Dean's Message
“Friendship is weird. You just pick a human you’ve met and you’re like, ‘Yep, I like this one,’ and you do stuff with them.” –Unknown
I’ve loved being back in the College of Optometry this autumn semester. As has been my custom as dean, I taught two courses, “Practice of Optometry” to the first-year optometry students and “Ethics in Biomedical Research” to the vision science graduate students, mostly comprising second-year combined OD/MS students.
I am so impressed with both groups of students. Their interconnections are clearly key to who they are and how they move through our educational programs. They listen to each other in class and support each other.
The first-year students are fun to watch. They’re finding their optometric friends and future colleagues; we all know that some of those friendships will be lifelong.
I created a new program when I first became dean in 2014—SocialEyes. Every autumn, we randomly assign the students in the incoming class to one of eight small groups. Faculty volunteer to facilitate a group. The college budgets resources for the groups to get together. Then the groups’ events find their way to our social media accounts.
This semester, we’ve spied SocialEyes-ers at Wild Lights at the Columbus Zoo, Lemongrass restaurant in the Short North, a Blue Jackets hockey game, Forno for an evening with two dessert courses, and Lynd Fruit Farm picking apples.
Recently, Clinical Professor Roanne Flom, OD shared with me that the members of one of her past SocialEyes groups have maintained close connections after graduation. They remember what Roanne called her “signature” SocialEyes event, a hike in Hocking Hills, and fondly recall the perfect Honey Crisp apples they snacked on after the hike.
We’ve all found those friends. The connections run deep, and the bonds are tight. And we “do stuff” together from the first weeks of optometry school, throughout our lives. O-HI-O!
Sincerely,
Karla Zadnik, OD, PhD
Dean, Glenn A. Fry Professor in Optometry and Physiological Optics
