Luther sophomore Phillips interns at Oneota Valley Family Eye Care

Luther sophomore Trevor Phillips, of Decorah, Iowa, spent the summer as an intern at Oneota Valley Family Eye Care.

Phillips, son of Brad and Lori Phillips, graduated from Decorah High School in 2016. He plans to graduate in spring 2020 with a major in biology.

His internship consisted of observing and shadowing professionals in a successful non-corporate optometry setting and working with patients as a prescreening technician. As a prescreening technician, Phillips learned how to understand specific data and test results as interpreted by the optometrists. Through shadowing optometrists, he learned about the most common diseases and pathologies involving the eye in great detail. In addition to annual check-ups and the occasional urgent appointment, Phillips had the opportunity to observe a Mayo Clinic surgeon perform multiple cataract surgeries.

Through this internship, Phillips felt that the internship opened up to the field of optometry and throughout it was encouraged to pursue optometry as a career after graduation. His time at Oneota Valley Family Eye Care allowed him to learn from the bottom up and to appreciate the importance of learning the basic skills needed in optometry.  “Even learning the difference between the simple eyes, single lens, of humans and the compound eyes, multiple lenses, of insects has stood out to me [after taking Biology 151],” Phillips said.

Approximately 10 percent of Luther students take an internship for academic credit each academic year. The Luther College Career Center assists students with their internship search through resume preparation, networking, online internship searches, career fairs, on-campus interviewing, and connecting the student to alumni through the college’s Alumni Internship Program. Students also meet with a faculty adviser prior to the internship to create an internship learning plan that includes learning goals and assessment benchmarks.

An internship work supervisor also assists in the process by writing an evaluation of the student at the end of the internship. Students complete a self-reflection form to help finalize the learning experience.

A national liberal arts college with an enrollment of 2,050, Luther offers an academic curriculum that leads to the Bachelor of Arts degree in more than 60 majors and pre-professional programs. For more information about Luther visit the college’s website: http://www.luther.edu.