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The following students achieved superior academic performance in the Spring 2021 quarter by earning a quarterly GPA of 3.50 or better and no grade below a B or H (honors) in all third- and fourth-year patient care courses: Class of 2021 Abiva, Ashley Abraham, Justin Abusharekh, Samiha Augustine, Alin Baek, Jennifer Becherer, Tracy Bricker, Julie Bruegman, Lexye Buttar, Amandeep Caceres, Melissa Callahan, Megan Celer, Bartlomiej Chan, Kwok Fung Chaudhry, Aysha Chawla, Natasha Chow, Phoebe Tung Cordoba, Claire Crumbliss, Conner Deutsch, Dustin Dhanoa, Gurleen Dhillon, Jagdeep Efianayi, Lester El-Sayed-Abdallah, Fatme Escalante, Tamiko Fazio, Kimberly Fitzgerald, Kelsey George, Emil Ghabour, Monica Gonzalez, Salvador Goodman, Chelsea Hall, Allyson Hanacek, Daniel Hansen, Scott Henkel, Ashley Hinson, Benjamin Howell, Joab Hulet, Zachery Hulisz, Adam Humphreys, Tekarra Ico, Amanda Jain, Smriti Jennings, Kelsey Jin, Doris Kim, Grace Korsak, David Lalonde, Nikkie Lancaster, Alyssa Larson, Jessica Leysen, Avery Li, Jasmine Li, Katrina Lim, Jessica Metoxen, Mariah Michalicek, Benjamin Miller, Peter Morua, Andrew Moussawel, Nabil Mouzaihem, Hussein Nichols, Olivia Norris, Abigail Okakpu, Valerie Pecha, Nathan Percival, Anna Perez, Janette Philip, Riya Prodan, Luiza Rafique, Rabab Salam, Hasan Saleh, Faqar Sammak, Goli Schaefer, Kalyn Seo, Junghee Shah, Amy Shin, Ed Siddiqui, Fareesa Singh, Navreet Skoog, William Skorseth, Claire Smith, Lindsey Solomon, Zack Susol, Aleksandra Sykora, Kelsey Thavarajah, Antoniette Thomason, Zachary Tran, Margaret Tritsch, Erica Villena, Jeff Ward, Carley Wedel, Todd Class of 2022 Abbott, Sarah Aguilar, Lauren Akhter, Kainat Albin, Matthew Ali, Sarah Ali, Zahra Askar, Zacharia Aujla, Balpreet Bade, Bjorn Bartczak, Tanner Bergman, Nicole Biniek, Alicja Boente, Bryce Boycott, Jessie Cao, Jia Min Cardenas, Angelica Chramiec, Natalia Gilbertson, Jena Grewal, Randeep Ha, Vianna Hanna, Nicole Heraiz, Claudia Holden, Payton Hong, Clara Huynh, Bobby Huynh, Melissa Iskander, Fadi Kaur, Gurkiran Koss, Stephanie Krisa, Sydney Lamas, Larissa Langer, Weleed Large, Mackenzie Lee, Soo Jung Liu, Xiang Jun Lutchka, Emy Meagher, Andrea Mills, Shalynn Morier-Roy, Maxime Moua, Chi Na Neher, Frederick Nguyen, Noen Niziol, Paulina Noeng, Kelly Patel, Kosha Patel, Shruti Polk, Natalie Pratt, Christian Quach, Bonnie Randhawa, Navjeet Reyes, Jordan Robbs, Connor Robison, William Rodriguez, Maria Sarver, Amber Schaefer, Steven Schuchardt, Madeleine Shahid, Alina Sun, Lirong Swatch, Priya Teragawa, Sydney Ticknor, Steven Vasiljevic, Nenad Vivacqua, Lisa Vizza, Juliana Wallace, Whitney Wawrzak, Lidia Wong, Christopher Class of 2023 Abernathy, Alexis Ansari, Kashifa Bainbridge, Chloe Bhatt, Vrunda Cho, Melanie Chu, Monica Dunne, Jason Duresa, Eric Hoang, Khanh Jaitly, Mansi Jedlinski, Lauren Jiang, Lai Junidi, Ryan Karimi, Armaghan Karra-Aly, Sarah Karthikeyan, Alek Ko, Jennifer Lewis, EmikaI Macias, Dayra McGowan, Ryan Mehta, Vidhita Opacic, Milena Patel, Puja Patel, Riddhi Patel, Sumaya Peterson, Austin Pritzl, Timothy Prorok, Sylwia Purewal, Prabhdeep Rockne, Lucas Rodriguez, Elsie Saleem, Aroob Seider, Marissa Shackelford, Rachel Shah, Ria Sosalla, Brooke Struss, Morley Sutter, Emily Tank, Shivani Tjoe-A-Long, Faith Vu, Anh Dao Wong, Alexander Yang, Grace Yu, Sheng Nan Class of 2024 Abou Assaf, Salma Babicz, Nicole Bouman, Lydia Bravo, Brianna Breliant, Rachel Cammarata, Jacqueline Crawford, Christian Czyz, Aleksandra Devany, Meaghan Dinh, Nhung Doyle, Hollie Firasta, Mahek Freeman, Nicole Fregonese, Jordyn Ho, Frankie Jongue, Edem Kasem, Kasem Le, Christine Le, Thy Li, Bethany Li, Donna Lin, Jiani Masolak, Diana McCambridge, Colin Mohammad, Zammad Monsen, Parker Nading, Zachary Neidermann, Sarah Ng, Lauren Nguyen, Andrew Oller, Grady Ou, Alison Palmeri, Aaron Parikh, Manisha Patel, Dhruti Patel, Ekta Piraino, Megan Plant, Anna Pond, Jackson Richmond, Madalyn Saini, Vinamrta Sigler, Grace Simeon, Reneta Staleva, Petkana Stewart, McKenzie Strand, Emily Sun, Calvin Tashner, Claire Verkuilen, Benjamin Vivacqua, Gabriella Wentz, Christina Williams, Rebecca Wong, Cheuk Man

