1st Practical DONE!

Here I am presenting "Sammy Safe Eyes" to a very eager Kindergarten class at Columbus Prepatory Academy. It was so exhilarating to see the kids become just as excited about their eyes as I am!

Here I am presenting “Sammy Safe Eyes” to a very eager Kindergarten class at Columbus Prepatory Academy. It was so exhilarating to see the kids become just as excited about their eyes as I am!

Here is Nick (you should check out his blog also) and I after our Slit Lamp Practical this morning.

Here is Nick (you should check out his blog also) and I after our Slit Lamp Practical this morning.

So to say that the semester is in full swing is an understatement!! A lot has happened since my last post but we have just been going non-stop that I haven’t had a chance to give an update. We are currently in the middle of our first round of midterms. This week we had two exams, a quiz, this morning I had my Slit Lamp Practical, then we have exams on Monday and Tuesday of next week, and then…. we can catch our breath (and catch up on a little sleep) before we start round two of exams the following week. Therefore this week has been quite the whirlwind and I am very relieved to have the weekend here to relax a little, but prepare for our next two exams.

This semester is different than anything that I have had before because we are in class and studying our usual coursework but we also have three labs where we are learning the techniques to perform a full eye examination and adjust glasses. This means that when we are not studying we are usually in the Pre-Clinic practicing our retinoscopy and slit lamp skills. This has been fun though because I am working with my classmates who are also my closest friends. We are constantly helping each other to learn and perfect our new skills. I had my first skills practical this morning (of many more that I will take over the next three years) over a slit lamp examination. We have all been practicing a lot over the past week which made me less nervous for my actual practical and I felt like it went pretty well. Our next practical will be over retinoscopy (an objective measurement of the prescription needed for an eye) in a few weeks and we will now be focusing on perfecting our skills for that practical.

Also like I have mentioned before, I am participating this entire year as an Albert Schweitzer Fellow with my project in Optometry. It was through this program that I implemented my project this past summer of doing vision screenings on middle school aged kids. And now throughout the year I am continuing my project by presenting a program called Realeyes through the Ohio Optometric Association. This is a program designed to educate Kindergarten-8th graders about their eyes and the importance of going to the Eye Doctor. On Monday I had the opportunity to present to 150 kindergarteners at Columbus Prepatory Academy and had the best time!! It was exciting to see them be so interactive in learning about their eyes. I am looking forward to presenting more of these programs throughout the year.

But even through all of the stress, I can think about how happy I am to be here and excited to be having these experiences. It is very rewarding as we are starting to learn and master the skills that we will be using the rest of our lives.

Well that was a long enough study break for me and it is time to get back to work! I’ll be back to update soon.

First Day in the Pre-Clinic

Lab Day

Chelsea Devitt, Marisa Ciamacca, myself, and Chelsea Monroe as we enjoy our first day in Pre-Clinic with wearing our brand new White Coats.

Fall Semester of our Second year of Optometry School is filled with lots of milestones and firsts for us on the path to becoming Optometrists. Today was the first day that many of us actually got to wear those bright white coat that we all worked so hard to earn last year. This semester we will spend 4 hours officially in lab and many unofficial hours per week in the Pre-Clinic of the Optometry School. Ohio State has recently remodeled and opened the brand new Pre-Clinic last December. This means that my class is the first class to fully experience the new Pre-Clinic area.

The brand new Pre-Clinic is on the second floor of Fry Hall and is where we as second year students will spend most of our time this fall learning how to perform a full eye exam. The Pre-Clinic area is home to 16 full exam lanes, 2 NBEO (National Board of Examining Optometrists) Exam Lanes, one classroom, injection lab, and student study spaces. For lab each week we are required to dress in clinic attire, wear our white coats, and bring the equipment that we purchased way back in March. It is during the lab sessions that we will learn the techniques that are required of us and by the end of the Semester we will be able to perform a full eye exam. Today, my lab partner Marisa and I worked on learning how to use the EHR (Electronic Health Record) System and started practicing simple techniques. Overall it was an exciting day and we are all very eager to keep learning and practicing our new techniques.

