ICO White Coat Ceremony: Class of 2023

good morning I'd like to welcome everybody thank you for joining us to celebrate the arrival of icos class of 2023 we've got a very exciting program and to get us started I'm pleased to invite to the stage I see a sixth president dr. mark Collett [Applause] thank you dr. Mothersbaugh I really want to welcome all of you and offer my sincere welcome to parents the family members and friends that have joined us here today it looks like we kind of filled this room up here and I wasn't anticipating that we've got a little bit smaller class this year we've got a good turnout here today's really a celebration for this incoming class of 2023 and the career the educational program that they're embarking on to become doctors of Optometry I also want to make sure to welcome the alumni that are in the room and faculty and staff and the students that are going to be helping us out in the ceremony as well the white coat ceremony is actually a relatively modern ritual it recognizes and celebrates the transition of these students from really didactic learning which is what you've all been used to for the major part of your undergraduate experience to really more clinical type learning and learning Health Sciences and how to care for patients in a modern clinical setting white coat ceremony actually originated just down the street at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine they did their first white coat ceremony in 1989 now 1989 to myself and to probably most of the parents sitting in the room seems like not that long ago but I realized last year when I was doing this introduction that 1989 most of you and even boring the edge so we started doing the white coat ceremony here about the year 2000 and it's been a great tradition for us ever since so clinical training in the health sciences and in education as you're going to soon find out here at ICO is pretty different from what you've experienced previously with just kind of didactic classroom and laboratory type work you've all become expert and proficient at the classroom type stuff you're all graded taking notes and studying doing laboratory exercises and then going into a lab spitting things back out memorizing facts and then going into a classroom where a testing center and spitting those facts back out on a written test on a designated date when you know when it's going to happen and exactly what's going to be asked of you you've already been doing that here at IC o---- for the past two weeks maybe not to the testing point yet but that's going to commence very soon here clinical education is going to take your learning to a whole new level you'll be meeting and examining patients guided by what you'll be learning in the classroom and in the laboratory setting here with our faculty but clinical learning being different from classroom type learning it actually happens oftentimes real time and by that I mean you have to learn to kind of think and respond on your feet because that patient can change at any point in time and they may tell you something in the next sentence that differs greatly from perhaps what you were even expecting based on your first discussion with them or maybe even a previous visit or information that have been left you from a previous clinic and the real important part of preparing for that is to be prepared in advance and that's what a lot of the educational program here at ICO really in the next year and two years is gonna be comprised of I can tell you from my own experience going through the program here and bumping into clinical learning and the clinical experience for the first time it also takes a little bit of a leap of faith each day that you walk into the clinic because you have to be confident of where you've spent your time learning you have to be confident of the concepts ico faculty and staff have been working with you on in your comfort level and having mastered some of those skills before you get into that clinical setting and certainly ice you as faculty are expertly prepared they're going to be guiding you every step of the way and they'll get you up to speed pretty quickly in the work in the Illinois eye Institute and in our external clinical settings that you'll be seeing during your fourth year now your investment to obtain the knowledge that you're going to acquire while you're here in the next three years and nine months it's significant it's four years of your life and that doesn't even include the time that all of you have spent in preparing to even have the privilege to be here and of course you'll be making a pretty significant financial investment as well you've chosen this path while most of your undergraduate friends are taking jobs and they're actually getting paid to do what they're doing right now but you've chosen to invest your time in a better future for yourself and to frankly a higher calling that of becoming a doctor you're following in the footsteps of over 8,000 ICO alumni that have completed this program before you more than any other optometry Grahame in the world we know that you can do this because our admissions committees comprised of faculty that scrutinized your application materials reviewed what you did at the undergraduate level your qualifying exam the OU 80 and we know that you've prepared yourself for the materials that you're going to have to master while you're here so again we know that you can do this but as we've said in orientation and over the last two weeks and the time that you've been in the classroom it does require diligent and significant