OPT Visionary - Summer 2014

PAGE 15 NOPMA By Lita Wu, Class of 2015, President Over the past two semesters, the NSU Optometric Practice Management Association (NOPMA) has invited well-known speakers from all over the country to speak to our stu- dents about various topics such as financial planning for private practices and management of diabetic eye diseases in private practice. One of the most unique events NOPMA hosts is our Dining with Doctors event where we invite 12 students, based on merit, to a personal dinner with a local optometrist. This allows our most active students the opportunity to ask any questions about the real world of optometry. We have also redesigned and launched our Web site ( www.nopma.org ) to provide a user-friendly resource to our members. Overall, it was a fantastic year for our members, who gained much insight about private practice optometry. We continue to be the club with the highest number of student participants at NSUCO. We’re also proud to say we are one of the most active optometry practice man- agement clubs in the nation. NOSA By Caleb Saint Jean, Class of 2016, President The National Optometric Student Association (NOSA) is the student extension of the Na- tional Optometric Association and is a service organization dedicated to the recruitment of multicultural students in order to provide service to communities locally, nationally, and internationally. Our club, which provides over 400 hours of community service, has been involved with service projects that include neutralizations, Vision Walk, World Sight Day, A Day of Children, the Walmart Back-to-School Shopping Spree, and vision screenings with the Lions Club and Memorial Healthcare System. We ended the school year with our annual banquet, where the guest speaker was Don Bryan, O.D., who is a graduate of NSUCO’s class of 1995 and shared his experiences as a private practitioner. OSAOD By Shannon Joseph, Class of 2016, President The Optometric Student Association for Ocular Disease (OSAOD) is an organization of dedicated students and faculty members that provides the best lecturers on optometric topics in ocular disease. We have been fortunate to have invited and learned from physi- cians in all fields of disease and from all around the country, including NSU graduates. We launched our first lecture on “Vascular Retinal Disease,” followed by sessions on “Case Studies of Posterior Disease,” “Co Management of Surgery,” “Diabetic Trends,” “Anterior Segment,” and “Posterior Disease.” We are excited to announce summer meetings for the first time, which will be a great addition to our summer curriculum and introduction to the incoming class. SVOSH By Jonathan B. Dizon, Class of 2016, and Rachael Koschnick, Class of 2015 (2013-14 Co Presidents), and Linda Pham, Class of 2015, Trip Coordinator Students Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity (SVOSH) had a very active and pro- ductive year. We kicked off the fall 2013 semester with the annual Back-to-School Bash, which raised money for our medical outreach trip. Other successful fund-raisers during the year included bake sales, Chick-fil-A, and Menchies events. Over the 2014 spring break, SVOSH set off to the Stann Creek District, a remote region in Southeast Belize and provided free eye care in two locations—Dangriga and Independence. The team, con- sisting of 20 students, 6 physicians, and 1 optician, collaborated with the Belize Council for the Visually Impaired (BCVI), a nonprofit organization, to provide care for the two sites in four days. Medications, glasses, and sunglasses were donated and collected from var- ious organizations over the course of several months for the purpose of the outreach trip. On the second day of providing eye care at the Red Cross in Dangriga, the BCVI graciously coordinated a cultural night to welcome SVOSH with traditional dancing and drumming of the Garifuna people, who are descendants of West African, Central African, Carib, and Arawak people. After several days of hard work and providing eye care for 625 people, the students and physicians had two well-deserved days for excursions, which included cave tubing, zip lining, and exploring the Caracol Mayan ruins. NOPMA NOSA SVOSH