April 22nd was a historic day for optometry as the first group of ODs in Illinois received their vaccine certification. "There was applause as each OD successfully completed their training. It was one of those moments I will remember my whole life," says Sandra Bury, OD '95 (pictured in black scrubs with lab partner Leonard Messner, OD), who was one of the first ODs to receive certification. To date, 112 optometrists have begun the certification course and 95 have completed it and are now certified to provide COVID vaccinations. "I am bursting with pride for our great profession. It would be a great to see all of us step up to the challenge," says Dr. Bury. In response to the declared public health emergency, in March 2021, at the direction of Governor J.B. Pritzker, the IL Dept. of Financial and Professional Regulation and IL Dept of Public Health passed a proclamation to grant ODs the authority to administer the COVID-19 vaccination. To assist in the certification process, ICO is partnering with the Illinois Optometric Association to provide a training course to Illinois-licensed optometrists to verify competency in the administration of COVID-19 vaccinations. The course is free of charge and includes a three hour online didactic course followed by a one-hour hands-on, practical course. The practical course will be delivered at various sites throughout Illinois and conducted by ICO faculty with oversight from a practicing healthcare professional who is licensed to perform intramuscular injections. "I'm so proud of the joint efforts of ICO and the IOA to train ODs to become vaccinators. It is an honor to help us all try and end this pandemic together," says Lindsay Sicks, OD '10 (pictured to Dr. Bury's right), who was instrumental in developing the certification course. For more information about future vaccine training courses, please contact continuinged@ico.edu.