preparation now your world I will submit is about to change pretty dramatically so what do I mean when I say you're the world's gonna change dramatically you've been in school for four years at least some of you for even longer than that taking classroom material taking tests most of you got a degree some of you got two degrees before you got here what what could be so different from that and the key thing as I mentioned is the clinical type work that we're going to expect of you and that you're going to master in the three years and nine months that you're here but also the level that we're going to expect you to perform in the classroom in the laboratory and frankly the mastery that's going to be required of you and I think you all know that in signing up for this program yeah not terribly long time ago I was speaking with a representative from a pharmaceutical company a drug rep and he was telling me that of the 25 optometry schools in the United States the most prescriptions for pharmaceutical agents written by faculty at optometry schools is is actually all done at about five optometry schools all five of those optometry schools are located in urban area and I see is one of those schools and so what that means to you is the vast majority of your experience and probably one of the reasons that you picked this program is going to be having you bumping into pretty serious ocular disease things that students perhaps and other programs may only get experience through textbooks or maybe a faculty lecture slides but you're going to be seeing these things real life and in real time and as I mentioned at the beginning you're gonna have to think on your feet and know what you're seeing and so that's one of the reasons that the faculty are gonna push you pretty hard here in these first couple of years in particular to get you up to speed so that you're ready to bump into those things and handle them and I'll share a little story with you in a few minutes that I hope will drive that point home just a little bit more so why is it that all those prescriptions and ocular disease are seen in urban areas and why probably were you attracted to this program well it's not because it's in an urban area it's because this is where the patients are patients congregate in urban areas they need access to care frankly if this school and the Illinois Institute weren't here the vast majority of patients in this part of Chicago just simply would not have access to the level of care that they're going to be able to have by the fact that you're there and you're faculty members there making that possible for them so because of your decision to be here the sheer number of difficult cases that you'll be seeing in Chicago the faculty be pushing again to help you maximize knowledge and the learning the skill opportunities that you're going to get and helping you to improve your proficiency and management of these serious patients but we know that you can do that and as I mentioned earlier 8000 ico alumni have done that before you so one of the things that I hope that you are all all-in as they say and that you are here to maximize your education and that you're going to do your very best each and every day that you walk into this classroom that you walk into the laboratory that you spend time studying whether it's in the residential complex or out an apartment or maybe you're even living at home but the one thing that I do know from successful students in the past and we've had lots of them is it takes time there's no shortcut to becoming a doctor I don't care how bright you are coming in photographic memory 4.0 GPA perhaps you aced your Oh a tease and some of you did got perfect 400 scores but mastering this curriculum takes time and it takes dedication and there's no shortcut to that now because of the experience of this program being a hundred and forty seven years old we think we've had a lot of experience and what it takes to be successful and what it takes to take all of you from where you are two weeks into the program to a commencement and your doctoral hooding ceremony really about three years and nine months from now there's a lot of lot of water that needs to go into the bridge right so I told you before I wanted to share a little story with you one of our graduating students this year just graduated class of 20:19 not long ago she was sharing an experience that she had during her first externship clinical rotation here at ICO she was actually at an external clinic in another state it's a hospital based clinic and so this would have occurred right at the end of her third year right so two years and nine months from now for all of you and I want you to think about this case just a little bit so she told me she showed up for clinic that day and one of the patients that she had on her schedule was a young boy and he happened to be the son of emergency room physician should be an easy case right the father told her during the case history that he had noticed that his son had kind of a white spot in his eye and the pupil of the eye from the time he was very young and that he knew from his medical school training and years and practice in the emergency room that that was most likely a congenital cataract some babies are born with cataracts it's true so the father went on to tell the ico student that he really was only there not for a complete eye exam but his insurance company required him to get a real eye doctors referral so that they would pay for the cataract removal so there's a little bit of pressure there right got a physician now it's