Practicing Good Sleep Hygiene: Week of March 1, 2024

 

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

Greetings on this first day of March! It’s been another busy week on campus as well as down in Atlanta where many of our optometry faculty, residents and some students have been participating in the Southern Educational Council of Optometry meeting. I wanted to extend my thanks to Megan Weyler and the Drexel Human Resources team for taking the time on Monday to provide an overview of Drexel Human Resources to Salus faculty and staff. We know that many questions are still unanswered, but this was a great first step in helping everyone to understand some of the tools that will be available us as we continue to navigate through the merger. Much more granular, individualized information will be available to all of us in early Spring, after our teams have had the opportunity to complete a line-by-line comparison of all of our benefits. In the interim, I encourage all faculty and staff to visit the Drexel HR website to learn more about what’s offered to us. Here are some things I hope you will find of interest: 

SALUS FASHION, TAKE ONE: As Salus University’s general counsel and compliance officer, Brian Zuckerman, JD, thinks his workday attire can feel a bit repetitive. For him, socks are an opportunity to show a little bit of individualism. Socks that make a statement are something I know a little about as well. Click here to check out the first of three stories about fashion at Salus.

AUDIOLOGY AWARD: Aaron Roman, AuD, CCC-A, FAAA, an assistant professor in the University’s Osborne College of Audiology (OCA), has been named an Early-Career Audiologist Award winner by the American Academy of Audiology (AAA). Dr. Roman is in his second year at the University, where he teaches courses in the residential Doctor of Audiology (AuD) program and serves as a clinical audiologist providing comprehensive care at the on-campus clinical facility, the Pennsylvania Ear Institute. He also serves as a clinical preceptor for AuD students and works with pediatric and adult populations. To read more, click here.

WHY SALUS: Hear directly from Salus University’s Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) students on why they chose our SLP program. Click here for details.

A CLOSER LOOK AT DREXEL: As we continue the integration process with Drexel University, we wanted to take a deep dive into Drexel’s academics and student life. Click here to learn more.

FINAL THOUGHTS: Over the past few weeks, I’ve touched upon several subjects that are associated with the stressors we see in our lives to include loneliness, bullying, and gun violence. Today, after having to get up at 3 AM to catch an early morning flight I thought I’d address another stressor, one that many of us deal with routinely. That is sleep deprivation. While attending the continuing education meeting of the Association of Armed Forces and Federal Optometric Services (AFOS) in Atlanta this past week I had the opportunity to attend a very insightful lecture on this very topic, which prompted me to do some additional research. I’d like to share some of my take-aways from the lecture and what I found in the literature that I’m certain is applicable to everyone reading this update.

According to the Sleep Foundation, as we sleep, we cycle through four stages of sleep. The first stage can last between one and seven minutes. You are probably not dreaming but just starting to relax. During the second stage of sleep, we are more relaxed. Our breathing, heart rates slow and brain activity slows. This stage lasts between ten to twenty-five minutes. During the third phase of sleep, also called “slow or delta wave” sleep we are in much deeper state, more relaxed, and much harder to wake. Sleep experts believe this is the restorative phase of our sleep cycles where the brain has a chance to rest and even assists with memory and creativity. It may also bolster the immune system and other key bodily processes. This phase can last from twenty to forty minutes. The fourth phase of sleep is REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, where our brain becomes more active. While we can dream in any of the sleep phases, the dreams we have during the REM stage tend to be more vivid. Most people will not enter REM sleep until they have been sleeping for up to ninety minutes. REM sleep is believed to be essential for cognitive functions such as memory, creativity and learning. We cycle through these phases several times during the night (or when we sleep) – see diagram below. 

Just like doing exercise to ensure we maintain a healthy cardiovascular system and shower every day to ensure we have good general hygiene, paying attention to our sleep hygiene is also an important habit to get into. It’s important to develop a consistent sleep schedule. To obtain this you should have routine exposure to nature daylight, avoid screen time and alcohol a couple of hours prior to bedtime as well eliminating noise and ambient light from your sleep environment. This will also help to properly adjust your circadian rhythm, the twenty-four internal clock in our brain that regulates cycles of alertness and sleepiness by responding to changes in our exposure to natural light in our environment. While this may seem like common sense, many of us have a difficult time practicing good sleep hygiene on a regular basis.

