Sarah Tranum is the director of SUNY Jamestown Community College’s Occupational Therapy Assistant program. She has held that title since 2017.
Before being promoted to director, Tranum was the OTA program’s academic fieldwork coordinator for 17 years. She also played a leading role in developing JCC’s Explore & Soar pediatric sensory clinic which opened on the Jamestown Campus in 2024.
Tranum has clinical experience in school-based and home health programs and community integration for people with traumatic brain injuries. She earned an associate’s degree from Erie Community College, a bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and a master’s degree from Buffalo State College. She also holds a certificate in virtual classroom teaching.
Tranum has been named to the American Occupational Therapy Association’s roster of honor. She has also been vice president of the local chapter of AMBUCS and an advisory board member of the Chautauqua County Mental Health Association.
What is your experience in occupational therapy?
I am an occupational therapy assistant. My practice experience has been working in schools, and so with kids, and then also working in home health care, so also with adults. But I have been an educator for 25 years, so I would say that my expertise is really in education.
So, that teaching component. I get continuing education regularly, so I am versed from kids to adults, and I like to say I'm a generalist. I know a little about a lot, and sometimes I know a lot about a lot.
How did you get into occupational therapy?
Initially, I decided to go to the University at Buffalo to pursue engineering, because that's what my brother was doing. And while I was there, I ran into somebody that was going into OT.
I had never heard about what occupational therapy is. And I learned a little bit more about it and realized it really fit with my personality. It's a creative field that helps people, and I've always been a natural problem solver, creative problem solver. So, I did a little bit more exploring, and wound up going into an occupational therapy assistant program, and started my pathway there.
of starting in OTA at JCC.
Why drew you to teaching at JCC?
I love JCC. I love community college. I think that everybody should start at a community college.
Faculty at the community college level, especially at JCC, our focus is on student success, and so we spend a lot of time with students. My ultimate goal in life, though, is to make a positive impact on my world and inspire others to do the same, and so I feel blessed that I have the ability to do that by being an educator here at JCC.
What’s your favorite class to teach?
I love all of my classes, because I love to see the development of students from the beginning of the program to the end of the program.
But I would say my favorite class is called Intro to Professional Practice. It's a second semester class. We teach a lot about professionalism skills, which are going to be those skills that can be applied to any area of life, any career path.
But we also take students out on clinical experiences. I take a group of students to the Chautauqua Adult Day Center, and we actually have students practice the skills that they've been learning in the classroom and apply them to the older adult population.
It's really rewarding to see students be able to apply the knowledge from class to real-life experiences.
What’s your favorite project to work on with students?
We're very hands-on in this program, so we have students create a lot of projects. But third semester, the one that I really love is I have them make a modification to an everyday item. We call it an adaptive equipment creation, and I love what students are able to come up with.
They create adaptive devices that can help with everyday tasks, and it's really fun to see their creative juices and how they've been able to develop their knowledge and skills throughout the prior two semesters and then apply them by actually inventing something.
Why should a high school student consider attending JCC?
I didn't start at a community college. I went to the University of Buffalo first and then to a community college.
I had this thing in my brain that community college was, like, grade 13 or it wasn't, like, it was beneath me, and I learned pretty quick when I went to a community college the value of a community college.
Like I said, educators are here to teach, so you can't beat that. You have small class sizes, you have people that care, you have resources that are available to help you be successful, and the cost savings just by starting at a place like JCC is awesome, and so it also gives you an opportunity to explore.
It's hard when you're 18 to know exactly what you want to do with the rest of your life, and making a commitment to go to a four-year institution when you don't really know ... start here at JCC, explore classes, explore career options, take some applied learning opportunities so you can really get a sense of what you really want to do, and then move on from here, or go into the field or go into a career and start practicing.
Why should a student interested in studying occupational therapy start at JCC?
We're going to introduce you to all the things related to healthcare that you need to be thinking about that will prep you for your next step, whether it's to go into occupational therapy or pre-med or physical therapy.
When you come to a community college, you start day one learning about the profession. If you go directly to a university for an OT or PT program, you're going to be two years of general education courses before you even start taking classes related to occupational therapy or physical therapy or anything else
We have transfer pathways within OT, and we're working on transfer pathways in other healthcare fields. You save yourself some money, you get hands-on experience right away, and you learn from the get-go if occupational therapy or even healthcare is the place for you.
What is the Explore & Soar clinic on campus?
We created this space, it's called the Jayhawk Explore & Soar OT clinic for kids and families, and it's a free clinic to service needs of those in the community that don't necessarily qualify for occupational therapy, but we know could benefit from occupational therapy.
It's a student-run clinic, so all of our students have an opportunity. They all are actually required to work in this space as part of their clinical experiences, and it's a great learning experience for our students.
It's a great opportunity for us as educators to also engage in clinical practice, but it's also a remarkable opportunity for our community. They can come in and get some services and get some help, so it's a win-win, and we're really proud of this space.
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JCC offers an A.A.S Occupational Therapy Assistant degree program and additional healthcare and wellness degree and certificate offerings.
Request more information about those and other JCC learning opportunities.