The Illinois College of Optometry Student Blog

I’m officially in my first rotation away from the Illinois Eye Institute- and, truth be told, home in general. This new adventure has landed me in Denver, Colorado. Life is truly different from first year, and below, I’ve compiled some insight for you on just what ICO externships entail. Enjoy! Learn to work like a regular person. That’s right, Meet amazing new people. I only knew a few friends when I got here. Even so, Dr. Teresa Carlson and ophthalmic technician Kara at Ins

It has been 8 weeks since classes began here at ICO. Those 8 weeks have been packed with tests, labs, events, ups, downs, failures, triumphs, memories, and most importantly, experiences. I remember sitting through the week of orientation hearing students, staff, and doctors bombard us with information, most of which I could not relate to and had no idea what they were getting at. I am just now beginning to understand some of the things they were telling us. For starters, one

The past five weeks have zoomed by and I am loving the change in pace. Gone are the days of classes, homework, and tests. From morning to evening for five days a week, I’m a clinician tasting what real life could be like in one of many clinical settings. My clinical rotation site this summer is Visionary Eye Care, a private practice with two locations – one in Andersonville and the other in the South Loop. My time at the practice is spent doing routine eye exams, contact lens

I’m assigned four 45-minute vision therapy sessions with four different patients every Wednesday night. The best part about this shift is that unless a patient wishes to discontinue therapy, I pretty much get to see the same people every week. It’s an opportunity to get to know them, bond with them, encourage them and learn from them. I think the most unique experience I’ve had throughout my entire career at ICO happened with my 23-year-old vision therapy patient who needed s

As a prospective student, I was always curious to know how externship selection worked. All my life, the best everything was awarded to those with the highest grades (or “marks,” for my fellow Canadians) or standardized test score. Personally, I think they deserve it. I expected externships to be no different–students would be ranked by their GPA, clinical skills, perhaps leadership involvement, and then allowed to select accordingly. The top-ranked students would get to choo