Second Career Leads to a Legacy

In the mid-1990s, Nan Arkwright, MOT ’96, wanted to enroll in the Master of Occupational Therapy program at Samuel Merritt University so badly that she took four science classes simultaneously over the summer in order to fulfill her prerequisites. Arkwright was in her 40s when she learned about occupational therapy. She had been an elementary school teacher in her 20s and was looking for a new career after raising her children, and she was intrigued by OT.

“Going to SMU allowed me to have this long second career, which I love,” says Arkwright, who at 74 has no plans of retiring. As the owner of A Hop, Skip, and a Jump Ahead, a pediatric occupational therapy clinic in Walnut Creek, Arkwright works with kids of all ages, from toddlers to teens. She has also authored 18 books about social and emotional regulation, from her first, Mission: CONTROL! A Big Feelings Adventure!, about finding the courage to do hard things, to her newest, Superpower Thinking, about how to cope when things don’t go your way.

Arkwright loves how her work blends her knowledge of hard sciences with nurturing children in developing everyday living skills. “Occupational therapy brings in even more dimensions than teaching,” she says. “You have to understand complex issues like brain development, functions of muscles and nerves, children’s behaviors, and more in order to teach skills as basic as holding a pencil.”

Arkwright recalls clearly the “amazing experience” of performing dissections on the human body during her studies at SMU. “It was so powerful to touch veins and arteries, lift up muscle layers, and really understand how the body is put together,” she says.

Now she’s the one offering hands-on education. Every year, Arkwright recruits high school students to help run her social-emotional learning groups, and many of those students go on to attend SMU.

Given how profoundly her SMU experience impacted her life, Arkwright decided to give back by establishing an endowed fund in the occupational therapy department as part of her estate plan. She plans for her gift to support student educational activities and opportunities including conference presentations and travel, as well as equipment to enhance student learning.

“With this endowment, I hope to help future occupational therapists discover their passions and come to love this work as much as I do,” says Arkwright. “I love being able to help make an impact on their futures.”