OT student Daniela Naclerio assists preschoolers and Sisters with an intergenerational arts and crafts activity.
Students in the Occupational Therapy Program have been working with Dominican Sisters at the Convent in Blauvelt as part of their Level I fieldwork. Two of the students, Alyana Pomerantz and Daniela Naclerio created an intergenerational program which involved preschoolers from St. Catharine’s Early Childhood Center playing and doing arts and crafts with Sisters from the Infirmary on Friday, November 3.
Michael Pizzi, Associate Professor of Occupational Therapy, said, “So the students are creating right now a more interactive thing between the Sisters and the preschoolers and if you observe, the Sisters are smiling. They are engaged. When they are sitting in their rooms, there is nothing else going on and they sleep.”
Other activities that the OT students have used to engage the Sisters include gardening, cooking, and painting, as well as socialization and memory activities.