As we try to address stressors in our lives, getting enough good sleep on a regular basis can play a key role in how we are able to navigate through the many things confronting us daily. As you prepare for the weekend, and many of you, national boards, try to work on improving your sleep hygiene as I believe it will pay dividends in overall performance academically and personally.

Be safe, get some rest, look out for one another, and remain SALUS STRONG!

- Mike

My Thanks to Our Salus Community: Week of November 22, 2023

 

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

At this time of Thanksgiving, we pause to count our blessings for the freedoms we enjoy in this great country and the many opportunities to achieve great things that our freedoms afford. Traditionally, individuals from all walks of life come together to celebrate this most American holiday with family and friends to recount the joys and blessings of the past year.

With all that’s happening in the world, we have much upon which to reflect, and for which to be thankful: 

Abundant thanks to our students for choosing Salus to advance your professional formation and for your continued partnership with us as we prepare you with the finest professional education available. You’re the reason we’re here. We are extremely thankful for that.

 

Sincere thanks to our talented staff for all you do for our students and our institution, and to our faculty for your commitment to instructional excellence, service, and research. Your collective contributions, often made without fanfare, advance our mission in ways that are significant and enduring. 

 

Deepest thanks to our volunteer Board of Trustees for your tremendous service to our Salus community. Your expertise, commitment and support inspire us to do our best work.

 

As many of our neighbors and friends lend a hand to those in need, we are also reminded of the indelible spirit of compassion and mutual responsibility that has distinguished our country since its earliest days. This spirit is alive and well here at Salus. Everyday throughout our Eye, Ear, and Speech and Language Institutes, in schools and across the many clinical settings we support, Salus people embody the Thanksgiving spirit. My admiration and thanks to our clinicians, staff, and students for the exceptional care you provide our patients across the Philadelphia region.

As we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving, we also embrace a significant moment in Salus’s history – our upcoming merger with Drexel University. This Thanksgiving let’s express our gratitude not only for the blessings in our lives but also for the exciting future that lies ahead as we join forces with Drexel. Together, we will innovate and enhance our strengths in graduate health sciences education and clinical practice, expanding our impact and continuing our legacy of excellence.

Thank you for making Salus a very special place in which to learn, work and support our community.

Wishing you all a very safe and restful Thanksgiving.

-Mike

Finals are Done: Week of May 10th

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

We finally made it to Friday! Most of our students are done with finals (at least after this morning) and are taking some time to relax before they graduate in a couple of weeks, head off to externships or prepare to begin summer semester.
I want to take this opportunity to congratulate Jingyun Wang, PhD, associate professor, who attended and presented at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) conference last week – congratulations!

The Pennsylvania College of Optometry (PCO) Centennial Gala on April 27, 2019 marked the official kickoff of Focus on Our Future: The Centennial Campaign. With this campaign, we are committed to raising critical private support to ensure that the impact PCO and Salus has on our students, our region, and our world is even more powerful in the next 100 years. The campaign seeks to raise $5 million in funding to enhance our endowment, increasing support for student scholarships; improve educational facilities; and bolster our community service programs. 

Learn more about the campaign and to donate. 


A few weeks ago in April, faculty and graduates of BLVS attended the Penn Del AER Conference where they represented Salus with both presentations and poster sessions. Fabiana Perla, EdD, COMS, CLVR, chair of the Department of BLVS and Francesca Crozier-Fitzgerald, BLVS presented on their exploratory study of rehabilitation services to inmates with visual impairments; and Lachelle Smith, director of the Vision Rehabilitation Therapy program and Emily Vasile, MAT, TVI, MS, CLVT, instructor, presented All Aboard: Discovering a Collaborative Pathway Toward Independent Living – How Parents, TVI, and VRTs Can Chart a Child’s Path to Success.

I had the opportunity to participate in the Temple University Fox School of Business commencement ceremony yesterday, looking at things from a totally different perspective than I’m used to. It was interesting having to sit through the ceremony, listen to the speakers and then enjoy my five seconds of fame as I walked across the stage to get my blank diploma! Apparently, Temple and most bigger schools mail your diplomas to you after the graduation ceremony. Many of you might have experienced that in undergraduate school. This practice really highlights the importance of the work that Dr. Jim Caldwell, Shannon Boss and their staff do in preparation for our commencement ceremonies at Salus. We DO give real diplomas at graduation. They’re meticulously prepared in the right order so the right students get them every time – at least that’s been the case since I’ve been here. There is much to be said for attending a smaller institution like Salus. We sincerely value and cherish each one of our students and feel honored you’ve trusted us with your education. In reflection, I’m glad I went to graduation, “walked” and enjoyed the experience as a student. This whole experience helped me to keep my perspective fresh, especially now as we get ready to launch our next class of Salus graduates in about two weeks.

