I chose to get out of the military because there was not a health care career that I could transition to and remain active duty at that time. So when I went to pursue my undergraduate degree, initially, I was a med lab sciences major, and I was taking all of the required courses for that major. And I happened to take, a more advanced math course and found it very challenging.

Dr. Julie Jacob [00:03:59]:
And I had never really been challenged in my undergrad. I I got very good grades, but sometimes that happens. And I did everything that I could, but I thought to myself, maybe this is not the right major for me. And so I needed to stay at Saginaw Valley just for, you know, financial reasons, stay stay in the general region where I was at. And I started looking into other programs that they offered, and I stumbled upon occupational therapy. And I had not really heard of that before. And as I did more investigating, I'm like, wow. This sounds like this career is right up my alley.

Dr. Julie Jacob [00:04:24]:
It's health care related. The curriculum looks really interesting, is something that I would be interested in doing. So I ended up changing my major to that. And at that time, it was for the profession, entry level was a bachelor's program. But as luck would have it, I was taking classes part time. And when I decided to transition full time, the profession of occupational therapy had undergone a shift to make it, master's level prepared entry level. So if I wanted to continue, I would need to get a master's degree. And so I was already invested at that point and decided to just continue my studies.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:05:01]:
Now you had a lot of transitions going from getting an associate's degree in the military, to getting an undergraduate degree, to getting a master's degree and then getting a doctorate degree. And in all of those transitions, you have to learn something new. Every educational transition brings you to having to learn about those different educational, those educational environments and being able to understand the expectations, etcetera. But you found success in those journeys. You were able to get your associates, get your bachelor's, get that master's, get that doctorate degree. Talk to me about those transitions, the transition into undergrad, transition from undergrad to master's, transition from master's to doctorate, and what you learned along the way in those transitions as you transitioned in. And as you transitioned in, what did you have to do to be able to set yourself up for success? And what did you have to do to maintain your success as you transitioned through those programs to your ultimate goal?

Dr. Julie Jacob [00:06:01]:
Well, I think the way that you're assessed is different. I mean, I remember early on in my educational journey, you know, you're taking a lot of exams, and it's a lot of rote memorization of the content. So the way I was studying was different. As I transitioned into, you know, going from my bachelor's into my master's program, the work there was a shift in the in the expectation and the work. So it was more clinical reason how I was thinking about things. You know, clinical reasoning, critical thinking skills were more required rather than just, you know, studying for an exam and forgetting about it. I felt like I was building upon my knowledge. Every single class required me to kind of remember what I had learned before and apply that to the new content.

Dr. Julie Jacob [00:06:40]:
Organization was very, very important. Time management was really important. You know, you're you'd have big papers to write rather than just just studying for a simple exam. So allowing myself more time. I was also working. I I worked during my master's program and my doctorate program. I was working. So that takes a lot of balance, in order to manage manage my time and and devote what I needed to to my studies plus everything that else just to balance my home life.

Dr. Julie Jacob [00:07:12]:
So I think there's definitely a shift in the expectation. And then transitioning to my doctorate program, it was all self directed learning. You have everything kind of laid out for you. The expectations are laid out for you. There's a lot more discussion, but everything was pretty much self directed at that point. And a lot of that in the master's program too, of course. So, yeah, I think for me, like, organization and time management was were the biggest pieces that I really had to nail down in order to be successful.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:07:40]:
Now I know that from doing your undergrad and your grad at Saginaw Valley State University, you ended up at some point deciding that you wanted to get a doctorate degree and you went to Nova Southeastern to be able to do that program. Talk to me about the decision to go further than the masters, because you could have decided to stay with the masters, be a practitioner, work as an OT, and having a a fruitful career, staying and working in that environment, but you decided to continue on, get the doctorate, and go back and teach. So talk to me about that. And what made you decide that you wanted to go further and get that doctorate degree?

Dr. Julie Jacob [00:08:25]:
So I was a clinician for many years, and then I actually transitioned into academia. And I went to work in the occupational therapy department at Santa Clara Valley State University, which was a great transition for me. So I was in charge of all the field work classes. I taught adjunct for some of the, undergraduate prereqs in the occupational therapy program. But there's been a lot of transition still in the occupational therapy field with a lot of programs moving towards an entry level doctorate degree. So we still have dual points of entry in our profession. So you can enter the profession at a master's level or you can choose to have an entry level doctorate, which is like what we have at University of Michigan Flint. But if you have a program that has a doctorate, entry level doctorate, all of your faculty must be doctorally prepared.

Dr. Julie Jacob [00:09:08]:
And teaching at Saginaw Valley, I was not. So if they that program was going to transition and there was a lot of talk that they were going to transition and a lot of talk of the profession that they were gonna mandate a transition at that time to keep my job. I had to move towards a doctor degree. So I could have gone back to clinical practice, like you said. I mean, that's easy. I love treating patients and I love clinical practice, but I really grew to love teaching in academia. And I knew that I wanted to stay in academia. So So there's no question for me.

