August 2016: Amanda Olsen

Amanda Olsen is currently a fourth year optometry student at Pacific University College of Optometry. She is originally from Estevan, Saskatchewan and completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Regina. This summer, Amanda has spent her time rotating through Pacific’s internal clinics and the Washington School for the Blind. She even got to remove her first corneal foreign body! When she’s not seeing patients, you can find Amanda with a Dutch Bros drink in hand because it’s the closest thing she can find to a Timmys Ice Cap in Oregon. When asked to pick her favourite activity in the world, she said sitting on the beach and watching the ocean. 2017 will hold a few important milestones for her, graduation and her wedding to her fiancé, Travis!

Throughout her time in optometry school, Amanda has been involved in several leadership roles, most notably the CAOS chapter at Pacific. Under her leadership, the CAOS chapter at Pacific saw its highest membership numbers in recent history. Amanda was responsible for getting white coat pins for current and future CAOS members, as well as securing travel grants for several students to attend the BCDO conference in Vancouver. She constantly made sure all the Canadian students at Pacific had the most up-to-date information on Canadian boards and practice in Canada. This past year alone, she organized three presentations from Canadian ODs at Pacific! Amanda also volunteered with the Start Making A Reader Today (SMART) program, reading to young children weekly. She has been a TA for the first year ocular disease and second year perception classes, and oh, did I mention she was her class President on top of all that!

Pacific will miss Amanda and the dedication and smiles she brought to her CAOS executive team, classmates, and patients. The ocular disease courses will definitely miss having Amanda as a mock patient – fun fact, she has a scleral buckle!