Have a great weekend and enjoy your well deserved break. Have some fun, spend time with friends and family and recharge your mental batteries!

Mike

Braved the Rain: Week of January 25th

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

Well, it’s another Friday following a really strange week of January weather! At least the rain has stopped for now (and we’re not shoveling snow)! All that said, it’s also been another busy week at Salus. 

I spent the better part of last weekend meeting and talking with alumni, to include participating in our semi-annual Salus Alumni Board meeting. During that meeting I was able to bring alumni board members up to speed on many of the great things that have been going on at the University. One event I highlighted was the upcoming centennial celebration, commemorating the 100^thanniversary of the Pennsylvania College of Optometry.  I reflected upon the storied history of PCO as well as some of the very successful things that have transpired over the last couple of years at the University and, in particular, at PCO.  These included a significant improvement in Part 1 of the National Board of Examiners exam to surpass the national average for the first time in 15 years and the fact that we’ve begun a deliberate, strategic downsizing of our entering optometry class from what used to be over 155 students to 140 students, projected for next year’s class. I explained we’ve done this to enable us to continue to pick only the best and brightest students from a decreasing applicant pool.  At the board meeting, we also had the pleasure of reviewing each program’s Alumnus of the Year nominees. The recipients will be announced sometime next month. It’s always rewarding, as well as enlightening, for me to talk with our alums from each program as I always learn something that can be applied to what we’re doing. 

As part of the Centennial Celebration we will be honoring 24 members of the optometric community who have made significant contributions to PCO and the optometric profession with our Presidential Medal of Honor. This award was originally established in recognition of those alumni and others who made significant contributions to PCO and optometry during our first 75 years. At that time, 76 medals were awarded. To commemorate PCO’s 100^th anniversary, we’re adding an additional 24 recipients to round the number off to 100.  We’ve also decided to begin a new tradition to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of Salus, so we will be awarding 10 Salus Presidential Medals of Honor to 10 people who have made significant contributions to University and their respective professions over the course of the last 10 years. These awards will be presented on April 26th here on campus. As we look toward the future, we plan on presenting a Presidential Medal each year, thereafter, if there is a qualified recipient.  

Our Office of Communications has been working closely with PCO and Institutional Advancement to ensure we are getting as much information about our history out on social media and our website as possible. Check out the latest that discusses The Eye Institute’s evolution over time.

The 3^rd year class of the Pennsylvania College of Optometry will be holding their annual Eye Ball event on Thursday, January 31 at 7 p.m. at the Blue Bell Country Club. Tickets are $75.00 per person and formal attire is required. 

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to represent Salus at the kick-off event for Invest: Philadelphia in Center City.  I was part of a panel discussion addressing higher education in the city and was joined by Mr. Craig Carnaroli, the Executive VP at the University of Pennsylvania and Dr. Guy Generals, President of the Community College of Philadelphia.  It was an honor to be part of this and now there over 200 people who were at the meeting who know a great deal more about Salus than they did before they got there!

On January 31, we will be holding a signing ceremony at Rosemont College to celebrate the establishment of five new articulation agreements between Rosemont and Salus.  These include Optometry (3+4 and 4+4), Audiology, Occupational Therapy, and Physician Assistant programs.

This Sunday and Monday we’ll be hosting our extremely dedicated Board of Trustees to complete the scenario planning process that we began last summer as well as also hold our quarterly board meeting.  It will be a busy, but I’m certain, very productive few days.

Finally, as you can see there is lots of activity surrounding the upcoming celebration of PCO’s 100^th anniversary as well as other things going on at the University.  It’s an exciting time!

Have a great weekend – be safe and look out for one another.  Please ensure you’ve placed April 27th on your calendars to celebrate our Centennial! 

