Cassie Pastier has had a plan since she stepped onto the University of Hartford campus. After experiencing difficulties with glasses and contact lenses since high school, she knew that she wanted to prevent those problems in other people.
She made this discovery in her senior year of high school.
“In class, we dissected a cow’s eye,” Pastier said, now a senior at UHart. “I realized that I was really interested in how the eye worked.”
Since then, she has excelled in her studies among many extracurriculars. She has traveled all over the country doing community service, including this spring break. She is traveling to Florida to volunteer to help children with disabilities.
Her fascination with the eye led her to the Health Science program in the College of Education, Nursing, and Health Professions, and earned her a spot in the Honors Program.
This year, under the guidance of professor Claudia Oates, she conducted a research project exploring issues with wearing eye contacts.
“The fact that I was wearing contacts for a few years, and that I developed a couple eye infections from wearing them incorrectly interested me,” Pastier said. “So my project was an extension off of that.”
Pastier, an active member of the Women’s Advancement Initiative, completed her research with the help of a Dorothy Goodwin Scholarship. The scholarship is designed to help women conduct academic research, which according to Pastier, gave her a huge benefit.
“The program provided a support system from those who oversee the program and from the fellow Dorothy Goodwin Scholars,” she said.
Pastier’s project was to test people’s knowledge of how to use and take care of contact lenses. Then she presented an educational program about the topic and tested their knowledge. In order to make sure all of her information was sound, Pastier worked closely with Oakes, her adviser and consulted with a local optometrist.
“Conducting research does not always go as expected,” Pastier said. “But it was a really great experience to make this entire research my own.”
According to Pastier, she learned lessons that will be useful in her future career.
“This research experience will definitely help me as an optometrist,” she said. “I have seen through my own experiences that repetition is crucial for proper contact lens care.”
She plans on presenting her findings at the Undergraduate Research Colloquium and ENHP Day, both in April.
After graduation this May, Pastier looks forward to furthering her studies at Salus University’s Optometry doctoral program. In regards to her future patients, Pastier said,“I am ready to be the one checking the health of their eye and updating their prescription. This is something that I have devoted my past four years to.”
Pastier will be graduating in a few months, and she’s ready to pursue her passion in working with contact lenses.