telling you oh we got to hurry this up he's already made the diagnosis and I really just got to fill the paperwork out for him but she didn't do that she did what she knew was right she did a full exam on the child and she very quickly determined that what the father had thought he was seeing was really not a congenital cataract but in her opinion and based on her eye co-education and based on her clinical experiences here in the Illinois eye Institute that it was actually something called the retinal blastoma much more serious diagnosis and a condition are much more serious diagnosis than a congenital cataract and so as she was telling the father that she needed to go out and talk to her attending doctor and over her findings and it would take just a few minutes that the attending doctor would have to come in and check her findings at standard procedure you're all going to do that with every case that you have as a student but as she was telling the father this she could tell he was impatient and he kind of said you know could we just speed this up because all I really need is that referral filled out I know what we need here just give me the referral so that insurance will pay for the cataract surgery that I know my son needs and she left the room she went out she talked with her attending doctor at the externship site and detailed her findings she told him that what her preliminary diagnosis was pretty serious diagnosis right and so her attending said well let's go take a look and so they walked back into the room the attending doctor examined the unvoyage that indeed the eye co-students diagnosis was correct and they sat together to tell the father that what he had actually been seeing in his sons eye was not a congenital cataract but actually an aggressive form of cancer called retinal blastoma now the father because of his medical education he knew the word met retinal blastoma and knew what that meant and he instantly realized that by making a diagnosis that was outside of his level of expertise that he'd actually doomed his son pretty serious stuff happening right there remember two years and a months from right now potentially for all of you so the student and the attending doctor did the next step they ordered an MRI they confirmed that not only did the patient have a retinal blastoma but it actually metastasized to the boy's brain and and their judgment he likely had less than six months to live serious business and by being here today you've signed up for an education that's going to put you or put extreme cases like that in front of you in pretty short time serious business indeed now I'm confident that if you pay attention and you're conscientious about your studies here that you can all handle similar cases and you know what you owe it to your patients to know your science for win cases like that come along you will only know and master your full responsibilities with diligent preparation and that preparation happens every single day while you're in this program it's gonna require sacrifices for a few years but the payoff I promise you will be a lifetime of helping people see better and no doubt saving a few lives along the way a noble calling indeed not long ago I had a banker that I was scheduled to meet with very sharp lady she'd been doing banking business for twenty years she'd spent her entire career doing lending or approving loans for doctors that were starting practices and so in that time period she'd reviewed thousands of loan vacations from all different types of doctors dentists physicians optometrist podiatrist everyone that we're starting to practice you truly was a specialist in what would be called medical practice lending and so I asked her how often to new businesses fail and she told me that in banking was pretty widely known that 20% of new businesses fail in the first year and 50% of businesses fail by year 5 I've actually heard higher figures than that in literature here of late but she was an expert and that's what she was telling me and that again it was her job to review these loan applications so that doctors were destined for success and that their practices would thrive and do very well and so I asked her you know if she knew what that failure rate was for new optometry practices perhaps and she said that she anticipated me asking that question and that she had done some research in their whole book of business for the bank where she was at and her answer was that optometry practice read practices had failed zero point zero zero two percent of the time new optometry practices 0.002% ladies and gentlemen your future is pretty bright so in a few minutes you're going to be called up to get your white coat and you're going to receive the white coat from either upper-class students or faculty members in a few cases we've got some legacy graduates that are going to be helping with that and you're going to put that white coat to good use pretty quickly because you're going to be having assignments in the Illinois Institute where you're actually going to start some of that political education that we talked about so today though just a dial it back just a little bit once you get your white coat you're going to come across the stage and I'm gonna have the privilege of shaking every one of your hands kind of symbolically welcoming you here to Illinois College of Optometry but I also this year because of an event that we had in in May I have the privilege of sharing with you a small commemorative from the inauguration ceremony that we had those of you that don't know this is the commencement