Gary A. Lesher, PhD, FAAO, who taught pharmacology at ICO for over 35 years and retired in 2019, has been selected as the commencement speaker for the 178th Commencement Ceremony scheduled for May 15th. A professor of pharmacology and toxicology and Assistant Dean for Didactic Education, Dr. Lesher taught more than 5000 students the nuances and complexities of pharmacology. Dr. Lesher's skilled method of teaching has been reflected in the success of ICO's students' NBEO pharmacology scores – which were consistently higher than the national average. His passion for teaching garnered Dr. Lesher numerous awards throughout his career. He has been recognized as Outstanding Faculty of the Year by numerous class years and received the Excellence in Education Award from ICO in 2013. For those alumni who have been taught by Dr. Lesher, you may recall his drug-related cartoons or videos at the start of class, the drug of the day questions, or the "Jeopardy" game at the end of the year. And who could forget his love of national parks! The Class of 2021 was the last class that Dr. Lesher taught, and they will remember him fondly. Thank you for your many years of dedicated teaching, Dr. Lesher.

Join us on May 23rd for ICO's Cornea 2021, a day-long live, online symposium that will feature expert faculty from the Illinois College of Optometry and the University of Chicago’s Ophthalmology Department. Topics include: · ​The Continuum of Care for Keratoconus · Updates in Corneal and Ocular Surface Disease · What’s New in Lamellar Keratoplasty Six hours of CE credit will be offered. You may register for a la carte courses or the full day. We hope you can attend this exciting CE event! For any questions related to continuing education, please contact Elizabeth Grantner, Director of CE, at egrantner@ico.edu. Click to our Continuing Education webpage to see the event schedule, pricing and registration information.

Earlier this year, the reunion classes for Homecoming 2021 (all years ending with 1's and 6's) were surveyed about their preference for an in-person or virtual class reunion celebration this year. A third option, to cancel it and combine it with next year's celebration, was also provided. This same survey was distributed to the 2020 reunion classes (all years ending in 0's and 5's), who had to cancel their reunion last year due to the pandemic. The survey results indicated that your 1st preference is to meet in-person if the city of Chicago allows large groups to gather. Coming in a close 2nd was the choice to cancel and schedule it during Homecoming 2022. Because of the ongoing and evolving safety restrictions across the U.S. and Canada, ICO is still determining what is the safest option at this time. In the event an in-person Homecoming is scheduled, it will tentatively be held September 10-12, 2021. Please stay tuned as a decision will be made within the coming weeks.

The 24th Annual Practice Opportunities Symposium was held virtually on April 8th and 9th. It is a required event for students as part of the College's practice management curriculum. The Symposium consisted of 8 panel discussions, each consisting of several ODs and highlighting a different mode of practice, as well as an opportunity to network with industry exhibitors and sponsors. The panels included topics pertaining to private practice, corporate and group practice, externships and optometric specialties, practice management, residencies, introduction to practice, non-traditional practices, practicing in Canada, and Canadians practicing in the U.S. In total, there were 542 total attendees, including 422 students, 32 panelists, 7 moderators, 9 exhibitors and 5 sponsors. As an added benefit, all attendees have access to see the panel session On Demand for 90 days. "I'm very pleased with the engagement that the students had this year, especially with the event being virtual for the first time," says Daphne Anderson, ICO's Director of Career Development. Thomas Bobka, OD '82, who participated on the corporate practice panel, had high praise for the event. Says Dr. Bobka, “ICO is ahead of the curve on providing information on all forms of practice opportunities to students. Well done!” ICO sends a big THANK YOU to our Symposium sponsors: Alcon, Essilor, Luxottica, National Vision, Shopko. For more details about the event, or if you are interested in sharing your experiences during next year's symposium, please contact Daphne at danderson@ico.edu.

The ICO Alumni Council launched their 2nd online pop-up store in late March, offering exclusive ICO and ICO Alumni logo'd merchandise. A portion of each sale goes directly into the Alumni Association Scholarship fund. Four scholarships are awarded to 4th year students each year and one scholarship is offered to an admissions candidate. Alumni Council member, Stacy Hinkemeyer-Colatrella, OD '96 (pictured), who originated the online store idea, recently received her spiritwear. "I love the quality, and the styles and brands are very popular," she says. From the two online stores, a total of $4,500 has been raised for scholarships. Thank you to everyone who placed orders! Look for the next online pop-up store in the fall.

