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Blog / Alumni September 8, 2015

ACC Graduate Spotlight: Angela Everette

September 8, 2015

As an optician, American Career College graduate Angela Everette is always trying to help people find the right fit.

She works for two optometrists in Costa Mesa and helps with billing, patient registration, pretesting, pre-ops and post-op for laser surgery, and much more. Everette says she really enjoys working in the optics industry because it's where fashion meets function and there will always be a need for vision correction.

“I was tired of working mediocre jobs. I’ve had several jobs over the years and I just wanted a more steady career. I was looking for stability," Everette said. "I was just working from job to job — retail, bus driving, back to retail, to whatever would hire me.”

Everette credits her grandmother Margaret Derden with helping her find her correct fit -- and always being there for her. Derden, who recently retired after 38 years in the health care industry, said her granddaughter has gone from being "needy, unable to make it on her own and having to come to grandma for everything" to being independent.

“It’s been great, from needing me all those years financially and supportive to now she’s on her own. I get money now — instead of giving it," Derden said, laughing. “If you go to schooling, you get a skill that can never be taken away from you. If you have that education behind you, you can go far."

Everette said the education she received at ACC to be an optical technician helped her break out of the rut she was in, but it was her externship at an optics lab doing surfacing and edging that gave her at an advantage in the workplace.

“Being in the lab, I know, ‘Ok, if a person’s prescription is a certain amount, this is the type of lens they should wear.’ Or if they have an issue with closeup reading, let’s put them in a progressive versus distance only," she said.

A co-worker once asked her how she knew so much about lens and frame selection, like why some customers need a high index lens while others prefered a polycarbonate one.

“I told her 'I went to ACC,'" Everette said. "They taught me all of that."

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