of my second year as president here at IC o---- I've actually been here for about 26 years as an administrator short time as faculty and in clinical education but I've just started a year ago as president and so one of the things that we did for inauguration to commemorate that we developed a challenge coin and some of you that are in the room that perhaps have some military background might be familiar with that term and understand what that means if you don't google it later today and you'll see a nice rich history of what challenge coin really means but I selected that as kind of a commemorative of of my inauguration here and I want to share it with each of you because you're here really within the first year of me starting my presidency so in a sense we're kind of new at this together here and we'll experience this year it'll be kind of fun I think but one of the things that I told people why I was doing that was every time they looked at the challenge coin I wanted to think about you know we can do better we can be better and I think that's important for not only people studying to be doctors but for all of us in the room that are optometrist it's to remind ourselves as comfortable as we get as good as we think we are as how much we think we've mastered the science there are always new things to learn and they're always things that happen and we can always be better by attending another cee program by paying attention by being in a small study group and always continuing to further our education so that you're all in a sense signing up for that as well so I look forward to watching each of you grow during the next three years and nine months that you're here I absolutely delight when we get the opportunity to bump into each other in the hallway or if you stop by my office and tell me about perhaps a challenging case that you've had or something that's going on in your life just like the young graduate that took the time to share that case with me and I've had the chance to share it with all of you and you'll hopefully learn a little bit of something from that I want you to know that my door is always open and again I love hearing stories about your successes but even your challenges as I mentioned I went through this program seems to me like it wasn't that long ago really looks like it would then forever for all of you but it wasn't that long ago and a lot of the faculty that are here faculty that were my teachers and I just want you to know that I think everyone here from a faculty from a staff standpoint we're all here to help here we're all here to see you succeed during the time that you're here knowing again that it's going to be the most challenging thing that you've ever done but with assistance and with your doing your part and putting the time in that's the key and will always be the key to your success so I congratulate you on being here today to parents and family and friends I congratulate you on having raised outstanding young people that have done excellent work at the undergraduate level to compete to be here and I know they're going to be outstanding doctors of Optometry when they finish this program so I will look forward hopefully I will bump into you all at points along the way but if for some reason not I will certainly look forward to seeing you three years and nine months and I will have the privilege of shaking your hand during nice use doctoral hooding ceremony when you become an Illinois College of Optometry doctor about join our Alumni Association so I welcome you all to the ICO family I hope that you have a great year so thank you so it's my pleasure now to introduce IE ce o--'s vice president and dean for academic affairs dr. Stephanie Messner [Applause] thanks dr. collip and good morning to everybody in a few minutes members of the class of 2023 will Don their white clinic coats for the first time symbolizing the responsibility that they're accepting as they begin their careers in optometry class you'll become responsible not only for the visual well-being of your patients but as dr. Culp illustrated with the case that he talked about at times your patient's very lives this responsibility doesn't begin upon graduation doesn't begin when you encounter your first patient it begins today you're responsible for acquiring the skills and knowledge that you're going to need to be able to provide a high level of care to your students or to your patients rather you're also responsible for developing those personal characteristics that are necessary for a successful professional career including intellectual curiosity ethical behavior cultural competence empathy and personal integrity you have four years of hard work ahead of you followed by a lifetime of continued learning but you're not in this alone were your partners both while your students and throughout your careers parents friends and family members your students have chosen a wonderful profession that will provide them with a rewarding career an excellent standard of living status within their communities and a good work-life balance these rewards however will not come easily or immediately they're going to require much sacrifice and hard work on the part of your students you may be wondering what you can do to help support your student during these challenging years it might be something as simple as lending a sympathetic ear on a particularly stressful day or providing a brief break from the rigors of academia one of the most important things that you can do is to understand that professional school is very very different from