 

Ready for Round 2!

Our Optometry Classmates with the beautiful Bride and Groom.

Our Optometry Classmates with the beautiful Bride and Groom.


Myself with 3 of my classmates and friends Jenna, Chelsea, and Danielle.

Myself with 3 of my classmates and friends Jenna, Chelsea, and Danielle.


Myself with my roommates for this year, Corrie, Nicole, and Val.

Myself with my roommates for this year, Corrie, Nicole, and Val.

This summer has by far been the summer of my life but I couldn’t be happier to be reunited with my Optometry family. We received our White coats on May 17th after completing our week of Keystone. Keystone was a great experience that combined everything that we had learned over the past year into one intense week of clinical review. But the day that we received our white coats made all of the stress of first year completely worth it! It was completely rewarding to put on that White coat after working so hard all year. During the month of June I worked nearly every day on my project as an Albert Schweitzer Fellow. My project was to screen the vision of campers at Ohio State LiFE Sports Camp. This was such a rewarding experience as we got through 299 of the campers. I couldn’t have done it all without the help of my Academic Mentor in the College Dr. Jackie Davis, my site mentor Jerry Davis, some of my amazing classmates, and several other very helpful Optometrists from the College. I also had the opportunity to present the program RealEyes to 370 of the campers. This was another amazing experience as to see the kids get as excited as I am about learning about their eyes. Overall the camp experience was a great one! I will now spend the rest of my year as a Schweitzer Fellow by following up on the students and presenting more RealEyes programs. During the month of June I also had the honor of attending the wedding of one of my classmates Jordan Booth along with some of the others in our class. This was such a fun experience to celebrate the wedding of Jordan and Nikki.
Then at the end of June I had the great opportunity to attend Optometry’s Meeting in Philadelphia. This is the national meeting of Optometrists put on by the American Optometric Association (AOA). It was at this meeting that it was confirmed that I am (in my opinion) in the best profession ever!! This experience was amazing to meet so many Optometrists from not only the best school in the land (Ohio State of course) but also from all over the nation. It was interesting to talk to different doctors about their path in Optometry. What I did notice is how happy everyone is in their profession. I had the opportunity to attend a lot of Continuing Education meetings which were also very interesting. I was extremely happy when I could follow what the educator was talking about just after one year of schooling. Throughout the summer I also took advantage of some Optometry meetings through my preceptorship with Alcon Industries. These were very beneficial to once again interact with current Optometrists in the field and to hear about the up and coming technologies.
For the rest of the summer I took the much needed time to relax and have fun with my family and friends. It was quite an amazing summer but I truly missed my classmates. Like I have said before, since we spend so much time together with our class, we become as close as what I would consider a family. This past weekend has been so great to reunite with everyone and catch up on what we have been doing over the past 3 months. It has also been a great week welcoming the Class of 2018. Last night we had a Sand Volleyball Picnic so that the 1st years could meet their Big in the 2nd year class. I am very excited to have two little in the class, Jessica Bodamer and Heather Van Law. But overall I am excited to get to know the new class and see them learn and grow over the next year. Tonight I will be attending their Welcome Dinner as President of the Class of 2017 and President of Optometry Ambassadors. This event was one of my favorites during my Welcome Week, one year ago.
Today we have “moved up in the world” meaning that we have graduated from Fry 22 to Fry 33. We have all picked out our new seats and are ready for what awaits us as Opt II’s!!

Here we go Class of 2017, we can do this!!
P.S. only 3 Days, 5 Hours, 9 Minutes and 20 Seconds until Buckeye Football Kickoff!
Gooooo BuckEYES!!