Mike

President's New Year Message: Week of January 1st

 

All,

I’d like to take this opportunity to wish everyone in the Salus community a very happy and healthy New Year! 2019 marks a very special year for us as we celebrate the 100th anniversary of our founding college, the Pennsylvania College of Optometry.  In this milestone year, I believe we’re at a juncture for reflecting on the thinking of our founder, Dr. Albert Fitch, whose vision for PCO was to create a professional school of optometry comparable to those of medicine and dentistry that resulted in a higher standard of proficiency and enlightened the public’s mind about optometry and its relationship to the conservation of vision. Today, that same desire is being realized more globally at Salus where we continue to innovate and break new ground through our innovative curricula and world-class faculty and programs. 

As we leave 2018 in the rear-view, I am pleased to report that our academic semester and calendar year ended on a very high note with the 2018 graduating class of our physician assistant program attaining a 100% pass rate on their national certification exam. This exceptional accomplishment has become the norm for this, as well as many of our other programs.

As we reflect on the past year, the last 12 months have been marked by noteworthy achievements and change. 

Just a few examples include:  

• Completing construction and dedication of the Lombardi Classroom
• Adding four additional eye lanes at The Eye Institute
• The Pennsylvania College of Optometry attained full re-accreditation from the Accreditation Council on Optometric Education
• Celebrating milestone professional recognition for several of our faculty members
• Salus was named “A great college to work for” by the Chronical of Higher Education
• Celebrating the 10th anniversary of attaining University status 
• Welcomed several new faculty and staff members
• We also bid farewell to Drs. Janice Scharre, Lorraine Lombardi and Sue Oleszewski, amongst others, all of whom made significant contributions to our institution over the course of their very significant tenures. 

2019 is a hallmark year for us. We will celebrate the heritage, rich history and unparalleled accomplishments of the Pennsylvania College of Optometry. At the same time, we will maintain our momentum and actively work to shape our own future as one of the nation’s premier health sciences universities. While it’s important to celebrate the past and understand what got us here, it’s imperative that we turn our eyes toward the future so we can continue to effectively build on the legacy left to us by our predecessors. That will assure we can strategically position ourselves to confront new challenges and remain agile in today’s dynamic healthcare and higher education ecosystems.

This new year we will also welcome our new Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dr. Barry Eckert who, I’m certain, will contribute his extensive expertise towards expanding and bringing new ideas to our academic programs. 2019 also brings re-accreditation visits to our audiology and occupational yherapy programs and a visit to establish full accreditation status for our speech-language pathology program.

Needless to say, 2019 promises to be an extremely busy and exciting year.  Salus is a great university because of the students, faculty, staff and volunteer board members and others that bring our university to life. I look forward to working with each and every one of you as we continue to grow Salus and position ourselves for another year of great accomplishments and successes. 

Wishing you and your families health, happiness and continued success in 2019!

Mike 

Back from Budapest: Week of July 20th

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

It’s great to be back at Salus after my week in Budapest. While I learned a great deal and really enjoyed the city, it’s always great to get back home where there is a lot going on, as usual!

I’d like to welcome our second-year optometry class back to campus. I know that you’ve already jumped into classes and clinical studies, which I’m sure has been both challenging and exciting. Your summer will go quickly! 

Starting Saturday, July 21st, the Osborne College of Audiology (OCA) will host its 6th annual Hands-On-Summer Workshop, with the first one on "Electrophysiology in Audiology" followed by "Vestibular and Balance Disorders: Assessment and Rehabilitation". OCA's international AuD-Bridge students will be on-campus attending these workshops along with local audiologists. This should be a very rewarding experience for all involved. 

Congratulations to Dr. Jonette Owen, who was elected as the VP of Education for the Pennsylvania Academy of Audiology and Dr. Pienkowski for his article on "New Advances in Electrophysiology for Clinical and Basic Investigation," with his co-authors, to be published in Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience. Our faculty just keep knocking this out of the park!

Faculty and students from the Speech-Language Pathology, Occupational Therapy and Blindness and Low vision Studies programs from the College of Education and Rehabilitation participated in an Interprofessional Education workshop focusing on investigating universal design, a broad spectrum of ideas meant to produce buildings, products and environments that are accessible to people with and without disabilities in both our local and surrounding communities. This effort speaks to everything we believe at Salus about the integration of health services to benefit our patients and communities. Well done! 

