Alumni Success – Professional Cook of 16 Years Chooses MCC to Help Him Change Careers

Manchester, Conn. (November 28, 2016) – Before attending Manchester Community College, Stephen Phillips ’16 felt that he was stuck in a rut. Going to his job as a cook at a nursing home became mundane and unchallenging.

“I felt as though I could do my job in my sleep, and I wanted more out of life than that,” Phillips said. “After 16 years, I wanted a major change.” Working at the nursing home rekindled an interest that had always been there – pursuing a career as an occupational therapy assistant (OTA).

“Seeing what went into being an OTA only gave me more assurance that this is what I needed to do,” he said.

Phillips set out on what he knew was going to be a long road, but he took it one day at a time. After a lot of research and contemplating, he found MCC’s program. “I chose the OTA program at MCC because the level of success is so high here,” he said. “Because of that, any time I said I trained at MCC it has such weight to it. It gave me great credentials. The instructors are amazing here. They are so driven and passionate. It becomes infectious.”

Occupational therapy is a growing specialty present in the healthcare field. OTAs provide recovering patients with training to perform tasks in their day-to-day lives. These activities include bathing, getting dressed and cooking. As well as equipping the patients with necessary skills, OTAs also offer patients and their families suggestions on how to adapt — whether that be at their home, work or school environments — to best meet the new circumstances and needs.

The program at MCC includes coursework with a simultaneous four-month supervised clinical experience that focuses on the psycho-social, physical and developmental aspects of practicing occupational therapy. The program is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education of the American Occupational Therapy Association. Graduates are eligible to take the national certification exam.

MCC will host a free OTA program informational session on Tuesday, December 6, from 1 to 2 p.m. in GPA Community Commons for students with an interest in enrolling for the Fall 2017 term. For more information, contact Maggie Moriarty at mmoriarty@manchestercc.edu.

For his part, Phillips has been an OTA for three months as of this writing, and he couldn’t be happier. Although he stresses that the program was a challenge, with each program milestone that he achieved, he began to get excited for his new-found future. “I now find that I push myself and my brain more,” he said. “I am constantly learning now. I feel so fulfilled and accomplished after each day. My brain is never off now. I am always asking, ‘What more can I do today?’”

He acknowledges that after 16 years it might sound scary to switch careers. The hardest part was stepping outside of his comfort zone. “I went from cook to OTA at 57 years old and I’m more excited about my life than I have ever been.”

Today, his advice is, “Listen to yourself. Ask yourself what’s missing. Ask yourself if you’re happy. Don’t be scared to even just look into another career path. The last thing I wanted to be was a grumpy old man full of regret who wished I did something more with my life.”

Along with his new-found happiness comes new goals. His newest goal is to retire by 70 years old, buy an RV, and become a traveling OTA. There is one piece of conventional wisdom that has always spoken to him, and he hopes for all those people out there it might inspire them too: “If you enjoy the journey, the destination doesn’t seem so far away.”