undergraduate education I expect that you'll find that your students are less available to you for family events and issues than what you've experienced in the past in order to be successful at ico your student's going to need to be a bit selfish with their time I hope you'll understand that and allow them to focus on the work that's before them students I think you're going to find that your four years at ico will be exciting incredibly enjoyable certainly challenging at times maybe stressful and frustrating but ultimately highly rewarding I hope that you will take advantage of all of the opportunities that are available in our classrooms our laboratories in the clinic and in co-curricular activities the next four years are going to go by and work quickly than you can imagine so invest your time wisely if you do you'll reap the rewards long after you leave I see oh it's my pleasure to welcome each of you on behalf of the faculty we look forward to working with you and celebrating with you again at the end of your ico journey in 2023 thank you [Applause] it's now my pleasure to introduce a member of the ICO alumni council and also an esteemed professor of optometry at ICO dr. sandy block thank you doctor Messner I really appreciate the introduction and I really enjoyed listening to dr. Califf stories he is really talking from his heart and I look forward to you appreciating the value of what he shared with you I'm standing here on behalf of the Alumni Council I bring you greetings from them is truly a privilege to recognize all of you on this very special day you're commemorating the beginning of your optometric career oh although it was more than I really want to remind myself a very long time since I sat in your seats the memory of those times in my career continued to hold a very special place in my heart be mindful of the people sitting to your left to your right in front of you and behind you these your fellow classmates will be the people with whom you're going to share the next four years it's going to be filled with challenges and of learning of practicing and mastering the skills of Optometry and although your time together will require a lot of good old-fashioned hard work and perseverance you will and you must take time out of your very busy schedule to relax and recharge and take care of yourselves and all of those varied experiences will help you bond with each other over the next four years it is the special people around you the unique experiences and the wonderful memories that you're going to create that I remember so fondly as you embark on creating those special moments in your life and your training I urge you to embrace these next four years with all of the enthusiasm and passion that you can muster while remembering to enjoy it as it happens it's a wonderful experience as you wear your white clinical coat for the first time today you should be very proud of the fact that you've already had and shoulders above all of those optometry students around the country I know that because you have already made the best decision of your career and that decision was to choose the Illinois College of Optometry as your future alma mater speaking from years of experience working with many fine doctors here at the Illinois College of Optometry and with those outside and other optometric institutions the education and the clinical experience that you are going to receive here at IC o---- is hands-down the finest in the country take advantage of everything of the special institution has to offer and its most excellent faculty that I've had the opportunity to work side-by-side with the administration and the staff are all wonderful and here to help you I guarantee it will serve you very well on your road to a successful future so on behalf of the Illinois College of Optometry Alumni Association as your name is called and you receive your white coat know your future colleagues and fellow IC o---- alumni are here for you and are here pulling for you to be successful and are looking forward to having you as practicing optometrist in 2023 congratulations to each of you I now would like to take the opportunity and welcome to the podium the president of the Illinois optometric Association dr. Eric Boggs [Applause] thank you doctor so as president of the Illinois optometric Association is my honor to be here today representing the membership of your optometric family I say family because truly that is what we are I welcome each of you into your new family as we move forward to strengthen and prove our ability to provide quality patient care together be mindful that you have committed yourself to becoming part of the esteem profession of optometry and it will always be more than just a job because when you join your first practice after graduation you'll be part of our optometric family which includes you being an active member of the Illinois optometric Association many and IC o---- graduates have already experienced the advantage of being active early on in their optometric education to receive the many benefits of networking with practicing optometrists to learn as much about the profession as possible and understand that the illinois optometric association we are here to help you become the best optometrist you can be the aoa is focused on protecting the profession of optometry and access to quality care as well as promoting the importance of eye care to the general public in addition we will develop the future leaders for our profession starting with some of you here today I look forward to helping each one of you join your