St. Kate’s OT celebrates the 14th St. Catherine Challenge

Nov 3

Nov 3 St. Kate’s OT celebrates the 14th St. Catherine Challenge

By Skylar Mattson

On Tuesday, Sep. 30, St. Kate’s occupational therapy program’s honor society, Pi Theta Epsilon (PTE), pledged to join an annual competition with 49 other OT programs across the country that leaves a lasting impact on the OT profession year after year.

The St. Catherine Challenge is a student-led initiative that raises money to support early-stage OT research. Each OT program that pledges to join the challenge fundraises money for Intervention Research Grants (IRGs) that are awarded by the American Occupational Therapy Foundation (AOTF). IRGs provide seed-funding for OT researchers to generate preliminary data as proof of concept of their new research ideas. OT researchers use this grant money to lay the necessary groundwork to conduct larger intervention studies based on their novel idea.

The challenge got its start in 2013 when St. Kate’s PTE students learned the large impact that research has on OT practice. They felt called to support OT research and thought that students in other OT programs may have wanted to support the same mission, so they challenged OT programs nationwide to a friendly competition to raise money that would go towards supporting research.

The first challenge in 2013 started off with only a handful of schools joining the challenge and raising a few thousand dollars. Today, the challenge has raised over $150,000, and there are currently fifty schools that have taken the pledge to participate in the challenge.

The real challenge for schools is determining how they are going to fundraise. The only fundraising guideline given to them by AOTF is to get creative!

St. Kate’s fundraising efforts are led by 4 students in the occupational therapy program.

Although the 2026 St. Catherine Challenge officially kicked off at the end of September, St. Kate’s OT program has been fundraising since June. As a part of St. Kate’s OT program’s 80th anniversary celebration, the 4 PTE members made and sold commemorative wine and pint glasses at an anniversary event hosted on campus during alumni weekend in June, an idea suggested by one of their professors.

Additional fundraising efforts by St. Kate’s OT include partnering with Chipotle to host a Chipotle night in September and selling homemade jewelry made by OT faculty member and PTE advisor, Jennifer Hutson, at the Minnesota Occupational Therapy Association annual conference.

PA students supporting the St. Catherine Challenge from the SMMART clinic on Chipotle night. *Credit: Kimberley Persons*

An ongoing fundraiser spreading quite the buzz across the OT department is the faculty karaoke fundraiser. Each faculty member in the OT department has a jar; the professor with the most money in their jar at the end of November will give a karaoke performance for OT students and faculty.

St. Kate’s most recently won the challenge in the 2022 and 2023, but lost its winning streak in the 2024 and 2025 challenges. St. Kate’s is eager to get back to the top of the leader board in the current challenge. To place at the top, it is predicted that St. Kate’s PTE will need to raise $5,000 - $7,0000.

Dr. Darla Coss, Director of St. Kate’s OT program, said that the St. Catherine Challenge “is something we are known for at St. Kate's. Not only did it start here, but we WON the challenge in 2022 and 2023, and we are geared up to win this year! We could not do this without the engagement of our students. They come up with all the great ideas for fundraising and take the lead in organizing events to raise money. They truly are the drivers! Let's Go!”

PTE is working to squeeze in some more fundraisers before the challenge closes on January 31st. You can follow their fundraising journey on their Instagram, @pte_stkate. If you would like to join in the fun and donate to the challenge, you can make an online donation using St. Kate’s OT’s Just Giving page here.