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Jennie Tomlinson OD '22 Receives the College of Optometry 2022 Eschenbach Low Vision Student Award
No full textJennie Tomlinson OD '22 received the 2022 Eschenbach Low Vision Student Award from the Pacific University College of Optometry.Jennie Tomlinson OD '22 received the 2022 Eschenbach Low Vision Student Award from the Pacific University College of Optometry.
The award is bestowed to the Pacific University student who has shown exceptional aptitude and interest in the field of low vision.
The College of Optometry prepares tomorrow's doctors of optometry, while also serving the vision needs of the local community and advancing research in the ophthalmic industry. The college offers bachelor's, master's and PhD programs in vision science, as well as a doctor of optometry degree.
Alina Buzhduga OD '22 Receives 2022 GP Lens Institute Contact Lens Clinical Excellence Award from the College of Optometry
No full textAlina Buzhduga OD '22 was presented with the 2022 GP Lens Institute Contact Lens Clinical Excellence Award from the College of Optometry.Alina Buzhduga OD '22 was presented with the 2022 GP Lens Institute Contact Lens Clinical Excellence Award from the College of Optometry.
This award honors a Pacific University student who has shown interest and enthusiasm in the fitting of GP contact lenses in the clinical environment.
The College of Optometry prepares tomorrow's doctors of optometry, while also serving the vision needs of the local community and advancing research in the ophthalmic industry. The college offers bachelor's, master's and PhD programs in vision science, as well as a doctor of optometry degree.
Jimmy Dhesa OD '22 Named Pacific University Alumni Association's 2022 Outstanding Optometry Graduate
No full textJimmy Dhesa OD '22 was named the Pacific University Alumni Association 2022 Outstanding College of Optometry Graduate.Jimmy Dhesa OD '22 was named the Pacific University Alumni Association 2022 Outstanding College of Optometry Graduate. The award recognizes a student who has shown exceptional service to the college and/or university and shows promise to be a committed alumnus.
Dhesa was born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia. While at Pacific, he could always be found studying especially before exams. He also enjoyed volunteering with the Pacific University EyeVan. He looks forward to returning to Vancouver in private practice and spending time with his family.
He also received the Pacific University College of Optometry Private Practice Scholarship Award, which supports students intending to pursue private practice optometry following graduation. He shares the award with alumni Nanki Kaleka OD '22 and Alex Schoen OD '22.
The College of Optometry prepares tomorrow's doctors of optometry, while also serving the vision needs of the local community and advancing research in the ophthalmic industry. The college offers bachelor's, master's and PhD programs in vision science, as well as a doctor of optometry degree
Katerina Shapka '19, OD '22 Awarded the College of Optometry 2022 Dr. Dori Carlson & Dr. Mark Helgeson Endowed Optometry Scholarship Fund
No full textKaterina Shapka '19, OD '22 was awarded the Pacific University College of Optometry 2022 Dr. Dori Carlson & Dr. Mark Helgeson Endowed Optometry Scholarship Fund.Katerina Shapka '19, OD '22 was awarded the Pacific University College of Optometry 2022 Dr. Dori Carlson & Dr. Mark Helgeson Endowed Optometry Scholarship Fund. The award is presented to an outstanding student who aspires to practice in a rural community.
Born in Bonnyville, Alberta, Shapka was inspired to pursue a career in optometry while working as an optometric assistant over the summer while attending undergraduate school. She is a proud member of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and Choir. After graduation, she plans to work in rural Alberta and give back to the community by promoting ocular health care.
The College of Optometry prepares tomorrow's doctors of optometry, while also serving the vision needs of the local community and advancing research in the ophthalmic industry. The college offers bachelor's, master's and PhD programs in vision science, as well as a doctor of optometry degree.
Nanki Kaleka OD '22 Receives the College of Optometry 2022 William Feinbloom Low Vision Award Sponsored by Designs for Vision, Inc.
No full textNanki Kaleka OD '22 received the College of Optometry 2022 William Feinbloom Low Vision Award, sponsored by Designs for Vision, Inc.Nanki Kaleka OD '22 received the College of Optometry 2022 William Feinbloom Low Vision Award, sponsored by Designs for Vision, Inc.
The optometry award recognizes a Pacific University student who has shown outstanding achievement in the field of low vision.
Kaleka also received the Pacific University College of Optometry Private Practice Scholarship Award, which supports students intending to pursue private practice optometry following graduation. She shares the award with alumni Jimmy Dhesa OD '22 and Alex Schoen OD '22.
The College of Optometry prepares tomorrow's doctors of optometry, while also serving the vision needs of the local community and advancing research in the ophthalmic industry. The college offers bachelor's, master's and PhD programs in vision science, as well as a doctor of optometry degree.
From Sippy Cups to Syllabi: Sanchez '25 and St. Claire-King '26 Move From Preschool to College at Pacific University
No full textFrom preschool to becoming undergraduates, two students have grown up at Pacific University.Skyler Sanchez '25 may not be the best person to ask how much Pacific University has changed over the last 20 years.
