/ FINDING HAPPINESS IN OPTICIANRY /
NEXTGEN
/ FINDING HAPPINESS IN OPTICIANRY /
By Troy Patterson
Jennifer Wicks swapped a career in teaching music for opticianry and feels she ' s all the better for it .
The 32-year-old mother graduated from Georgian College ' s two-year opticianry program in October 2015 . She has since been promoted to managing optician at Hakim Optical in Stratford , Ont . But making the change in career did take some thought .
“ I was a little worried about going to school because I was a little older than everyone else , or at least I thought I was ,” says Wicks .
When she had her son , she says she needed a bit of a change “ because I didn ' t want to have to go to work just as he was coming home from school .”
So back to school she went , taking on the four semesters and two co-op terms , which she completed at Hakim Optical in Barrie .
It was at age 21 , while working as a telemarketer , that Wicks first heard about the opticianry program from a woman she knew who spoke highly of the program . Years later , she decided opticianry would be a good fit career-wise .
“ I think everyone just needs a willingness to learn , because a lot of it is just straight-forward ,” she says of the program . “ The math itself isn ' t too difficult as long as you apply yourself to it . I was a music teacher and it was a complete change from what I was used to .”
After spending a year and a half as an optician in Barrie , Wicks was recommended to help open a Hakim store in Stratford . She jumped at the opportunity to become a manager . Wicks says her program prepared her for what was in store as a professional optician right from the beginning .
32 Optical Prism | March 2017