Optometry
I Chose Salus
My name is Jonah Casella, and I am a third-year Optometry student. A typical day in my life consists of studying for the first part of the National Board of Examiners in Optometry (NBEO) exam and seeing patients in at The Eye Institute (TEI)! I currently have clinic in eight-hour sessions two days a week.
Here’s my schedule on Wednesdays at clinic:
6:15 a.m.: Wake up and get ready for the day. Once I get dressed for clinic, I usually study for a few hours until it’s time to head to TEI!
12:15 p.m. – 7 or 8 p.m.: I am typically at clinic all day.
On non-clinic days, I wake up around the same time, go to the gym and eat breakfast.
9:30 - 10:00 a.m.: I start studying for boards and will typically study all day and sometimes into the night.
5-7 p.m.: I am also in the Advanced Studies in Contact Lens program, so I have lectures and workshops typically around this time during the week or on the weekends. At this point, we have very few classes as we are focused on studying for boards.
In May, I will begin my fourth year and head out for my first rotation in Charlotte, North Carolina!
Optometry school is very demanding, and you have to become good at managing your time efficiently. It will be tough at times, but it will be well worth it! Providing for patients is very rewarding and I would never change my decision to be an optometrist.
Salus University has given me the opportunity to be in the clinic since the fall semester of my first year and that is undoubtedly the reason I feel so comfortable seeing patients as a third-year student!