ICO is always at the forefront of new technology, whether in the clinic, in the classroom, or online. Many of you may be familiar with our ico.edu website, but did you know ICO has other websites as well, including blog.ico.edu, icomatters.ico.edu and illinoiseyeinstitute.org? ICO has added an exciting addition to our family of websites, why.ico.edu. Created to attract, engage and educate prospective students, our newest website is full of helpful information and tools for those aspiring to become doctors of optometry. Featured on the website are sections pertaining to: Optometry as a Career Life in Chicago The ICO Difference Making a Difference 360 degree Virtual Tour of Campus The website is full of interesting videos of ICO students and alumni who share their experiences and helpful tips. Patient testimonials are also featured. And the 360 virtual campus tour is a must-see. It will definitely bring back memories of campus life! If you know anyone who might be interested in the healthcare professions, or optometry specifically, please lead them to why.ico.edu/ for lots of great info.

This honor recognizes students in the first and second professional year who have distinguished themselves by scoring 90% or higher on the pre-clinical skills assessment Winter Quarter and scored no lower than 75% on all NBEO skills. Class of 2024 Salma Abou Assaf David Adeyeye Luma Alsamarai Maliha Asadullah Nicole Babicz Francia Baez Kristijan Balan Brianna Bravo Shannon Carmo Annika Crawford Christian Crawford Cindy Dang Nhung Kim Dinh Hollie Doyle Andrew Dust, Mahek Firasta Nicole Freeman Jordyn Fregonese Idelish Gonzalez Frankie Ho Brian Huang Edem Jongue Elizabeth Kim Junmo Kwon Thy Le Bethany Li Donna Li Jiani Lin Julia Maida Tayler Malecki Greg Malisewski Jasdip Mann Tijana Markovic Diana Masolak Colin McCambridge Alyza Medina Smruti Mehta Zammad Mohammad Parker Monsen Sarah Neidermann Lauren Ng Alison Ou Aaron Palmeri Maria Pappas Priyanka Patel Melisa Philogene Megan Piraino Anna Plant Jackson Pond Madalyn Richmond Samantha Rivet Jacob Schumacher Karlee Seawell Vishwa Sheoran Xhenete Shuaipaj Tavleen Singh McKenzie Stewart Caitlyn Sudkamp Calvin Sun Roselyn Thomas Reeham Tineh Ani Tokhmakhian Ben Verkuilen Gabriella Vivacqua Joel Wagner Christina Wentz Rebecca Williams Jakob Zigulis Class of 2023 Ruba Ahmad Sayf Al-Khazraji Kashifa Ansari Moheera Athar Chloe Bainbridge Lovedeep Banipal Vrunda Bhatt Kevin Blackett Monica Chu Miae Chung Tea Dimo Eric Duresa Paul Eros Amy Gerwing Shaadan Hasan Abraham Hassan Jaqueline Isquierdo Katarina Ivanovic Lauren Jedlinski Lai Jiang Caroline Johnson Armaghan Karimi Jennifer Ko Anita Latgnotha Edward Lawando Dayra Macias Aitana Marquez Vidhita Mehta Benjamin Meyette Munira Moukaddem Mikolaj Nowobilski Matthew Olijnyk Sumaya Patel Sylwia Prorok Prabhdeep Purewal Alia Raad Lucas Rockne Aroob Saleem Erica Shin Talha Suhail Emily Sutter Shivani Tank John Tatar Faith Tjoe-A-Long Tiffany Tsoi Alexander Wong Grace Yang Timothy Yang Sheng Yu Yumna Zaidi

On April 8-9, 2021, ICO will be hosting the 24th Annual Practice Opportunities Symposium and their first virtual symposium! This 2-day event is an excellent way for students to hear from actively practicing ODs, ask them questions about their career, and of course, network. In conjunction with the POS we have highlighted several modes of practice on our social media channels. In case you missed it, we wanted to share some of these pieces here as well. Scroll through to learn about the many ways you can practice optometry. MADE AT ICO: Watch a few videos about our alumni through our Made at ICO campaign. CLOSE-UP: ICO MATTERS Featured ICO Alumni and an opportunity to catch a glimpse of a day in the their lives.

