Emma Koch is a 19-year-old freshman at Shawnee State who is hoping to be accepted into the master’s of occupational therapy (MOT 3+2) program starting in fall of 2023. She graduated from Northwest High School in 2022 and decided to continue her education at Shawnee State since it is close to where she was raised in Minford, Ohio. Once she graduates with her master’s degree, she plans on becoming a pediatric occupational therapist and also wants to use her degree to go into the missions field to help special needs children gain the skills they need to become successful in life.

Emma’s passions include working with special needs children and serving the Lord. Emma has served on an internship in the Dominican Republic and has a special passion for the Dominican people. She hopes to use her passions to help as many people as God puts in her way. Hoping to build her writing and communication skills, Emma has started working with the Chronicle and hopes to write many stories about the impact SSU and its students have on the community. She also hopes that building her writing skills could help her to write a blog or book someday since she enjoys writing short stories in her free time. 

In addition to working for the Chronicle, Emma works for Project BEAR (Building Emerging and Achieving Readers) at Valley Elementary School in a special needs preschool class and spends her summer at Mt. Hope Bible Camp as a summer missionary where she works with children ages 6 to 18 over six weeks. Her other hobbies include reading, listening to music, playing with her nephew, psychology and playing video games.