Dr. Julie Jacob [00:09:35]:
I'm like, okay, then this is what I need to do in order to maintain my ability to, to teach. I need to get my doctorate degree. And so then I explored that option and decided to pursue that.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:09:44]:
So one of the things that I'm kind of interested in is that, you know, you went from being in the military to being a full time student, to being a full time student and working, and, you know, you're balancing all of these different things like many students do. And as you look back at the experience that you had in your graduate degree in both your graduate degrees and you think about what you do today, how did all of this other experience lead you to where you are today? And how do you draw from that graduate school experience in the work that you do on a daily basis?

Dr. Julie Jacob [00:10:20]:
I mean, like you said, my path is a little unconventional, but I almost feel like a lot of students now, you know, there there's a lot of people out there that are completely switching career fields when their, their paths are not linear. I think that lends itself to having a lot of life experience, especially in a healthcare profession that helps you connect better with your patients. They say, you know, you can't connect the dots looking forward, but you can connect the dots looking backward. And I certainly can connect the dots to everything that I've done. I mean, even my experience in the air force in communications and having my associate's degree in information systems management, I got my doctorate degree in health science with a concentration in telehealth. And a lot of the curriculum that I studied had to do with technology and some of the things that I was doing way back in my associate's degree and in my my military service. So the dots definitely connect. So def that all served me to help me get to where I am today.

Dr. Julie Jacob [00:11:13]:
You know, my clinical practice being occupational therapy, I couldn't teach if I didn't have any clinical practice. Right? So, I think all of it kind of led me. And the fact that I went ahead and I got my doctorate degree, and I'm now teaching in a entry level doctorate program. And I was able to obtain a position at University of Michigan Flint, which I otherwise would not have. Had I not decided to go ahead with that, I would not have been able to have the position that I'm in today and to continue to teach and help shape future practitioners in OT.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:11:42]:
Now, like I said, you are the program director of the occupational therapy program at the University of Michigan Flint. And as you said, you found this passion, you found this career area for yourself, and not everybody knows about what occupational therapy is all about. And a lot of times it is a found career unless they unless someone has had an experience with an occupational therapy or has had a family member with an occupational therapy, occupational therapist in the past. So talk to me about occupational therapy and why are you so passionate about it and why is it such a great career area for you and for others?

Dr. Julie Jacob [00:12:18]:
Occupational therapy, healthcare profession that we're focused on helping individuals of all ages. So, you know, essentially from birth to death to palliative care, and we focus on helping people participate in meaningful activities or what we call occupations. So So anything that occupies your time is essentially what an occupation is that are essential to their daily lives. So that could be anything from your self care that you're doing, activities of daily living, work, education, which is the primary occupation of students at our university, their leisure activities, social interaction. So, but the ultimate goal of occupational therapy is to help people live as independently and as fully as they possibly can. Despite any challenges, whether that be physical or cognitive, emotional, or any social challenges that they may face. And OTs really address the whole person. It's a very holistic approach to health care.

Dr. Julie Jacob [00:13:07]:
So we address physical, emotional, psychological factors rather than just focusing on, like, there an illness or an injury or a disability. So we're it's strength based. And I think it it's kind of the perfect blend of art and science because occupational therapists can be very, very creative in their approach. It's very person centered. We utilize the things of the occupations that people do as forms of intervention, which is it's a really unique way of addressing the needs of our patients.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:13:34]:
Well, I really appreciate you sharing that. Now, as you think of students, whether they are looking at going to become an occupational therapist or whatever graduate degree that they have an interest in, what are some tips that you might offer others considering graduate education that would help them find success sooner?

Dr. Julie Jacob [00:13:50]:
It takes sacrifice. It really does take sacrifice. I think sometimes people think it's going to be easy. I'm gonna do this thing and it's gonna be easy and I'm gonna get through it and but it really does take a lot of sacrifice in your time. Sometimes it's financial sacrifice. I mean, I have student loans. Nobody paid for me to go to school. I had my GI bill, which paid for a very small portion of my undergraduate degree.

Dr. Julie Jacob [00:14:11]:
And after that, it was all loans. So there was a definitely a financial sacrifice for me. There's a time sacrifice as far as having to work and balance all of those things. And even with my doctorate degree, I have children. So there's the sacrifice there, and they understood and were very supportive. But I think you need to be able to recognize that in advance and just have that expectation that sometimes not everything is gonna go perfectly, but it's worth it to put in the work. You just have to put in the work to get to your goal. And all of it is worth it in the end to be able to get there.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:14:41]:
Well, Julie, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for your time today, for sharing your own journey, and I wish you all the best. Thank you. The University of Michigan Flint has a full array of master's and doctorate programs if you are interested in continuing your education. Whether you're looking for in person or online learning options, the University of Michigan Flint has programs that will meet your needs. For more information on any of our graduate programs, visit umflint.edu/graduateprograms to find out more. Thanks again for spending time with me as you prepare to be a victor in grad school. I look forward to speaking with you again soon as we embark together on your graduate school journey.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:15:22]:
If you have any questions or want to reach out, email me at [email protected].