Lawrence Bruns, who goes by “Kam,” had always been interested in a career in medicine. But his time serving in the United States Marine Corps took him down a different path to begin with.

Bruns was born in California and moved around quite a bit as a child—Hawaii, Virginia, South Carolina. Following high school, he served in the Marine Corps Reserve for two years and then in the Army for 20 years, retiring in 2015 as a Chief Warrant Officer. During that time, Bruns served at nine duty stations in the U.S. and overseas, with deployments to Afghanistan, Iraq and Kuwait. 

When he retired from the military, Bruns and his wife moved to Laurens, S.C.—his wife’s hometown—and the pieces for his next career began to move into place. 

“The PC Occupational Therapy Doctoral program fell into my lap, in a way,” says Bruns. Upon first moving to Laurens, he worked as a military contractor in Afghanistan and Kuwait while completing a bachelor’s degree in history at USC Upstate. He also worked as a veterans’ counselor for the state of South Carolina.

But in 2020, Bruns had shoulder surgery and promptly began rehab with an occupational therapist. 

“I had never heard of occupational therapy, but my therapist took the time to explain the career field,” says Bruns. “The more we spoke about the holistic approach of occupational therapy and the various settings that OTs can work in, the more interested I became.” 

Bruns’ therapist told him that PC had just started a new OTD program. Bruns observed at the PC clinic for several weeks, then decided to apply to the program in 2021.

“I chose PC because it is a small school and has a great reputation,” says Bruns. “The cherry on top was that I wouldn’t have to move or commute for graduate school.”

Following his graduation in August, Bruns plans to work in an outpatient orthopedic clinic, although he is also interested in the inpatient acute care setting. The research he is currently working on for his doctoral capstone focuses on diabetes education for patients with diabetes, and he hopes to implement the program at a local free medical clinic.

“I want to holistically address the management of the disease, thereby improving a patient’s ability not only to engage in occupations but to improve their overall quality of life.”