"I can't really tell if it's changed or not; I'm just so close to it. I've literally grown up on campus," she said.
She's not kidding. She was the first student "followed closely this year by a second "to have attended Pacific's Early Learning Community (ELC) as a kindergartener, and then become an undergraduate student herself. Her life has centered on Pacific's Forest Grove Campus through her own education and also through the tenure of her mother, Rebecca Basham-Sanchez '07, herself an alumnus who now the lead assistant teacher of the preschool Seal Class at the ELC.
While Skyler Sanchez is entering her second year at Pacific "or 15th year, if you count from the beginning "she is being joined this year by another: Tenzin St. Claire-King '26, who also attended the ELC.
St. Claire-King, the son of Brian King, Pacific's Technology Helpdesk manager, has been a regular presence on campus himself, most recently as an instructor of the fencing club that he helped to establish at Pacific last year. Even as he teaches others the finer points of the saber, he can remember dipping graham crackers in apple juice in a room nearby. In between, he spent a lot of time around Pacific's technology desk, where his dad solves other people's technology problems. He got to know a lot of his father's colleagues along the way.
"I've always felt a very strong connection to Pacific because I've had that base, ever since I was a kid," he said. "It's extremely nice knowing the campus so well just from walking around it a lot."
While these two undergraduates are marking passages of their own, their matriculation also represents a milestone for the ELC, the school-within-a-school where Pacific staffers and education students launch young people on lifetimes of learning. The school, which now educates students from preschool through fourth grade, is housed in Berglund Hall on the Forest Grove Campus, and includes a new outdoor classroom visible to passersby on Cedar Street.
As the progression of Sanchez and St. Claire-King attest, the ELC has become a keystone program within Child Learning and Development Center of Pacific's College of Education. The ELC opened in 2008 in Berglund Hall with 45 students under the direction of Mark Bailey, professor and director of the Child Learning and Development Center. As it has expanded through the years, it continues to practice the principles of inclusion, learning through experience, and the best practices in teaching. Bailey said about 90 students are enrolled in the five ELC classes for the coming semester. Classes are open to anyone, not just the children of Pacific employees.
"I had hoped that students from the ELC would eventually return as undergrads," Bailey said in an email. "In fact, I made a pledge to myself that I would not retire until the first former ELC students enrolled at Pacific. It warms my heart to see these graduates return. Pacific is a full-service university, students from age 3 to 63!"
For Sanchez and St. Claire-King, attending Pacific is a seamless continuation of the lives they've lived until now; Sanchez in Forest Grove and St. Claire-King in Hillsboro.
Sanchez said she applied to other schools in case something went sideways, but "I was positive that this was where I wanted to be."
And while she originally was interested in psychology, she also worked in the ELC as a student aide and enjoyed working with children. She took a class with Professor Bryan Cichy-Parker ""he's my absolute favorite" "and said she got so excited about imagining how she would incorporate things she was learning into her own teaching style that she dropped the idea of being a psychology major. Now she is an education major who hopes to get her Oregon teaching license and then teach kids around the third- and fourth-grade levels.
Even after just one year, Sanchez's life at Pacific is full. In addition to singing in the university choir, she recently returned from a class trip to Costa Rica, where she worked on a coffee farm and observed baby sea turtles.
St. Claire-King took up fencing at age 8, and now travels to national tournaments, where he competes in the saber. As a senior at Hillsboro High School, he was part of a student-led group, which started a fencing club at Pacific. He expects to continue the club as a first-year student.
He planned for a time to follow in his dad's footsteps and major in computer science, but now he's planning to minor in computer science and major in psychology.
"I am looking so forward to it," he said. "I cannot wait to be able to take college-level psychology and computer science and psychology classes." He also is eager to see where he will be placed following his French language assessment. And after seeing the flaming batons at a Pacific LÅ«'au and HÅ'ike, he said he's eager to participate with NÄ HaumÄna O Hawai"˜i in some form or another.
From an early age, he said, Pacific "was always on my mind.
"Honestly, I didn't apply anyplace else."
From top, Skyler Sanchez '25 in kindergarten and starting college; Tenzin St. Claire-King '26 playing chef at the Early Learning Community; St. Claire-King at the ELC and as a high school senior; Sanchez's ELC class. Photos supplied by Tenzin St. Claire-King, Rebecca Basham-Sanchez
Nicole Rush OD '01 Elected as Immediate Past President on OOPA Board
No full textNicole Rush OD '01 was elected board immediate past president for the Oregon Optometric Physicians Association at its annual meeting in July.Nicole Rush OD '01 was elected board immediate past president for the Oregon Optometric Physicians Association at its annual meeting in July. Rush works for the Bandon & Coquille Vision Center.
Larry Buchholz OD '18 Among Alumni Graduates of Optometry Leadership Program
No full textLarry Buchholz OD '18 earned a leadership certificate at the Oregon Optometric Physicians Association's annual meeting in July.Larry Buchholz OD '18 earned a leadership certificate at the Oregon Optometric Physicians Association's annual meeting in July after completing the OOPA 2022 Leadership YOU program, which assists to develop leaders in organized optometry.