Jamaica No Problem

Jamaica No Problem

At the beginning of this year I became involved in the Fellowship of Christian Optometrists (FCO) Organization at Ohio State and never imagined the great things that I would experience in doing so. The organization has created an amazing support network of friends in all four years of Optometry that has really helped me. It is through this organization that I had the amazing opportunity to go to Jamaica just a week ago. Frankly it is quite difficult to put into words how amazing this trip truly was. We left for Jamaica from Columbus on Sunday March 9th and arrived in Montego Bay, Jamaica that afternoon. We traveled to Frome, Jamaica where we stayed at the Gamertsfelder Mission Center (GMC) Mission House. The GMC has been set up by Dr. Douglas McCloy and operates year round. Within the GMC there is also a clinic for Doctors, Dentists, and Surgeons to come in and provide services. In fact the week before we were there, there was a surgery team that had come down and done many pterygium surgery removals on local patients. On a weekly basis the clinic is open on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday seeing patients from 9am-5pm. Patients come from all over the area around Frome to be seen at the clinic. Patients usually come early in the morning and could sit there waiting all day to be seen by the doctors.

We stayed in the beautiful mission house right next to the GMC Clinic. There were 14 (7 First Years and 7 Second Years) Students from FCO that went together. Since there were so many of us down there, Dr. McCloy arranged for us to go out into the area high schools to do school screenings to find kids that needed vision care. Therefore, I went to Grangehill High School on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. At this High School we screened 440 kids in three days. This was quite an amazing experience to get to interact with the Jamaican kids all while practicing some of my newly learned skills for Optometry. We found some pretty interesting health issues in the kids even outside of vision issues. Overall, it was pretty exciting to see many health issues that we have been learning about in the classroom and educate the patient on the importance of coming in for a full eye exam to start treatment. Another group of us went to another high school and even a primary school to examine younger kids and saw around 370 kids. While we were out in the schools, the Second Year Optometry Students were in the GMC Clinic helping the Doctors see the patients there. They got to see a lot of the post-operational patients from the pterygium surgeries and also patients with other interesting pathologies. Overall between the three locations that the 14 of us separated out too, we interacted with a total of 1,000 patients in three days.

Even though we were working hard in the clinic and schools we still had plenty of time to relax and see the beautiful island of Jamaica. On Wednesday we went zip-lining over waterfalls. And on Wednesday night we got to attend a Jamaican Nazarene Church Service. This was very interesting and exciting to experience. Finally on Friday we spent the day at the beautiful Negril beach enjoying the blue water and even snorkeling and kayaking. At the end of the day we went to Rick’s Café and jumped off of a 40 foot cliff into the ocean, which was quite exhilarating. Overall the trip was amazing! It was great to practice my optometric skills and to interact with the Jamaican kids. It was incredible to see how polite and grateful the kids were to us. I am already counting down the days until we go back next year!

Looking Forward

I cannot believe that this semester is already halfway over! It has been such an eventful and exciting semester so far. At the beginning of this year I pledged Epsilon Psi Epsilon and had one of the most exciting weeks of Optometry School thus far. We spent a week doing activities with our pledge class that brought us closer together and left us with some pretty great memories. Then throughout the past month we have spent a good amount of time in preparing to order our Optometric equipment. We had many informational lunch meetings (I feel like I haven’t bought a meal in over a month with all of the free food that we have been given) explaining the equipment that we would be buying and the choices that we would have to make. It was actually a pretty easy process thanks to our two Equipment Representatives in our class who organized all of the events and became very knowledgeable on the equipment. It was also very helpful to talk with the older Optometry Students to get their opinions on what equipment they liked the best.

We are in the homestretch of the semester and have so many exciting things to look forward to. This weekend is the school’s formal dance called of course “The Eyeball”. The dance is put on by AOSA (American Optometric Student Association) and everyone is beyond excited for it. Then in only 9 days I will be leaving for Jamaica with 6 other First Year Optometry Students and 7 Second Year Students. We will be going through Fellowship of Christian Optometrists (FCO) to a mission house in Jamaica to give eye exams and screenings. I am so excited for this amazing opportunity and cannot wait to tell you all about it when I return. April is then right around the corner and before we know it we will be into our Finals week. Overall though, my eye is on the prize of our White Coat Ceremony which will be on May 17th (only 78 days away). This is a ceremony to celebrate completing our first year and receiving our White Coats.