On Tuesday and Wednesday members of our faculty, staff, student body and Board of Trustees got together for our first Scenario Planning workshop. The goal of these workshops is to develop scenarios that address what I call “alternate futures” that may affect higher education, healthcare, healthcare education, our student populations and other extrinsic forces that we need to be prepared to proactively address in the near and short-term. Once these scenarios have been fully developed, we’ll use them to inform our strategic thinking and ultimately our strategic plan as we continue to evolve as a premier health sciences university. I will be keeping you all up-to-date as this process continues.

Every year The Chronicle of Higher Education selects colleges and universities that are “Great Colleges to Work For.” I am extremely happy to tell you that we were selected amongst that special group based on our compensation and benefits package. Congratulations to Maura Keenan and her Human Resources staff as well as our senior and mid-level faculty and staff leadership teams.

Finally, it looks like it’s going to be a nice summer weekend - at least the first half of it. I don’t know what your plans are but on Saturday morning, but I’ll be participating in the New Jersey State Triathlon at Lake Mercer County Park. It should be a nice day for a swim, bike and run! 

You all be safe and watch out for one another and have a great weekend!

Mike

Finals Are Upon Us: Week of May 4th

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

I hope everyone has had a great week. We certainly did at Salus!

As finals are upon us, on Thursday, May 3, the Learning Resource Center hosted another pet therapy event to help students de-stress during finals week. These have been a huge success. Who doesn’t like to have a golden retriever sitting next to them helping them to relax?

In the College of Education and Rehabilitation, the Speech Language Institute (SLI) welcomed Erika Cardamone, MS,CCC-SLP as a new clinical educator this week. We’re extremely happy to have Erika as part of our Salus team!

Dr. Jingyun Wang, an associate professor in our Pediatric Vision Research Laboratory and a member of our Pennsylvania College of Optometry faculty, was elected as a committee member in the Eye Movements/Strabismus/Amblyopia/Neuro-ophthalmology (EY) section of Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) program committee on Monday. This is a great honor and responsibility, as this committee reviews all ARVO abstracts and organizes their scientific symposiums. Congratulations Jing!

Finally, we’ve begun construction on the renovation project in The Eye Institute that will add four exam rooms and an updated pediatric waiting room. So far, we’re on schedule for a mid-June completion date. This new area will enable our contact lens service as well as some of the other specialty clinics to schedule patients more efficiently during our busy clinic days.

For those of you running the Broad Street Run on Sunday, we wish you lots of luck. Tanis and I will miss the event this year as we’re riding in the New York City Five-Borough ride on the same day. Looking at the weather, we may all get a bit soggy! So, no matter what you’re doing this weekend, have some fun, stay safe and be respectful of one another.

Mike

A Sunny Friday the 13th: Week of April 13th

Happy Friday the 13th and greetings from a sunny and warmer Elkins Park! I think Spring has finally come – at least for part of this weekend.

On Wednesday, Salus hosted the 10th annual intercollegiate Occupational Therapy night organized by occupational therapy (OT) student representatives from each of the local Philadelphia OT and Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant (COTA) programs.  The event's speaker, Stephen Kern, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA, and OT faculty member at Thomas Jefferson University, spoke about his work embedding OT services within the Philadelphia non-profit organization Nationalities Service Center (NSC), a refugee and community integration center meeting the needs of newly arriving refugees, victims of human trafficking and unaccompanied children.  There were over 125 OT/COTA students at this very successful event.

As most of you know, I like to walk around the campus every day to see what’s going on. I am often struck with all the creativity and energy that is generated by our students and faculty, no matter where I am.  I was thrilled to see a combined SLP and OT class discussing education and language, which is exactly what our interprofessional educational initiatives are designed to facilitate.  I always feel a sense of pride and humility when I walk through the Learning Resource Center, Virtual Reality and Clinical Procedures labs knowing that we helped to bring these venues to campus and to see our students and faculty interacting at a level that surpasses most other institutions.  The creativity and energy generated by our faculty and students is amazing and greatly appreciated!  

One of my favorite stops is generally new construction projects we’re doing.  Seeing the progress from day to day is fun.  Our new Lombardi classroom is progressing nicely with a dedication ceremony planned for graduation week.  The new state-of-the-art classroom will enable us to bring large numbers together without having to set up the gymnasium at the Hafter Center, as well as provide a much more conducive learning environment.  I can’t wait to see it all done!


