Great Interns At Hellerstein & Brenner Vision Center

Externs from schools of optometry around the country spend several months rotation at my optometry practice, Hellerstein & Brenner Vision Center, PC.  These schools include Illinois College of Optometry, Pacific University, Southern College of Optometry and Southern CA College of Optometry.  The externs become part of our wonderful staff, learning how to treat patients in private practice especially in the area of pediatrics and vision therapy.

This past 2 months, we were asked to take 2 undergraduate students from Wartburg College, in Iowa, who are interested in optometry.  We reluctantly accepted them, not knowing how we would be able to provide appropriate education and experiences for them, since they were not yet in optometry school.  We were blessed with 2 wonderful students… motivated, bright and full of energy.  We thank them both, as well as their supervisors for a very well-managed internship program.

Here is a little bit about these 2 Wartburg students, Andy & Erin.

My name is Andy Ritter, I am from Hastings, MN, and I am a fourth year student at Wartburg College in Waverly, IA. This fall I served as an intern at Hellerstein and Brenner Vision Center, a placement which has taught me a lot about vision therapy, pediatric care, and working with special needs patients. Vision therapy is an area in which I have had no previous experience, but through my time at H&B, I have really come to enjoy it. I am currently in the process of applying to optometry schools, and am interested in pursuing vision therapy and pediatric care more in the future. My experience at H&B has been very valuable in the connections I have made as well as the knowledge which I have obtained.

This is Erin Van Kirk.  She is one of the undergraduate interns working at the office.  She is a sophomore from Wartburg College which is located in Waverly, IA.  She’s orignally from Cedar Rapids, IA and has never lived outside of Iowa until this semester.  The program which set up her internship here is through Wartburg College and is called Wartburg West.  It is a program that allows students to experience an internship within their field of interest out in Denver.  She has been working with patients in Vision Therapy, Contact Lenses, Vision Exams, and Optical throughout her time here at Hellerstein and Brenner.  Through her experience here she has been able to gain further knowledge about the optometry field of practice and become more experienced working with patients.  This has been a very valuable experience which has helped her to determine that optometry is what she wants to be doing with her life.