With all of these exciting events it has been a bit more challenging to keep up with the class load. But it is definitely possible. I have had to tweak and improve my time management skills to stay on top of my calendar to get all of my work done. But I along with everyone else have been doing it. We just know that if we want to take part in the fun activities we have to put in the time and effort with our schoolwork first to earn it.

My FIRST Official Day in the Clinic

I am in my second week of Spring Semester 2014 and things are really starting to pick up again. Our professors have jumped right into their material last Wednesday and we are knee-deep in lectures to study already. But I still love it all! It is so great to be back with all of my friends. I didn’t realize how close I have become with so many of classmates (since we spend nearly every waking hour together) until we all went our separate ways for Christmas break. So needless to say I was beyond excited to be reunited with everyone and to catch up once again. The exciting news this week is that yesterday was the first day that I got to actually be in the Clinic!
During our first semester we took a class called Primary Care Testing where we learned how to do several tests on patients before they will be seen by the actual doctor. We learned how to test a patient’s visual acuities, test their color vision, to take their blood pressure, to read the prescription on their glasses and to perform a few computerized tests that examine their peripheral vision.
I got to put all of these new skills to use yesterday right in the middle of the Primary Vision Care Clinic at the College. I was paired up alongside of a Third Year Optometry Student Intern who did the exam and underneath of an attending Doctor in the Clinic. I have worked in a private practice of Optometry for over four years so I should not have been nervous to perform the pre-tests, but I will admit that I was slightly nervous. I think that this was because it was an entirely new situation and really was a big deal to be in the clinic rather than in the classroom in the basement. These nerves were quickly calmed when I met my third year student and realized how well the semester was going to go. The student was so great to me! She guided me very well on what she expected of me to do to help her with the exam. She was also great at telling me what she was looking for as she was doing all of her examinations on the patient. Specifically during her slit lamp examination of the patient she was very descriptive at what she was seeing and I could look through the teaching tube to see the same things. I became very excited to have remembered so much from my first semester of Ocular Anatomy, Physiology, and General Anatomy courses to understand nearly everything that she was telling me about.
Overall, it was a very exciting day and has been a great start to the year! I am very excited for all of my classes this semester and look forward to giving you all another update soon!

Oh How Time Flies When You’re Having Fun

Oh How Time Flies When You’re Having Fun

We are now in our 7th full week of classes and I just can’t seem to believe it. Time is passing by so quickly I feel like I am running to keep up with myself. A look into my daily life so far has been on Monday-Thursday I am in class from roughly 8a.m.-12p.m. We then get a lunch break of which I am fortunate enough to live so close to the school that I can walk home with my other three roommates (who are also Optometry Students), this has been a big money saver and a relaxing little break away from the school. We are then back in class on average between 1-4p.m. I have a busy four days in a row because I do not have any labs on Fridays. Sure this may sound great, no class on Friday right? Well, I thought so at first, instead I now treat it as though I am still in class and go to the library from 9a.m.-4p.m. (at least 4 but usually much later). In the evenings I go home with my roommates for dinner and then usually head back to Prior Health Sciences Library for the remainder of the evening. This may sound daunting at first glance but now that I am living it, I truly love it!

This excitement for what I am living right now stems from three different components of which are my friends/classmates, the professors, and the material. First of all, I have found such a great support system of friends within my class that has been truly amazing. We seem to do everything together from eating meals, walking to and from the library, motivating each other to study, and reviewing with each other. The second reason is the great professors that we have. I said this in my first post but can truly confirm it now that they are all there to challenge us, help us succeed, but most importantly help us to truly understand the material. Each professor held numerous review sessions and one-on-one office hours prior to their exams and emphasized that they were willing to do whatever we needed to help us do well on their test. One of our professors even came in at 6:30a.m. for a review session since we had a full day of classes and wouldn’t be able to ask questions during the day. My final reason is simply the material. I can honestly say that each and every class is interesting and I have already seen how well the material builds on itself. I think back and compare these classes to my undergraduate ones where some of the classes I took applied to my interests in the health and biology field, but most of them did not. Here instead all of the classes are very applicable and interesting.

