Making Things Better for the Next Generation
The college was pleased to welcome a great group of alumni and their families to campus recently for our first Alumni/Child Admissions Forum. We received a lot of positive feedback from those who attended. I feel certain that this event made our guests more informed, and more comfortable with our program, and the application process in general.

I was determined to make my children’s lives better than mine was…which was tough, because I have two wonderful parents. I guess that every generation wants to make things better for the next. This has been the case with our profession in general, and it certainly has been the case at SCO. Following are some of the remarks I shared with our guests, and I think all of alumni and friends will take pride in the discussion:
For our parents/grandparents with offspring interested in optometry, it should make you proud that our profession is a stronger one today than it was yesterday. As alumni, it should make you proud that the college is better today than it was yesterday. I used to say that it was my job to make our alumni even more proud of SCO tomorrow than you are today. But that is a responsibility that is shared by all of us…the board of trustees, faculty, staff, students and alumni.
I want to thank our legacy ODs for being a role model for not only your children and grandchildren, but the people within your community, including students who are looking for the best possible career. You are important members of our family, and a key stakeholder in our mission. Strong role models such as you enable us to demonstrate just how far our graduates can go in our profession.
You may receive the highest award we bestow, the Lifetime Achievement Award, as Dr. Terry Swinger received in 2004. You may lead your state association in legislative battle to truly allow us to use all aspects of our professional skills and knowledge. You may even lead the national association that represents our profession to the world, as Dr. Joe Ellis is doing right now. All of you are leaders and represent our profession well, or these young people wouldn’t have been led to investigate optometry as a career, and to investigate SCO as not only the gateway, but we would hope the catapult…to that career.
To you students…optometry is a dynamic, highly rewarding profession. I know that your parents have taught you that hard work and preparation will make you competitive in life. Perhaps they have developed the desire within you, and perhaps they have given you solid counseling and encouragement. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind…you will have to work harder than they did to gain admission, and if you are fortunate enough to come here, you will have to work harder than they did to complete this program. The college expects more from its applicants and from its students than it did when we were here.
The more preparation you do now, the better positioned you will be as candidates for admission and as optometry students should you be accepted. Because of your family exposure, you are already aware that becoming an optometric physician is well worth the struggle.
And it shouldn’t be easy. Patients come to us, trusting us to take care of their vision, of their most precious sense…the sense of sight. They take it for granted that you did your best to get here…and here at SCO, you did your absolute best, because their eyesight may depend upon it.
I wish you well. I can honestly say that, as much as I love working with the Southern College of Optometry family, there isn’t a day goes by that I don’t think about the patients I saw over the years…and then their children who became my patients. The doctor/patient relationship an optometric physician enjoys is one of the most endearing and special relationships enjoyed by ANY profession. If it were easy, everyone would do it.
We’re proud to have you all here today. The college takes it as a high compliment that you are considering this profession we love, and as long as THIS is what you want to do, and if you are good enough to get here…you might as well attend the best college of optometry in the country.
Posted: August 2nd, 2010 under Alumni, Optometry, SCO News.
Tags: Alumni/Child Forum, Legacy Alumni
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