Winter 2005 - Keuka College

Canada
Northern Exposure
Population
of Milton,
Ontario: about 60,000.
Population of Keuka Park, N.Y.: about 1,300.
And their differences don’t end there.
“Milton is a short distance away from the sprawl of
Toronto, but the sprawl will shortly envelop it, too,” said
Rachel McPhie Fraser ’01, who moved to the country three
years ago after marrying a native Canadian. An occupational
therapist, she relocated to Milton in February 2004 from
Brampton, Ontario.
“Brampton is a suburb of
Toronto, and with about
350,000 people, is very large
and very busy,” Fraser added.
“Metro-politan Toronto is
about 5 million people and its
surrounding area is very dense;
as soon as you leave one city,
you’re right into another.”
According to Fraser, people
come to the Toronto area from
many different countries, which
contributes to Ontario’s rich
culture.
“There are so many people
from all over the world that
bring their culture with them,” said Fraser.
There are so
many people
from all over
the world that
bring their
culture with
them.
“
”
Because of the diversity of cultures, “the number of different
languages spoken here is amazing,” said Fraser.
“There are many people who speak Punjabi, Urdu, Russian,
Ukrainian, Chinese, Spanish, French, and [more].”
According to Fraser, English is the primary language,
which sounds much like that spoken in America, save for
“a few ‘ehs’ or slight accents.”
Fraser was raised in Green River, Wyo., and first
looked to colleges in the west that offered occupational
therapy when she sought to transfer from Rick College in
Idaho after two years of study. However, after missing
some application deadlines for those colleges, she sought
North
Ame
out her brother, who was living in New York, for guidance.
“My brother looked up some of the schools [in New
York] that offered occupational therapy,” said Fraser, who
chose Keuka because its program is accredited.
Today, Fraser works for Community Occupational
Therapists and Associates (COTA), “a non-profit organization
that has contracts with the Community Care Access
Center, a branch of the Canadian government that is
responsible for contracting out community services.
“COTA has a large staff of occupational therapists as
well as speech therapists, physiotherapists,
and social workers in var-
ious community settings,” explained
Fraser, who works with students of
all ages, from kindergarten through
high school.
One of the places she is “contracted
out” to is the Peel Region School
Board for about 10 hours per week.
She is a member of the school’s
Autism Spectrum Disorders
Resource team.
“It is a team of itinerant teachers,
teaching assistants, two speech therapist,
one psychologist, and one
occupational therapist,” explained
Fraser. “We work specifically with
children who have been diagnosed with autism. We consult
with the teachers about their specific concerns, as well as
give suggestions to improve the children’s school experience
and daily functioning in a school setting.”
When she moved to Canada, Fraser worked for a company
that does rehabilitation and assessments for the insurance
industry for about three months. She was hired by
COTA in March 2002.
“Since then, I have been working with children as I had
hoped to when I started my education to become an occupational
therapist,” said Fraser.
So, the move was a good one, eh?
—Tanya Cornell-Kestler