Mastering the Orientation

Well, here we are, AOMA cohort of Fall 2011, yang-eyed, yin-tailed, and ready to seize the world by the tips of our little acupuncture needle and herb-filled fingers (at least in three to four years, when we graduate with a Master's degree in Oriental Medicine). The student orientation was two days of mostly interesting, sometimes hokey, typically useful, and always appreciated informational meet-and-greet with the AOMA staff and our new fellow students. I was pleasantly surprised at the number of out-of-state students, if only for the infusion of non-Texan blood into the state and having more people to commiserate the lack of Trader Joes here with me.

We have a wide diversity of undergraduate degree backgrounds represented: nursing, mathematics, fine arts, journalism, music, clinical psychology, education, Spanish, and engineering (yours truly), among others. AOMA has their first international student, too, a family practice medical doctor from Mexico.


Here is Diana, my lovely friend from Virginia, who spent several months working in Taiwan in her prior career in environmental consulting. I don't think that it is a mere coincidence when you meet someone new and just hit it off instantly; sometimes it is only later that you discover you have uniquely intersecting interests. She and I will have the same schedule this quarter: Anatomy and Physiology; Foundations of Chinese Medicine I; Acupuncture Point Location; Clinical Theater I; Biomedical Terminology; and Acupuncture Techniques.

Diana looks a lot better in her white coat than I do. I need longer arms. We had a "white coat" presentation ceremony, as we will need to wear these (or clean scrubs--I don't think my "Sponge Bob" scrubs will do) during our clinic observation rounds coming up second term. And as clinic interns (gulp) next year, if all goes according to plan.

A major part of our orientation involved visualizing our success in the program and general pep-talking. The program is rigorous and stressful (especially when learning about the Chinese herbs, we have been told), so some of the exercises we did were to remind us of why we chose to pursue these studies. One of our fun activities (hearkening back to grade school days of yore) was to make a collage of what our goals were. It seems from my collage that my goal is to visit Greece and snag Apollo Ono. Wait, no, he's there because his positive spirit and winning attitude will remind me never to give up. And he looks darn cute on my collage.

Golly, this was sure a far cry from my student orientation as an undergraduate civil engineering major at UC Berkeley, where we were told to look to our left and look to our right, and that 50 percent of us would not be there by second semester. I can't remember what our student orientation at Stanford was like, but some sort of wine and liver paté was probably involved.