Julia B. Levine MFA '19 Named Poet Laureate of Davis, California
No full textJulia B. Levine MFA '19 named an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow.Julia B. Levine MFA '19 has been named an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow, serving in this role in Davis, Calif. Levine is the author of several collections of poetry, including Ordinary Psalms; Small Disasters Seen in Sunlight, winner of the Northern California Book Award in Poetry; Ditch-tender; Ask, winner of the Tampa Review Prize; and Practicing for Heaven.
The Academy of American Poets is supporting Levine in developing programming for middle school students to express their climate concerns in small groups, listen to scientists from University of California, Davis talk about solutions, and read and write their own poetry in response to climate change.
A selection of these poems will be recorded by the teen authors and installed with geo-locating technology along a bike path in Davis popular among the youth. This Sound River will be available to anyone with a mobile phone on the path. The Design Tech Lab at American River College will assist with Levine's fellowship project.
A Midsummer's Night Dream in Prison: Enie Vaisburd Completes Film for Colleague in Labor of Love
No full textFor the past three years Enie Vaisburd, Multimedia associate professor, has been working on a project that is close to her heart. She completed the feature documentary, A Midsummer's Night Dream in Prison, on behalf of a fellow filmmaker who died in 2019. For the past three years Enie Vaisburd, Pacific Media Arts associate professor, has been working on a project that is close to her heart. A nationally recognized filmmaker, Vaisburd and a team of collaborators from the Portland film industry shaped more than 70 hours of footage into a feature documentary on behalf of filmmaker Bushra Azzouz who died in 2019. The resulting project is A Midsummer's Night Dream in Prison:
Inside the locked walls of the Two Rivers Correctional Institution near Umatilla, Ore., a group of inmates work with visiting director Johnny Stallings to perform William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. As their characters transform in the fictional play, the inmates arrive at the possibility of transformation and the reimagining of their own life stories.
"The idea of transformation was important to Bushra. There is a power and freedom in reimagining our stories," said Vaisburd.
"And I think the message is that you can transform yourself through art."
Vaisburd and a team of collaborators from the Portland film industry are celebrating the documentary's first award and world premiere. Azzouz and her crew filmed rehearsals and performances, as well as dialogues and interviews with the inmate actors over the course of eight sessions. Vaisburd is the film's post-production director, Ellen Thomas, is the post-production producer and Stallings serves as the executive director for The Open Road, the film's sponsor.
A Midsummer's Night Dream in Prison premieres at 6 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 7 at Cinema 21 in Portland. Vaisburd and Thomas will introduce the documentary and Stallings will host a post-film Q&A with some actors from the project. The one-night screening will celebrate Azzouz, the project, the Portland arts community and also serve as a fundraiser for distribution.
On July 25, 2022, the film received the Award of Recognition from the Impact DOCS Competition, which acknowledges television, videography and new media professionals who demonstrate exceptional achievement in craft and creativity, produce standout entertainment or contribute to profound social change. Documentaries were received from 30 countries.
A Collaboration of Artists
Vaisburd teaches film and video at Pacific with an emphasis in studies and practice. Her film work is often lyrical, integrating characteristics of experimental and documentary forms. Language, translation and cultural identity are recurrent themes in her work. She especially interested in creating internal geographies and spaces with film.
At Azzouz's request, Vaisburd and Ellen Thomas, completed A Midsummer's Night Dream in Prison. The three were colleagues in the late 1990s at the Northwest Film Center and close friends.
"What initially moved me about this project and still does today, is the level of trust and responsibility that Bushra placed on me," Vaisburd shared emotionally.
"She trusted that I would share her vision in the heart of the story and that I would make decisions with a similar intent in vision. And I really carried that through this whole process."
The project was a labor of love for Vaisburd, Thomas and artists, donors and friends from the Portland film community. Budding professionals, Pacific students and alumni, were also part of the production crew.
Music major Elijah Pine '21 composed some of the original music in the documentary, while students from Vaisburd's Spring 2022 Experimental studies and practice class contributed visuals to dream sequences. Abby Weinman '23, Grace Hankins '24, Zachary Harrington '24, Chase Hoffman'22, Rylee Skidmore '22 and Miranda Wessman '22 shot images in 16mm and S8mm film and hand developed them with visiting artist Stephanie Hough.
What's Next
A film distribution fund has been established to help prepare the documentary for local, national and international distribution to educational, theatrical and community markets. Donations may me made at openroadpdx.com or amidsummernightsdreaminprison.com. The nonprofit Open Road has a goal of raising $20,000 by the end of the year.
In the meantime, Vaisburd will return to the classroom at Pacific armed with a fresh perspective to share with film and video production students. She'll also continue promoting A Midsummer's Night Dream in Prison and plans a Pacific University screening sometime in the fall.
"Every day I say to myself, Bushra, we finished it. I'm still pinching myself.