Back in 2024, when Dr. Paulina Graham heard that the first Occupational Therapy Europe (OT-Europe) Congress would take place in Kraków, Poland, she knew she just had to be there. This was hardly surprising: Graham is the Community Clinic Coordinator and an Assistant Professor of Occupational Therapy in Pfeiffer’s Master of Science in Occupational Therapy (MSOT) program. She is also a native of Poland.

“Kraków is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe,” she said. “I also needed to see what was cooking when it came to OT in Europe.”

Graham’s trip to Poland would not only benefit her professionally in “spectacular” fashion; it would also become extremely beneficial for her Pfeiffer students. Beginning May 29, they worked jointly for the second year in a row with their counterparts from the Royal Holloway University of London during a series of online workshops as part of OT for Adults and Geriatrics, a course that Graham teaches at Pfeiffer.

The collaboration’s formal name is “Bridging Borders: Intra-Professional International Collaboration in Occupational Therapy.” It began to take root as soon as Graham got off the airplane in Poland and shared a taxi ride with Dr. Samita Kirve, a congress participant she quickly befriended.

Kirve is an Associate Professor in Occupational Therapy at Royal Holloway. Before long, the two colleagues were talking about ways the students from their respective schools might work together.

“It was wonderful,” Graham said. “We had the same ideas about collaboration and about wanting the students to broaden their ideas about what it means to have a cultural sensitivity. It’s a big term that we have been tossing all over in health care right now.”

Graham said that the first Pfeiffer-Royal Holloway collaboration was characterized by “great discussions.” The second collaboration featured three workshops. One was on how to become an OT, how to practice OT, and the differences in the American and UK healthcare systems. The second focused on differences in assessment tools and intervention approaches. And the third had students build an “artifact” summarizing the big takeaways from the collaboration and what the students would like to see the next sessions cover in the future.

Dania Shoaf, an MSOT student who’s scheduled to graduate in August, praised the Pfeiffer-Holloway effort.

“I believe collaboration strengthens the knowledge within the professional team and quality of care given to patients,” she said. “Making professional connections allows us to learn from each other and appreciate different cultures and experiences.”

Graham and Kirve plan to make a presentation on the Pfeiffer-Royal Holloway collaboration next August at the ITLC Lilly Conference on Innovative Teaching and Learning in Asheville, N.C. Graham hopes that the current collaboration will lay the groundwork for a program in which Pfeiffer students can study and work in the UK, and vice versa. “Being from Poland, I traveled extensively in Europe,” Graham said. “So, I know how much value there is in traveling and getting to know other cultures and other systems. I would strongly recommend that our students take advantage of an opportunity to study abroad.”