OPT Visionary - Summer 2014

PAGE 10 Eye Site Student Spotlight W hile Cory Collier, O.D., and Kara Deibel, O.D., were focusing on the final months of their NSUCO education, an equally significant event was fast approaching—their wedding on May 10, 2014. The recent graduates, who had been dating since their freshman year in high school, have shared the same ideals through their personal and academic journeys. Dr. Collier was brought up mainly on Florida’s West Coast, where his family had been established since the mid-1800s. There was a time, however, when he had aspirations of a quite different career—becoming a professional ice hockey player. Dr. Collier had played on ice hockey and roller hockey teams since the age of eight. His teams even won second place in the national championships, so at the age of 15, he moved to Connecticut with the intent of advancing his sporting skills. “It was quite an adjustment due to the weather and the fact that it was a challenge academically,” admitted Dr. Collier, who didn’t have the same academic focus at the age of 15 as he does now. While the two years spent in Connecticut were a positive experience, he decided a career in ice hockey was not for him and accepted a schol- arship to a Florida university, where he continued to court the woman of his dreams. Dr. Deibel, however, experienced quite a different childhood, living in three different states prior to attending middle school because her father’s profession had led the family to live in North Carolina, Minnesota, and Michigan before settling in Sarasota, Florida. “Fortunately, I liked Florida and its warmth the best, so it finally felt like home,” she said. Optometrists on the Rise: DRS. CORY COLLIER AND KARA DEIBEL “A S THEY START OUT ON THEIR MARRIED LIFE TOGETHER , THEY LOOK FORWARD TO THE NEXT STEP IN THEIR CHOSEN PROFESSION — AND TO SERVING THEIR LOCAL COMMUNITY FOR MANY YEARS TO COME .” By Rachel Snell, Assistant to the Deans