Sarah Arenas was among the first 27 students to join the University of Arkansas’ new occupational therapy doctoral program last year.
She believes that the graduate degree will complement her skills as a nurse and that her patients will be the beneficiaries.
“I still love being a nurse,” she said. “For me it’s not a matter of leaving a career to begin another. My experience in nursing contributes to my learning in my grad program, and learning to be an OT has made me a better nurse.”
The OT program is a joint offering between the College of Education and Health Professions at the U of A and the College of Health Professions at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and UAMS’s Northwest campus in Fayetteville.
Sarah was introduced to occupational therapy while working at the Elizabeth Richardson Center preschool in Northwest Arkansas. She was in her second semester of nursing school, and she noticed how the preschool’s occupational therapist was able to help kids reach goals that nursing couldn’t.
“The beauty of this profession is that occupational therapy belongs everywhere from family practice, to pediatrics or geriatrics, to mental health or working with victims of trauma,” she said. “There’s really no limit to who we can help. I just love to help people. It kept me in nursing and drives me in OT.”
Sarah visits Courage Therapeutic Riding Center in Prairie Grove. The center partners with the Occupational Therapy doctoral program partners with with center, which serves as a clinical placement/internship site. In this photo, Sarah was learning about hippotherapy. “I had no experience with horses before that so the horse hugging me was so cool, we just connected.”
Sarah, who was raised in Springdale and is the mother of three young children, said her heart is softest for people who are marginalized. She’s on the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences’ Division for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee, and her capstone project in the occupational therapy program is shaping up to focus on advocacy and policy change.
Sarah would like to eventually work with students who speak English as a second language to help them succeed in higher education.
“I’m bilingual, and my husband and children are Hispanic, so this is very personal to me,” she said.
Sarah Arenas with her family.
It’s not easy to manage graduate school, motherhood and a full workload as a nurse at Northwest Health System, but Sarah said budgeting and prioritizing her time is second nature now.
“I read something recently about how finding work/life balance is like juggling — and not just three balls, more like 20. Some of the balls are glass, some are plastic, and what they’re made of changes continuously,” she said. “I identify with that, because the truth is that I cannot be the best mother, employee and student I can be simultaneously.
“I have to use my nurse side to triage what is a glass ball that needs to be a priority right now — and what can be a plastic ball that may get dropped.”
Sarah said her support system — which includes her parents, in-laws and friends — is also a vital part of the successful juggling act.
“They provide strength and stability in balancing the program and life,” she said.
Sarah Arenas and fellow OT grad student Dani Moss.
