1st Hour: Meeting My Mentor

On January 5th I met with my Mentor. His name is Dr. Sasha Penn and he is the chief of Optometry in Daly City Kaiser. I was really excited to meet with him and too see what his office looked like. I thought his office would be filled with weird eye trinkets and gadgets, but there weren't any. It was just a regular office. When I took a seat he started asking questions about me personlly and we got to know eachother a little. After we discussed what expectations were to be met by the both of us in completing my hours, he started to tell me what path needed to be taken to get to his position. He explained that the benefit of attending optometry school rather than medical school, was that it doesn't take as long to finish and get to where you want to be. In order to be an Optometrist, one would have to go to acquire a bachelor's degree which normally would take about four to five years. After receiving their bachelor's degree one would then go to Optometry School for four years. Three years would be spent studying the eyes and the fourth would be rotational. Once graduated from Optometry School, one would be ready to go start working. Some benefits about working as an Optometrist is that one is not married to their job and a majority of the patients that come in are healthy. This job is very clean and only once in a while does a patient come in with odd eye abnormalities. At the end of my visit Dr. Penn handed me a lab coat so that I may wear it when I come in to work with him. He also showed me around the exam room and gave me brief descriptions of what each piece of machinery does. That summed up my first visit with my mentor. I can't wait for my next visit!