Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Lianette Laria.
Dr. Laria, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
It is a myth that only the rich can obtain an advanced college degree in the US and my story will show you why. I arrived from Cuba at the age of 18 without a dime in my pockets and immediately began to seize the opportunity to live in a country where anyone has access to career success if they work hard at it and are willing to take some risks. Moving from a completely different society, language, and educational and political systems was a big transition for me. It was especially difficult to leave my parents behind, who being medical doctors in Cuba, were not allowed to immigrate at the same time as I did. Thanks to the help of my relatives in the US, I was able to quickly find an evening job and immediately enrolled in college. I knew I had a long way to go and that I had to live a simple life and focus on what’s important: pursuing my education. I was accepted to and completed my Bachelors of Science in Biology at University of Miami with a performance-based scholarship. Afterward, I applied to and was awarded a full-tuition scholarship to pursue my Doctorate of Optometry at State University of New York in New York City. I moved to New York and I knew no one there, but somehow I knew I was in the right place. I was enrolled in a program that, after completion, would guarantee me access to many jobs and a fulfilling career. After 4 very demanding years, I graduated in 2004 with my Doctorate of Optometry and moved back to Miami. While I was in New York, all of my relatives had migrated from Cuba thanks to my effort of becoming a US Citizen and filing for them to reunite with me and the rest of the family. A year after graduating, I founded Laria Eye Care and began with a small office and only 2 staff members. Now, I am proud to say that we have doubled the clinic space, added a specialty of Pediatric Optometry, and have a total of 9 staff members seeing altogether more than 40 patients a day. In the plans for next year are to open a second location and expand our services to other parts of Miami. Being able to help my community with their eye health and visual needs is very rewarding and I couldn’t think of any other better career, especially at this time when optometry is in such high demand.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
During my pursuit of higher education, the biggest struggle for me was getting used to a new educational system. In Cuba, we didn’t have a multiple choice system of examination. Rather, you answer exams in qualitatively, and you get credit for things that you do right and credit is subtracted from your mistakes. Also in Cuba you have plenty of time to complete your exams. In the US, most exams are multiple choice that are very challenging because all the answers are very similar and it’s almost like taking a logic test, rather than actually testing your knowledge on a certain concept. The fact that all the exams are timed also creates a lot of anxiety to try to finish as soon as possible, which can lead to making more mistakes.
My Optometry doctoral program was very challenging as well. We were taking 26 credits per semester simultaneously, had almost 2 midterm exams every week, and after school was over we had to spend countless hours practicing our techniques on each other. A funny story is that we had to get our pupils dilated sometimes on a daily basis to practice on each other and then go home and study until late night ours with our vision extremely blurry. The overload of information was intense with very little time left to sleep. Nonetheless, it is my experience that if you are determined, dedicated, and willing to stick to a plan, you can achieve anything you want in the US. Becoming a Doctor is not impossible, and it is not dependent on your family’s money or any other status. It really boils down to being dedicated to your dreams and pursuing them without ever giving up.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Laria Eye Care provides comprehensive eye care and optical and contact lens services to the community. We are best known for our family oriented and personalized care. Since we have optometric pediatric services, we can check the entire family, children and parents at the same time, which makes it easier for the little ones to get their eye examination. Our office is very children friendly and we decorate our kids’ exam rooms in fun ways to keep them engaged and not let them feel that they are in a typical doctor’s office. Our efficiency and organization are also other aspects of our operation that we are very proud of as well as for taking care of all of our patients’ visual needs in a one-stop shop manner. In other words, we can provide emergency and medical eye care, eye medications, determine your prescriptions for glasses and contacts, and make your glasses many times within 15 minutes in our office lab. We also have in stock multiple brands of contact lens trials and most patients leave the office with a pair of contacts with their prescription the same day of their visit. Being a small private business owned by a woman is highly valued by our patients, who do not want to be subjected to the large corporate optical treatment. We are also praised for our convenient patient communication systems, where patients can request appointments online or confirm their appointment via text.
What are your plans for the future? What are you looking forward to or planning for – any big changes?
Optometry as a profession has a very promising future and it is in high demand at least in my community. You increase your chances of success if you specialize in a unique service and make yourself easier to reach and convenient to the public. Our biggest challenge is insurance companies that promise four times more benefits to the patients than what they reimburse to the provider, making it very difficult for private offices to work with many vision plans. Another downside to the profession is when patients want to obtain glasses and contacts from the internet. The selection of your glasses should not be taken lightly, since many companies will use inappropriate materials and without the personalized face measurement it is almost impossible to attain a good fit of your glasses. A funny question I ask my patients is, “Would you ever buy braces on the internet for your kids?” The answer is obvious and the same holds for a medical device such as a well fitted pair of glasses.
Contact Info:
- Address: 8220 West Flagler Street Miami FL 33144
- Website: www.lariaeyecare.com
- Phone: 305 225-1145
- Email: [email protected]
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MiamiEyeDoctor
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/laria-eye-care-miami
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