We have officially survived our first round of midterms meaning that we have taken one exam in all of our lecture classes. The preparation for the exams was stressful at first because I didn’t exactly know where to start in literally my pile of notes. But once I got going and found what methods worked for me, it all flowed pretty well. I was personally happy with my first round of grades and all of the professors seemed happy with our class averages and our study preparations leading up to the exam. This week we have a little breather as we do not have a test but instead we have to catch up on all of the material from our classes that was covered while we were studying for our first exams.

As I am starting to get the flow of schoolwork down, I am beginning to partake in organizations in the College to see what interests fit me the most. I have attended many of the Fellowship of Christian Optometrists (FCO) meetings, Private Practice Club (PPC) meetings, Lions Club and National Optometric Student Association Meetings (NOSA). These have all been great experiences so far as it has given me a chance to learn about the organizations while meeting upperclassmen who are always willing to give valuable advice. I also ran for and was voted in as the President of the Class of 2017. I am extremely honored to hold this position for all four years that we are in school. With this position I serve as a liaison between our class and the faculty, I will participate in the student council, and do various other tasks within the College.

Overall, time literally is flying by. The days go by so quickly because of our class schedule and the time while studying seems to go by even quicker. The weekends are literally a blink of an eye as there always seem to be events for one of the College organizations or of course, my favorite, Ohio State Football Games. The Ohio State Football game against Wisconsin two weeks ago was extremely exciting as it was the first football game at Ohio State that many of my classmates experienced. And yes I say experience because a football game in Ohio Stadium is definitely something to experience. The atmosphere is simply amazing. My friends all seemed to enjoy the game and I had fun teaching all of them the many game rituals and songs. I look forward to the three more games that we have in the shoe as they are great motivation to get ahead on studying so that we can enjoy game days.

In summary, even though time is passing by so quickly I am happy and excited about where I am at. I am very excited to have made it through my first big round of tests and ready to take on round #2. I am very honored and excited to start my duties as the President of my class. And I am happy to be having fun in everything that we do. Even though stress is a big factor in what we are currently feeling, it can be turned into fun when I am surrounded by my friends studying and doing what we love to do.

There’s No Place like hOme

ImageI have known that I wanted to become an Optometrist since I was a sophomore in high school. I am from a very rural farming village, called Hamler, in Northwest Ohio.  Therefore, when I moved to The Ohio State University as a freshman in College I was overwhelmed on many levels. The city brought about many changes apart from the University. I went from wide open farm fields to packed city highways. Then from the University perspective I was lost within the large campus. The many changes that I was experiencing brought about a homesick feeling that I never imagined I could experience. I can remember my first week at Ohio State like it was yesterday and often think back to that week and how much I have changed since then.

One week into freshman year I was still feeling very homesick, but I pushed myself to go to the Ohio State Pre-Optometry Club “Meet and Greet”. At this meeting I quickly met other students in all four years of undergrad and simply found my place at Ohio State. I had found so many similarities with these students and actually met some of my current best friends at that first meeting.  Through the Pre-Optometry Club at Ohio State I was given so many opportunities to hear from current Optometrists at the top of their field. I learned about all the different types of specialties and about the many different modes of practice that an Optometrist can do. I was also given many volunteer and research opportunities. It was also through this club that I found a job working in a Private Practice of Optometry only four weeks into my freshman year, of which I have now worked at for four years. This club solidified my dream of becoming an Optometrist and allowed me to learn and expand my future goals.