If you haven’t been over to the Hafter Center lately, I strongly encourage you to go and check out the latest ArtSisters exhibition, in the D’Arrigo Family Gallery, that focuses on colors.  There are some really beautiful and colorful works on display that will just cheer you up the moment you see them.  They’re all for sale in the event you wanted to take one home. The exhibit runs through August 26th.

I want to wish all of our Thai students and alumni สวัสดีปีใหม่ (sà-wàt-dee bpee mài) or Happy New Year.  I had the opportunity to celebrate the Thai New Year with our international students last evening and it was just a wonderful event.  Thanks to Dr. Vitek, Natalie Standig, and all of our international students for arranging this.

Tonight is the annual AOSA Quiz Bowl in the Hafter Center.  This is a wonderful event that selects who will be representing PCO in Essilor's Quiz Bowl which is held at Optometry’s Meeting in June, this year in Denver, Co. If you have some time, I encourage you to attend – it starts at 5:30 p.m. – it’s always a great deal of fun!

It looks like it’s going to be a beautiful weekend, so try to get out and enjoy the sunshine and warm weather on Saturday before the rain and cooler weather returns. 

Be safe, be respectful of each other and have fun.

Mike

Grateful to Be On Our Way Home: Week of September 15th

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

I am writing this while en route back from the World Congress of Optometry that was held in Hyderabad, India this past week.  Salus was well represented by Drs. Melissa Vitek and Satya Verma, both of whom presented posters and lectures to the over 1,200 participants from all over the world.  It was especially gratifying to reconnect with Salus PCO graduates from our international and MPH programs that are either in key leadership positions in the organization or were presenting lectures and posters.  We also had the opportunity to discuss our new Clinical Procedures and Virtual Reality labs and hold several meetings with prospective national organizations who were interested in our International Clinical Optometry and Advanced Placement programs.  It was an extremely interesting, productive, and busy week and we’ll all be very glad to be back at Salus next week!

Keeping with an international theme, we’ve had the opportunity to host eight students from Qassim University in Saudi Arabia on campus over the past couple of months.  This is part of an ongoing agreement we have with Qassim to provide lectures, seminars and controlled patient care experiences for students who are completing a one-year internship after graduating from Qassim. While at Salus, these students received additional training in several optometric areas to include low vision, binocular vision, glaucoma, and posterior and anterior segment. 

I am very pleased to share that Zhi Lin (known to us as Julia), who is a graduate of the Salus Advanced Placement Doctor of Optometry program (APOD), made history by publishing the first primary eye care and clinical procedures manual in Chinese. The textbook entitled, "Eye Health Management,” includes comprehensive information about how to conduct comprehensive primary care eye exams for both children and adults with a focus on the clinical aspects of optometry.  I was honored to receive a copy of the book and it’s quite impressive.  Please join me in congratulating Julia on her accomplishment.

Moving closer to home, thanks to the efforts of our Alumni Association, twice a year travel grants are awarded to a select group of students from each program in an effort to help advance their professional and humanitarian goals throughout their education. Students are given the opportunity to use the funds to attend program specific national or regional conferences and participate in a variety of health screenings during humanitarian trips. The latest group of travel grant recipients used their funding for activities from February through the end of July 2017.  This is a great opportunity for these students to expand their knowledge base as well as spread the good word about Salus.

Whenever I return from these long trips, even to countries like India, where everyone was so friendly and helpful, I have a renewed appreciation for all we have in the United States, often taken for granted.  After experiencing the traffic and what I would term “exciting” driving conditions in India, seeing their mass transportation system with people hanging out of city buses during rush hour, I will certainly look at SEPTA and the Schuylkill Expressway in a much different light!  Even with everything that’s swirling around us, we are extremely lucky to be in the U.S.  Please take a moment to reflect on that as you approach this weekend.  Also, please keep those recovering from both Hurricane Harvey and Irma in your thoughts and prayers.  While not prominent in the news anymore, the victims still have a long ways to go before their lives return to normal.

It’s looking like it should be a pretty nice weekend around Philadelphia so I encourage folks to get out and enjoy the nice weather and all the wonderful things we have around us.  

Have a great weekend and be safe!

Mike