The following students achieved superior academic performance in the Winter 2020 quarter by earning a quarterly GPA of 3.50 or better and no grade below a B or H (honors) in all third- and fourth-year patient care courses: Class of 2021 Abraham, Justin Abusharekh, Samiha Anjum, Zuneera Baek, Jennifer Bricker, Julie Bruegman, Lexye Buttar, Amandeep Caceres, Melissa Callahan, Megan Celer, Bartlomiej Chaudhry, Aysha Chawla, Natasha Chow, Phoebe Tung Collins, Thomas Crumbliss, Conner Day, Carson DeFauw, Brett Desai, Pooja Deutsch, Dustin Efianayi, Lester Esser, Ashley Fazio, Kimberly Files, Owen Francis, Randi-Jo George, Emil Ghabour, Monica Go, Jason Gonzalez, Salvador Goodman, Chelsea Hall, Allyson Hans, Navneet Henkel, Ashley Henry, Owen Hinson, Benjamin Hulet, Zachery Hulisz, Adam Humphreys, Tekarra Ico, Amanda Ishtiaq, Alina Jain, Smriti Javed, Fatima Jennings, Kelsey Kamachi, Zachary Kamil, Christie Kim, Grace Klukas, Erin Laden, Chelsea Lalonde, Nikkie Lancaster, Alyssa Larson, Jessica Lenhart, Kasey Leysen, Avery Li, Brian Li, Jasmine Li, Katrina Lim, Jessica Malik, Sana Marogy, Renee Metoxen, Mariah Michalicek, Benjamin Minhas, Nikita Moussawel, Nabil Mouzaihem, Hussein Nguyen, Christine Nichols, Olivia Okakpu, Valerie Patel, Alesha Pecha, Nathan Philip, Riya Polyek, Liliya Rafique, Rabab Rancic, Jake Salam, Hasan Schaefer, Kalyn Shah, Amy Shin, Ed Siddiqui, Fareesa Skoog, William Skorseth, Claire Smith, Erica Solomon, Zack Susol, Aleksandra Sykora, Kelsey Tran, Michelle Tritsch, Erica Valenzuela, Alyssa Wedel, Todd Class of 2022 Abbott, Sarah Aguilar, Lauren Albin, Matthew Ali, Sarah Ali, Zahra Askar, Zacharia Aujla, Balpreet Bade, Bjorn Bartczak, Tanner Bergman, Nicole Biniek, Alicja Boente, Bryce Boycott, Jessie Buinickas, Marissa Chramiec, Natalia Gilbertson, Jena Gill, Alison Grewal, Randeep Ha, Vianna Haider, Junaid Hanna, Nicole Heraiz, Claudia Holden, Payton Hong, Clara Huynh, Bobby Huynh, Melissa Iskander, Fadi Kaur, Gurkiran Kingra, Ramanjot Koepke, Macy Koss, Stephanie Krisa, Sydney Lamas, Larissa Langer, Weleed Large, Mackenzie Lee, Soo Jung Liu, Xiang Jun Lutchka, Emy Meagher, Andrea Mills, Shalynn Morier-Roy, Maxime Moua, Chi Na Neher, Frederick Niziol, Paulina Patel, Himanee Patel, Kosha Patel, Shruti Pillai, Divya Polk, Natalie Pratt, Christian Raziuddin, Sophia Reyes, Jordan Robbs, Connor Robison, William Rodriguez, Maria Sarver, Amber Schaefer, Steven Schuchardt, Madeleine Shahid, Alina Sharma, Malika Shim, Rachel Singh, Chereka Soldenwagner, Maximillian St Louis, Rodney Sun, Lirong Swatch, Priya Teragawa, Sydney Thorp, Blaine Vasiljevic, Nenad Vivacqua, Lisa Vizza, Juliana Wallace, Whitney Wawrzak, Lidia Wildt, Rylee Wong, Christopher Zezelic, Angela Class of 2023 Athar, Moheera Bainbridge, Chloe Bhatt, Vrunda Cho, Melanie Chu, Monica Hasan, Shaadan Hoang, Khanh Ivanovic, Katarina Jaitly, Mansi Jedlinski, Lauren Karra-Aly, Sarah Karthikeyan, Alek Ko, Jennifer Latgnotha, Anita Lay, Amanda Lewis, Emika Macias, Dayra Marquez, Aitana McGowan, Ryan Mehta, Vidhita Meyette, Benjamin Moukaddem, Munira Mundra, Bobby Nowobilski, Mikolaj Patel, Puja Patel, Riddhi Patel, Sumaya Peterson, Austin Prorok, Sylwia Purewal, Prabhdeep Rockne, Lucas Rola, Jacqueline Seider, Marissa Shackelford, Rachel Shah, Ria Sosalla, Brooke Struss, Morley Sutter, Emily Tank, Shivani Tjoe-A-Long, Faith Tubene, Lydie Vu, Anh Dao Waris, Anam Wong, Alexander Yang, Grace Yu, Sheng Nan Class of 2024 Abou Assaf, Salma Babicz, Nicole Bouman, Lydia Bravo, Brianna Breliant, Rachel Cammarata, Jacqueline Crawford, Christian Czyz, Aleksandra Devany, Meaghan Dhaliwal, Gurjivan Dinh, Nhung Doyle, Hollie Firasta, Mahek Freeman, Nicole Fregonese, Jordyn Gonzalez, Idelish Ho, Frankie Jongue, Edem Le, Christine Le, Thy Li, Bethany Li, Donna Lin, Jiani Mann, Jasdip Masolak, Diana Mohammad, Zammad Monsen, Parker Nading, Zachary Neidermann, Sarah Ng, Lauren Nguyen, Andrew Oller, Grady Ou, Alison Palmeri, Aaron Pappas, Maria Parikh, Manisha Patel, Dhruti Patel, Ekta Piraino, Megan Plant, Anna Pond, Jackson Richmond, Madalyn Seawell, Karlee Sigler, Grace Simeon, Reneta Staleva, Petkana Stewart, McKenzie Strand, Emily Sun, Calvin Tashner, Claire Verkuilen, Benjamin Vivacqua, Gabriella Wentz, Christina Williams, Rebecca Wong, Cheuk Man Zigulis, Jakob