At Ohio State I also became involved in a Pre-Health Academic Sorority Delta Omega Kappa, Health Science Scholars, Honors and Scholars Ambassadors, and Serving with Honor. Within my four years of undergrad I held many leadership positions in these organizations such as President of the Pre-Optometry Club for two years, President of Delta Omega Kappa, and I was at the forefront of starting two clubs at Ohio State of which were First Generation Students at Ohio State and Eyes on Health, which is a Vision Service Organization with a Public Health focus. Through my involvement I quickly realized that I felt at “home” at Ohio State and quickly found myself not wanting to leave for the fear of missing out on some exciting event. This University is so large, yet it became so small, so quickly when I simply got involved. I promise that you too can find your place very easily and you can have the same feeling of home just as I do. When I am asked by prospective students why I attend The Ohio State University my answer is…. As a student in this community you gain a love for this University. You love being here, you miss it when you leave, and simply you find your home. It is often said around campus that “There’s No Place like hOme” in which the “O” in home is replaced with the famous block “O” symbol. So as I am reflecting on this past week of changes, once again I found myself telling many of my new classmates my answer to their question of “Why Ohio State?” I found that many of them, of which only moved here a week ago, have already found that same love and spirit for this university that I am excited to see grow over the next four years.

This past week was my Orientation Week for Optometry School at Ohio State. I have been dreaming of this week for 8 years now and it turned out being 10X better than I could’ve ever imagined. I had envisioned there would be lots of nervous feelings and unexpected things thrown our way… yet it was exactly the opposite of that.  The Office of Student Affair at Ohio State College of Optometry is simply wonderful. They emphasize over and over again how they are always there to help and this could not be truer. They started in early January sending out newsletters to the accepted students updating us on what was going on, deadlines that were coming up, and information of when things would get started. We received many newsletters keeping us updated all the way up until we started school. These were great to answer questions that I didn’t even know that I had and seemed to be one step ahead of what I was thinking about for school. Looking back I realize that these newsletters and the constant contact from the Office of Student Affairs helped me feel at ease with the changes I had coming at me and I felt prepared to start my first week of Optometry School. The first day was started off with hearing from our Dean of the College of Optometry Dean Melvin Shipp, followed by introductions from our professors, and introductions from other College personnel. One thing that was very evident from these introductions was how genuinely interested each and every faculty and staff member was in seeing us succeed. Each professor seemed so down to earth and emphasized how much they wanted to get to know us not only as students but as future colleagues. You could not only see, but feel their compassion that they have for teaching of which brought about such an inspiring feeling within me. The other Orientation events that took place on Monday and Tuesday were very helpful, even to me as a previous Ohio State student.

We then started our first official classes on Wednesday August 21st in the newly remodeled classroom for First Year students. This was the same room that I had spent many hours in during undergrad because that is where the Pre-Optometry Club would meet for our meetings. It was funny to see many upperclassmen stop into the room and complain that they would not get to enjoy the nice new classroom. Wednesday evening though was the official Optometry School Welcome Dinner in the Ohio Union. We all got very dressed up and went to dinner with the distinguished faculty and staff from the College and truly had a great time getting to know everyone. This dinner was by far my highlight of Orientation week. (The photo that I have posted is of myself with eight of my amazing new friends and already best friends). We then continued on Thursday with day 2 of classes and were then set on our way as official 1st Year Optometry Students.

This past week has been simply amazing getting to know my classmates so well. I have only known them for a week yet I feel like we are already as close as though a family is. I can see that we are all going to work together and support each other over these next four years and I know that I am going to come out with life-long friends. After completing my first week in Optometry School I have such a great feeling of support and excitement. I feel excitement for the fun that is to come with my amazing new friends and support from the amazing professors that we have the great privilege to be learning from. I completely understand that it is going to be very hard but I feel like they are truly going to prepare us for success and support us however we may need. But of all the range of emotions I have felt, I still feel that same feeling of hOme. I am comfortable, as happy as can be here at Ohio State, and am truly ready to dive into the next step in achieving my goal of becoming an Optometrist.