Seth Hilburn, Pediatric Occupational Therapist

Education:BS in Kinesiology and Health Promotion from Louisiana Tech (2010)

AS of Occupational Therapy Assistant from Univ. of Louisiana-Monroe (2014)

MS of Occupational Therapy from Univ. of Louisiana- Monroe (2017)

From the beginning, it was pretty clear that I was destined to be a Louisiana Tech Bulldog. I was born and raised on the outskirts of Dallas, Texas to parents who were both Tech alumni. I also had an uncle, grandmother, and great-grandmother who were Tech alums. Bulldog red and blue was in my blood, no matter how much I tried to convince my parents that I should go to one of the Texas schools or LSU, and finally after orientation in the Summer of 2007 I began to understand why they pushed so hard for me to attend Tech as well. Prior to college, I played and watched every sport imaginable, did well academically, and was involved in my local community in many different ways, but was not really sure what the future held at that point in my life.

When I arrived on campus in the fall of 2007, I planned on being a chemical engineering major, but that lasted all of about two weeks before I switched to the College of Business. My dad was an accounting major and I enjoyed math, but I quickly realized that I absolutely despised the idea of sitting behind a computer for the next how ever many decades until I could finally retire. So I began asking around and doing my own research about other things Tech had to offer and I ended up finding the Kinesiology department at Memorial Gym. When I started classes there, I found a little slice of what I was looking for: people who liked sports, people who liked science, and the professors who were able to put it altogether into a degree that I could see my future self enjoying in a career that was not bound to a desk. 

My time at Tech was great, and the kinesiology program set a foundation for me that I am greatly thankful for. The best and worst thing about getting my kinesiology degree from Louisiana Tech was the opportunities it provided me career wise, but since I still was not sure which direction to go with my career, it all seemed a little overwhelming. While finishing up my degree, I was able to become a certified personal trainer through a course at Lambright, which I used sporadically for a couple years before letting that go. I also took organic chemistry, and studied for the MCAT, but did not do well enough on that to apply for medical schools. Physical therapy interested me at the time, but I let others tell me that my 3.52 GPA wouldn’t get me into there either, so I didn’t even apply. There were a couple other options as well, but nothing really stuck so I ended up graduating and moved back to Texas. 

While trying to figure out the next chapter of my life, I used my degree to work in corporate wellness, traveling the country doing healthcare screenings for health insurance purposes. While traveling, I took pre-requisites online to start nursing school in order to work in pediatrics. I returned to the University of Louisiana at Monroe to begin my nursing education, but right before starting I felt like I was not making the right career choice. From there, I went to meet with the occupational therapy department at ULM, and found an area that seemed to suit me. The field would allow me to work in pediatrics, and help children succeed, while also using my creativity more than other areas in the medical field would. 

In 2014, I received my Associate’s of Occupational Therapy Assistant and began working as an occupational therapy assistant at a pediatric outpatient therapy clinic outside of Dallas. The primary focus of the clinic I worked at was sensory integration, so it was filled with swings, rock climbing walls, and obstacle courses to focus on helping children achieve sensory regulation. It was an awesome choice, but the goal was always to go back and get my Master’s in Occupational Therapy, so I met all of the prerequisites and went back to school less than a year later. 

ULM has a bridge program that allows occupational therapy assistants to get their Master’s to become occupational therapists while working full-time and attending classes online plus on campus weekends for hands on material. I was able to complete my Master’s of Occupational Therapy at the end of 2017, and began working full time. 

After graduation, I wanted to travel, so I put my pediatric dream on hold and began doing travel occupational therapy across the country. This included working mostly in skilled nursing facilities working with a wide variety of diagnoses including strokes, heart attacks, dementia, orthopedic injuries, and many others. I traveled for about a year and half working in Oregon, Kentucky, and a few areas of Texas, until life changed, and I got married. We decided to settle back in Texas, where I got to work part time in pediatrics, home health, and skilled nursing facilities. 

Our family began to grow, and COVID made us rethink our lives, so in May of 2021 we felt God calling us to move to Louisiana. With a growing family, I took a job in Lafayette, Louisiana back working with adults, and yet again abandoning my dream of working with pediatrics, mostly because the financial compensation for working with adults is significantly better than working with children. 

Since being in Louisiana, I have worked in home health, skilled nursing facilities, and currently working at an inpatient/outpatient brain injury center, where we work solely with adults with both acquired and traumatic brain injuries. After many jumps into unsatisfactory jobs and many prayers, I also have returned to pediatrics by starting my own pediatric outpatient business called 1720 Pediatric Therapy in the southern Lafayette area. 

As I wrap this up, I want to look at three areas: 1) how Louisiana Tech’s kinesiology department set me up for success, 2) how awesome the field of occupational therapy can be, 3) life lessons from my journey that you can take with you. 

I can not speak highly enough of the foundation that I received from Louisiana Tech. The professors that I encountered there (most of whom are still there) always had my best interests at heart. They were able to advise on all the possible career paths that we as students could take, and would often help us research those areas if we had questions. Without the education from Tech, I would most certainly not be where I am today, and probably would have had to take many more pre-requisite classes to reach my goals. I am thankful for each and every one of them for the education, and life lessons. 

As I highlighted throughout my story, occupational therapy is a very diverse field and it is not always easy to describe exactly what we do. Working with adults, our goal is to either help people with injuries or diseases regain their independence with daily activities (feeding, bathing, dressing, leisure activities, etc.) or to help people with progressive diseases maintain their independence or quality of life for as long as possible. This can look like a mix between physical therapy, psychology, adaptation, and caregiver education, among other things. In pediatrics, we work with individuals with autism, Down syndrome, developmental delays, NICU babies, feeding disorders, sensory dysfunction, along with other less common diagnoses. We address these limitations through primitive reflex integration, sensory integration, fine motor coordination, activities of daily living training, and much more. In both adults and pediatrics, we work in coordination with physical therapists, speech therapists, behavioral therapists, and other medical professionals to help clients achieve their highest level of independence. The world of occupational therapy is vast, and has a little bit of something for everyone. 

Now, the lessons learned throughout this process. 1) We don’t all know what we want to be when we are 21-24 years old. 2) If you want to do something or have a goal, don’t let anyone talk you out of it. There is always a way to reach your goal, even if sometimes you take the scenic route. 3) Don’t chase jobs for money. Yes, money is needed, but happiness is much more important. 4) The journey is just as important as the destination. Don’t overlook the present while reaching for the future. There are so many lessons to be learned that can save you from heartbreak in the future, plus you will meet some pretty cool people along the way! 5) Don’t give up on your dreams, even if you have to put them on hold you can always go back to them and find a way to achieve them. My pediatric therapy clinic dream started in 2014, and it took 10 years for me to return to it, but I believe those 10 years were needed to teach some very valuable lessons to help my business succeed in the future. 

If you have any questions about the Louisiana Tech kinesiology program or occupational therapy, please feel free to reach out to me at seth@1720pediatrictherapy.com