Fatima Koroma
Hometown
Glendale, Maryland
Undergraduate Major
Public Health; Minor in Maternal and Child Health, and Law and Society
Why Occupational Therapy?
Occupational therapy is mainly about empowering people to live fully and presently, regardless of their physical, mental, and emotional capabilities. I say empower because not only are we empowering in the clinic...
We can empower through advocacy, through teaching, through learning, through listening, and through just being holistic practitioners who come with an understanding of this very long list of factors that could potentially affect someone's health.
Inspired by the Location
Being in this city, in the nation's capital, has allowed me to think about occupational therapy in a broader, worldwide sense. I think about how I can make change politically, and how I can make change systematically because of where we're located and the opportunities that we have.
The resources and the access of this city, specifically, have opened up doors that I didn't think would ever be possible.
Understood by the Faculty
I think that having faculty that not only all look different, but they all have different interests, different specialties, and really push understanding, acceptance and diversity. Our faculty also do a really good job of focusing on how the person is more than just their health, they are everything else around them.
The faculty understand that historically marginalized populations need to be uplifted in historically white spaces, like higher education. I've been given a lot of opportunities by the faculty here— I appreciate that a lot. I think that they are amplifying their students of color, from my perspective.
Future Goals
I think the future looks like building a rehabilitation women's clinic center focused specifically on women with trauma... any type of trauma; mental, physical, or spiritual. I think it also looks like me giving back to my community and advocating for individuals who have gone through experiences that have shaped their lives greatly. I specifically know I want to do some work with the burn community in my future. I also want to take my knowledge and give it back to people in areas that are less privileged. My parents are from Sierra Leone, Africa, and the infrastructure there isn't the best.
It's really important to me that I make change on a global level, whether that's just providing resources to individuals in need or potentially working there someday with my mom who's a nurse.