Michelle Vaca Joins ASCO as Intern

Michelle Vaca Joins ASCO as Intern

Michelle Vaca joined ASCO’s team in early June 2021. She recently graduated from Boston University’s Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences with a Bachelor of Science in Health Sciences on a Pre-Optometry Pathway. Michelle has interned with the National Institutes of Health performing research on epilepsy and currently volunteers at Boston Medical Center doing research on screening for socioeconomic determinants of health. Most recently, Michelle finished an internship with Keplr Vision, a corporate optometry company that oversees more than 300 optometric offices around the country.

During her time at Keplr, Michelle worked with Dr. Jeffrey Lewis, Keplr’s Director of School Engagement and a featured Doctor of Optometry for ASCO’s Optometry Gives Me Life campaign, promoting the profession of optometry to other pre-health students by creating a video series on optometric subjects of interests. Michelle made videos on topics such as explaining the variety of modalities where optometrists practice to making videos on the optometry admissions process.

Michelle gained an interest for the field of optometry when she went on a Global Medical Brigade to Honduras in 2019 and shadowed an optometrist while serving a low-income community. Michelle is taking a gap year and will be studying for her Optometry Admissions Test (OAT) and shadowing optometrists while interning at ASCO.

Michelle grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland, and went to high school in Rockville, Maryland, where ASCO headquarters is located. Through her ASCO internship, Michelle hopes to increase her exposure to the field of optometry and expand her networking skills. Michelle is excited to learn about a non-profit she will soon be a part of as a future optometry student.