100 Stories: Maria Armandi, OD '92, Resident '93
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100 Stories: Maria Armandi, OD '92, Resident '93

Memories of the Pennsylvania College of Optometry
(PCO) Class of 1992

  • Making new friends who quickly become your PCO family- going through the everyday accomplishments and challenges of those four years
  • Life in Wentka Hall, fire alarms, homemade pizza nights, Mary’s cookie baking

Wentka Hall

  • Experiencing the legend that was Dr. Lorraine Lombardi drawing anatomy diagrams with two hands at the same time, surviving her tests...barely
  • Dr. Charles Wormington’s details and why not push them to 20/10
  • Relief at the Bent Elbow singing “Under the Boardwalk”, dining on “ham on roll”  with Jim at the Green Parrot

The Bent Elbow​The Bent Elbow  

  • Budding romances, tough goodbyes before summer break
  • Hosting friends at Thanksgiving at my Italian grandmother’s house and watching their astonished expressions after realizing that there was still turkey and all the side dishes  to come even after the soup and pasta with meatballs and sausage

The Peenies

  • Life at Stevenson terrace, any excuse for a party, birthdays, exams, girls’ nights, kitty cats, row houses and the Carriage House boys, the Peenies and Slackers
  • Dr. Laney and his pipe
  • Student activity parties in the basement of Fitch Hall

Parties in Fitch HallParties in Fitch Hall  

  • Practicing for practicals  - “Will you sit for me?”
  • Retinoscopy to the tune of “Wiggle It”
  • Steph, our dancing queen
  • Christmas trees, studying for Boards
  • Briefcases and lens kits, walking to clinic and late nights
  • Picnics on TEI’s lawn, could TEI have been any greener?
  • Flag football
  • Dr. Joseph Toland sayings- Jeff had them down pat-“It’s like spittin’ in the ocean.”
  • Aerobics classes
  • Taking our Wisconsin friend to see the ocean for the first time,
  • Watching our A-exam videos like Hollywood premiers
  • Proudly sending each other off with “first day of clinic” photos in carefully selected new outfits
  • Long clinic days with no lunch breaks
  • Soap operas on TV and in real life
  • Picking just the right externships sites
  • Never laughing so hard making and watching the IBS show video, the last “real” Module 5

The Last Real Modules"Last Real Modules" 

  • Before we knew it leaving what had just become so comfortable, first rotation-“How do we do this by ourselves?”
  • An interesting night at the Wilmington, Va., after prisoners escaped from the prison next door
  • Bull riding at the Alcon trip

Bull Riding - Alcon TripBull Riding during the Alcon Trip 

  • Reunion back at TEI winter quarter
  • Helping to celebrate the 40th birthday of Drs. Jeffrey Nyman and Neal Nyman at the Green Parrot
  • Three of us within my group of close friends lost our fathers during those first three years- the most difficult days of our lives but we made it through because we had our PCO family who took care of us, kept us busy and on track and made sure we kept going and finished our journey-will never forget their support
  • Happy times of engagements and weddings, finally a fancy party at the Bellevue before graduation, the Academy of Music, taking pictures in caps and gowns, doctors now, not enough time to say goodbye. 

Armandi at CommencementCommencement 1992