Block holds a child’s leg brace that is used for teaching purposes. Photograph by Clarence Smith, courtesy of OSUIT.
Jennifer Block, CPO, an instructor and director of the O&P Technology program at Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology (OSUIT), Okmulgee, has received the 2011-2012 National Outstanding Member Award from the Career Technical Education Equity Council (CTEEC) for her success with recruiting women to OSUIT’s number of female students. She is the only female director of an O&P technician program nationwide.
CTEEC promotes technical education for nontraditional students, particularly single parents and at-risk females. It is also a unifying council serving displaced homemakers, single parents, single pregnant women, nontraditional students, at-risk females, teen parents, and pregnant teens.
Since Block became director of OSUIT’s O&P Technology program in 2009, the number of women enrolled in the program has increased 68 percent, and the total number of students in the program has doubled to 40 students.
“Women are drawn to the O&P program for a number of reasons, one of which is the prospect of employment in a field that has a high demand for employees, since they often have families to support,” said Block. “Also, women are caregivers for their families and may have a family member who has had a limb amputation due to diabetes, trauma or illness. The women take the family member to an O&P clinic, and in the process of becoming better advocates for their family’s health, they become interested in this career field.”
