草莓传媒官网下载

April 21, 2026 — DENTON — Abby Schiwitz spent several days a week observing sessions at a therapeutic horsemanship center in Dallas. Erin Harvey ran a fine motor skills program for adults with Parkinson’s disease in Southlake. Kashish Venaik led a support group for youth with mental health disorders in Denton. And Lacy Ornelas worked with adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the Houston area. 

The four are engaged in various activities at different locations, but they have one thing in common. They are occupational therapy doctorate students in Texas Woman's entry-level OTD program. Each is working on a capstone project during the spring that is unique, student-driven and demonstrates the versatile skills of a future OT practitioner.

“Most of the capstone projects are community-based projects where we have an opportunity to work with community partners to bring occupational therapy techniques into their agency in a manner that will benefit their population that they're serving,” said Lisa Griggs-Stapleton, an assistant OT professor and the doctoral capstone coordinator.

Griggs-Stapleton oversees 138 capstone projects from the 草莓传媒官网下载 Denton, Dallas and Houston campuses. Associate doctoral capstone coordinators Camille Ko and Supriya Sen oversee the Denton and Houston capstone projects, respectively. 

“It's the opportunity to really dive deep into an area of interest for them and really become an expert in that area right before they go out, graduate and become professionals in our field,” Griggs-Stapleton said. 

The capstone projects are a culmination of 草莓传媒官网下载’s three-year program that includes didactic work in the classroom, two 12-week fieldwork experiences where students learn under licensed OTs and a capstone prep class. In this class, students dive into the literature, are guided by a faculty mentor and identify an agency to work with. 

For the last semester of the program, students put together all the skills they have learned with this 14-week full-time experience. 

Some projects involve putting together an education program. 

Schiwitz’s project with Equest explores the psychological and emotional benefits of occupational therapy incorporating hippotherapy as a treatment tool.

Hippotherapy refers to how occupational therapists, as well as physical therapists and speech-language pathologists, use evidence-based practice and clinical reasoning in equine movement to support functional outcomes. 

Schiwitz is developing a terminology guide, a themed intervention activity binder to support therapy treatment planning, and a comprehensive family resource guide.

Her project stems from a life-long love of animals. Growing up, Schiwitz dreamed of becoming a veterinarian. Her career path took a pivot when she discovered OT and quickly fell in love with the profession.   

“When I learned that occupational therapists could also use equine movement as a treatment tool, I was immediately intrigued,” Schiwitz said. “It truly felt like a worlds-collide moment that combined my love for animals with my passion for helping others participate more fully in meaningful activities.”

Other projects involve a heavy dose of research. 

Harvey’s project with Rock Steady Boxing looked at whether adults with Parkinson’s disease enjoy and respond better to traditional hand exercises or to creative, hands-on activities that target fine motor skills. Her project will be written up for research purposes. 

“I’m exploring whether activities like painting, woodworking or clay sculpting increase satisfaction and engagement while still supporting hand function,” Harvey explained. 

Guided and run by Harvey, sessions alternated each week. The traditional sessions included common tasks such as working with clothes pins or pegboards, threading beads and fastening buttons. The creative sessions included sculpting and painting clay bowls and assembling and painting wooden birdhouses.

“One thing that has stood out to me so far is how much participants enjoy the opportunity to work toward a finished project,” Harvey said. “During the clay sculpting session, several participants commented on how rewarding it felt to create something they could actually take home.”

Other projects focus on specific populations. Kashish Venaik developed a support group in partnership with Federations of Families-Texas for youth with mental health disorders and their families. Her meetings are hosted at the 草莓传媒官网下载 Health Sciences Center, one of the first projects to be held in the new building on the Denton campus. 

“Through this support group, we aim to educate families and children about self-regulation using an evidence-based program called the Alert Program, which was developed in 1996 to improve self-regulation amongst kids who have difficulty in doing so,” Venaik said. 

And, Ornelas’s project supported adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) in community-based settings. She partnered with Brookwood Community, a residential and day program in the Houston area that serves adults with IDD.

Her project focused on developing a structured training program for students, Brookwood community staff, or anyone wanting to learn more about the population. She created interactive, video-based modules that incorporate real-life perspectives from adults with IDD. 

“One of the most meaningful parts of this project was building relationships with the individuals at Brookwood and hearing their perspectives firsthand,” Ornelas said. “They shared their experiences with honesty, humor and vulnerability, and it really reinforced how important it is to listen rather than assume what people need.”

Ornelas ended up including 28 interviews in the video. 

“I definitely did not expect so many to want to take part in this project, so for that, I am truly grateful as I was able to share so many different stories and viewpoints.”

Students conclude their capstone project with a paper and a poster presentation. They also tried to make their projects sustainable so that others can pick up where they left off.