new family about commentary and developing friendships that will last a lifetime congratulations [Applause] [Applause] Thank You dr. BOTS as our speakers have mentioned and as demonstrated by the various symbolic gestures taking place today between the distribution of a challenge coin a pin representing the Illinois optometric Association for your coat and of course the code itself and I hope you realized that the these things are gestures not for the sake of being gestures but they they mean something there they're symbols of your commitment to the patient's right in your community to your faculty here in to ICO to the profession of optometry itself and of course to you as growing professionals if I can sum it up as simply as possible I would say that if you didn't realize it yet today is the day that you fully commit to being a part of something bigger than yourselves it's about you of course but it's not just about you with that I'd like to ask the first row of students to stand and approach the stage to receive their coats and in that light I humbly ask the people in the audience to as we go through each of the students we're gonna call everyone by name and I understand there's probably gonna be a temptation to want to cheer when your student the person you're here to represent today is called I'm gonna ask that you remain silent until everybody has gotten back to their seats so then we can congratulate everyone together and that's a symbol of that this this isn't just about any student this is about every student they're doing this together so I ask that you please respect that ritual but that we'll get started Alexis Abernathy st. Louis Missouri James Adams Crystal Lake Illinois Ruba ammo Glendale Heights Illinois Limu I'm at New York New York safe Elka's Raji Windsor Ontario Mortada Alto age Dearborn Michigan Keshava I'm sorry Villa Park Illinois mahira up there Chicago Illinois Brian ah Pasadena Maryland Chloe Bainbridge Lancaster Wisconsin Christian belong Sterling Heights Michigan love deep Bonnie Paul Calgary Alberta varun de bot Kitchener Ontario Kevin blackett Rapid City South Dakota Elizabeth batook Houston Texas Joshua churn Happy Valley Oregon Melanie Chow Grayslake Illinois Monica Chiu Toronto Ontario Bridget chanf Renee Toronto Ontario Karen comb Houston Texas taya demo Norwich Illinois Tyler Duggan Broomfield Colorado Jason Dunn Troy Ohio Audrey Duong Santa Clara California Eric Teresa Mundelein Illinois excuse me I'm sorry Paul Yaffe's Winnipeg Manitoba michaela for Flint Michigan Rachel Ford Mandan North Dakota Amy Gerwin Saskatoon Saskatchewan Sidney goldstein Toronto Ontario me see Gonzales Spokane Washington eatle ich kann solid our Texas carlene gray wall Windsor Ontario Shelby goula Oxford Michigan Lauren Haddad pillows Park Illinois sedan Hassan Glendale Heights Illinois Nicholas Hassler Reedsburg Wisconsin he'll be coated by his father dr. Philip Hassler I see a class of 1986 his sister dr. Rachel Hassler ico class of 2017 and his cousin dr. david turner i seeö class of 2014 Abraham Hassan Fairfax Virginia con Huang Toronto Ontario Jaclyn hisquierdo Modesto California Katharina Ivanovitch st. John Illinois Stephanie Jacob Paramus New Jersey Montse jaitley Chicago Illinois Priya John Rukia Chicago Illinois Lauren Jay linskey LaSalle Ontario lie John Toronto Ontario Ginny John Glenview Illinois Caroline Johnson Eagan Minnesota Victoria Johnson Elk Point South Dakota Ryan Jannetty Chicago Illinois Sara kara a Lee Windsor Ontario Alec Karthikeyan Brampton Ontario Jessica could seven Northbrook Illinois Nicole ketsup men Northbrook Illinois Jennifer Cove Chicago Illinois Anita la nota Streamwood Illinois Amanda Leigh Skokie Illinois David Lee Tampa Florida Blake LeMay Summertown Tennessee Amica Lewis Cupertino California dyra Macias San Diego California Omar mala Dearborn Michigan Nicole manga Waterford Michigan Kimber map Ely Woodbridge Virginia aitana Marquez Albuquerque New Mexico Andy Marshall Los Alamitos California Ryan McGowan Schaumburg Illinois sadita Mehta Richmond Hill Ontario Shaina melisma Bloomington Minnesota Benjamin Mee at Midland Michigan muneerah Mukarram Bridgeview Illinois Bobby Mundra Brampton Ontario mikolai Nova Bilski Homer Glen Ellyn oi Matthew Olynyk melville Saskatchewan millena appacha CH Calgary Alberta Arianna Padilla Modesto California Maria Pappas Palos Hills Illinois pooja patel Streamwood Illinois rid the Patel Rozelle Illinois Austin Peterson Mora Minnesota Marisa Melissa Phil Aegean Union New Jersey Alexander Pitts Franklin Park Illinois he'll be coded by his mentor dr. Tessa Cole I co class of 2007 Timothy crystal Franks Ville Wisconsin Silvia prorogue South Elgin Illinois probe deep pearl wall Surrey British Columbia Frank Quintana Chicago Illinois Shana rack Toronto Ontario Amanda Roberts share irvil Indiana Lucas Rockne Yankton South Dakota LC Rodriguez Hanover Park Illinois Jacqueline Rolla Rochester Michigan a rube saline Canton Michigan minam maria saal juan Burridge Illinois Sara Sanchez Temecula California Stephen sergeant Brownsville Texas Marisa cider ransom Ville New York Rachel Shackleford Clay Center Nebraska RIA Shah Bancroft Ontario Erica shin Baltimore Maryland Anthony Cigna Harwood Heights Illinois Brooke sasame Holman Wisconsin Morley strewth Red Wing Minnesota Breanna Studer Huntsville Alabama Katelyn sub-camp New Port Richey California Florida excuse me New Port Richey Florida Talha Suhail Windsor Ontario Emily Sutter Chesterfield Michigan Shivani tank Shelby Township Michigan John Tatar Skokie Illinois faith show along Ottawa Ontario Tiffany