A couple years later, armed with my CRA, I landed a job at another academic institution in Philly. I was a one-man show doing all aspects of ophthalmic imaging when the OPS announced the new Certified Ophthalmic Photographer & Retinal Angiographer (COPRA) certification. It looked interesting, especially since I performed almost all of those tasks on a daily basis. I studied hard and sat for the first exam offered in 1990. The technical aspects were right in my areas of expertise, but the high level anatomy, physiology, and pathology were intense! Good thing those were the areas I concentrated my study on. There was an oral portion of the exam conducted by Terry and Earl that was intimidating. They didn’t have very good poker faces and when I knew from their expressions that I got the first answer correct, I relaxed and managed to pass that section as well.

Suddenly I was no longer the smart a$$ kid from across town and I gained the respect of the old timers. I was invited to participate on several committees and become more actively involved in the OPS. Sadly the COPRA certification was eventually dropped to protect the accreditation of the CRA, but I was proud of achieving it and thankful for the many doors that certification and OPS membership have opened for me. Terry and I became good friends and I still poke fun at him for being such a curmudgeon when we first met!