Bri the OT
international
In her global quest to heighten disabilit y awareness and increase access to occupational therapy, Briana Bonner establishes clinic in Botswana. Briana Bonner ’16 MS OT wants to spread the word about occupational therapy around the world. After four years of practice in the Chicago area and Texas, she made the leap to follow her dream: starting an outpatient clinic providing occupational therapy in Gabarone, capital of Botswana in southern Africa. “I love it here,” she said. Her just-completed doctorate in occupational therapy from the University of Texas Medical Branch will help her go even further. “I want to help create occupational therapy programs in Botswana and neighboring countries that don’t have them,” she said. Bonner first came to Botswana for a study abroad program as an undergraduate at Truman State University in Missouri. 16
“It was the experience of a lifetime,” she said. “From the minute I stepped off the plane, I felt welcomed into the community. It was amazing, seeing everyone around me look like me.” Bonner was surprised to learn that Botswana had facilities for children who were deaf or blind, but few services for other disabilities. She returned to the U.S., wondering what she could do to change that. At Truman State, she majored in health sciences with a minor in disability studies. She was a McNair scholar—a federal program, named for an astronaut killed in the Challenger explosion that encourages students from underrepresented populations to obtain graduate degrees. She hadn’t decided on a career in occupational therapy, but “when I got back from Botswana, I told one of my mentors what I wanted to do, what I was passionate about and what I saw in Botswana, and she said, ‘You’re an occupational therapist.’