Choi Naperville Illinois Liddy - Benny Glen Burnie Maryland and Dao vu Chicago Illinois Frank Wong South Bend Indiana Kenneth Ward Rochester Hills Michigan onam Waris Windsor Ontario Rebecca Williams Toledo Ohio Michaela wolf Kendallville Indiana Alexander Wang Ottawa Ontario grace yang Mississauga Ontario Timothy yang Minneapolis Minnesota Elizabeth Jaros Farmington New Mexico Shang nanyue Windsor Ontario Irene zaman Queens New York thank you all so much for your patience let's give them all a huge round of congratulations class of 2023 at this time I'd like to invite to the podium our Student Association president ico class of 2021 Kim Fazio good morning and congratulations to all of you so I'm beyond excited for all of you to be sitting here in this room today mostly because you have absolutely no idea the adventure that you're about to embark on today is a special day and I encourage you to soak up every minute of it over the next four years you will experience a whirlwind of emotions excitement fraud the first first day with your new equipment first patient encounter and first solo exam frustration all of the roadblocks the class that you just can't wrap your brain around or the patient that can't seem to give you a straight answer in the room anticipation simply waiting on your chance to learn and perfect a new skill but the most important emotion that I want you to feel and fully embrace is comfort we are lucky to be the largest optometry school in the country and with that comes a team of colleagues friends and faculty who are willing to support you and I want you to accept any and all support that has offered to you and find the team who makes you feel like you can accomplish anything my dad recently told me in one of my many venting phone calls to him everything worth having is better when you have to work for it that rings so true to me that I even decided to get it tattooed on my wrist I want you to remember this quote every time you put on your white coat that you just received because you would not be here in this room today if you had not already worked for it so please in your short time here wear your white coats with pride and continue to work for it and with that it's time to recite the optometric oath to solidify your commitment to our future career as optometrists please rise raise your right hand and repeat after me I will pursue the study of the art and science of optometry faithfully and conscientiously to enable me to ultimately practice to the fullest scope of my confidence I will uphold an honorably promote by example and action the highest standards ethics and ideals of my chosen profession [Music] and I will work to protect and honor the degree doctor of Optometry which I will earn in May 2023 I will provide professional care for those who seek my services with concern with compassion and with due regard for their human rights and dignity I will place the treatment of those who seek my care above personal gain and strive to see that none shall lack for proper care I will hold as privileged and inviolable all information entrusted to me in confidence by my patients [Music] I will strive conscientiously to broaden my knowledge and skills so that my patients may benefit from all new efficacious means to enhance the care of human vision I will share information cordially and unselfishly with my fellow students and other professionals for the benefit of patients and the advancement of human knowledge and welfare I will do my utmost to serve my community and humankind as a citizen as well as an optometry student I will hereby commit myself to be steadfast in the performance of this my solemn oath and obligation [Applause] will do and I guess exercise for lack of a better term very similar to this in May of 2023 when you receive your green doctoral hoods and recite the full optometric oath yet again of course there's work to be done between now and then and it started a couple weeks ago truth be told if I may offer one piece of unsolicited advice it would be to hang on to these programs today that have that oath pin it on your wall because it might be later this weekend it might be four weeks from now it might be two years from now but I guarantee at some point you're gonna get lost in the weeds of you know the end of a long day with three exams on the horizon to study for and if you're anything like me you might even ask that question what am I doing here this this is what you're doing here this is what it's all about folks congratulations we're so excited to have you here this will conclude our formal program when everyone has been so incredibly patient I'm going to make just one final ask for logistics here as we close we're gonna ask the students who just got their coats to rise and exit first while the rests remain seated and head to the courtyard over here just west of us we're gonna do a class photograph after they exit everyone else is free to leave as well we've got a bunch of student clubs doing fundraisers selling flowers and things you might want to get for your students here over in our gymnasium we'll have some folks to help direct you that way if you want to kill some time while they're taking the photograph thank you all very much for being here [Applause]

Channel: Illinois College of Optometry

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Keywords: ICO, optometry, Chicago, school, college, Illinois, www.ico.edu, IEI, Institute, Eye

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Length: 63min 35sec (3815 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 30 2019