OPT Visionary - Fall 2016

COLLEGE OF OPTOMETRY • 23 Class of 2017 student Vy Pham was awarded the $5,000 first-place prize in the National Vision, Inc., 2015–2016 optometry grant program in March. To be eligible, third- and fourth-year students submitted essays or videos describing their perspectives on the need for affordable primary eye care in today’s changing health care landscape. Class of 2016 students Sophie Robinson (right) and Shelly Lomax , left, received the 2015–2016 Vision Service Plan/American Optometric Foundation Practice Excellence Scholarship. They received their plaques and travel grants during the VSP Global recep- tion at the American Academy of Optometry meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana, in October 2015. Class of 2016 student Kelsey J. Moore was selected as the 2015 recipient of the J. Pat Cummings Scholarship from the American Optometric Foundation, which is conferred to students who best demonstrate the ideal eye care standards of practice. To qualify, the recipient must demonstrate achievement in both academic perfor- mance and extracurricular activities. The scholarship is generously sponsored by Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc. In April, five contestants— Heather Gauger (class of 2017), Mitchell Paradis (class of 2017), Jordan Petrosky (class of 2018), Brandon Powell (class of 2018), and Cara Smith (above, class of 2017)—battled to be the best in this year’s Quiz Bowl Challenge. Smith, who emerged triumphant, went on to represent NSUCO on June 30 in the Varilux Student Bowl at Optometry’s Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts.