Soggy Elkins Park: Week of July 6th

Students, Faculty, Residents, Staff, Alumni, Board Members and Friends,

Good morning from a soggy Elkins Park! I hope everyone had an enjoyable 4th of July holiday. I don’t know about you, but Wednesday felt like Sunday and yesterday felt like Monday, so today feels really good, even with the rain.

This week we welcomed our newest PCO Scholars students to campus. They spent the week getting oriented to their new program, jumping into their accelerated program with lots of smiles and energy. It was great to meet everyone from the class and learn about the very diverse backgrounds.  

On Thursday, the Pennsylvania Ear Institute (PEI) sponsored the Ladama, Latin America concert in Abington Art Center's World Music Concert Series. The University will also sponsor the last concert in the series on July 26, Sidi Toure, Mali. If you are looking for something interesting, fun and free to do, check it out.

Our Speech - Language Institute (SLI) will hold its Speakeasy Support Group from 12 to 2 p.m. on Saturday, July 7, in the clinic. And finally, Blindness and Low Vision Studies (BLVS) will honor their Alumna of the Year, Sister Lisa Ann Lettiere, IHM, MEd '00, TVI, COMS at a reception that will be held on Thursday, July 12 at 5:30 p.m. at the Hafter Center. 

Yesterday, I held my first of two quarterly University-wide meetings at The Eye Institute (TEI). Today I’ll be meeting with staff at the Elkins Park campus at 2:00 PM.  Yesterday we had a great discussion about the actions the American Optometric Association (AOA) says it’s taking concerning the optometric applicant pool. It appears they’re investing almost $1M into marketing the profession, which is great news. Apparently, we might have played a very key role in moving the needle on this. I can discuss this further at today’s meeting, if anyone is interested.

I’m off to Budapest, Hungary tomorrow as part of a Global Business Strategy course I’m taking in my MBA program. During the trip I’ll be visiting a medical services delivery business, the U.S. Embassy, an IT firm, an international law practice and a vineyard. These are all businesses that want to share lessons they’ve learned while working from Hungary in a global business environment. I’m really looking forward to the entire program. When I served as the Medical Advisor to NATO in my “former life” I had the opportunity to set up a NATO medical research command in Budapest, so it will be fun to go back.

I hope everyone has a great week. I’ll try to get an abridged “Weekly Update out next week.

Mike