Randi-Jo Francis, OD '21 As Randi (very soon to be Dr. Francis!) says, becoming an OD "is something completely attainable" ... you'll "have the resources and the support needed" and of course, "we'll have mentors for (you) as well." Lydie Tubene, OD '23 Lydie's parents immigrated from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Their determination and their drive are a big reason why she is at ICO today. To future Black ODs Lydie says "never doubt yourself. Know that you belong in this space ... your patients they see you and they appreciate you." Melisa Philogene, OD ’24 Melisa Philogene, OD ’24 not only celebrates the rich culture of Bronzeville, but her own rich Haitian culture and her family’s struggle to acclimate to life in America. She says, “Though the society may not believe in you, don’t forget about the rich culture that you have… Don’t forget you are here for a reason and you’re gonna be a great doctor.” Alexis Abernathy, OD '23 Alexis Abernathy, OD '23 serves as both a mentor and a liaison not only as an academic coach but also as the president of ICO's BSU. She says, "Black students can do anything they put their mind to. They can excel in any route. They don't just have to do what they see others doing." Looking for more resources? If you are a student interested in optometry, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. Admissions is always there to support you. You can reach out to them at admissions@ico.edu. Every year, we put together a program called Focus on Your Future which brings minority students together to learn about optometry and ICO. If you’re interested, you can start by reading our feature in our alumni magazine and by visiting our admissions page. If you have specific questions, reach out to Teisha Johnson at tjohnson@ico.edu. Last year, we launched several initiatives to help support students and the Focus on Your Future program. In the fall, we launched a DEI campaign in partnership with Dr. Nana Owusu and Janette Perez, and in December, ICO employees raised $25,000 to endow the Underrepresented Minority Scholarship. Both campaigns are ongoing if you wish to contribute. To future black ODs, we want you to know there is a place for you here at ICO and we can’t wait to welcome you on campus.