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VSP Vision, SOLN, and APME Announce 2024 Premier Student Business Challenge Winners
VSP Vision™, along with the Student Optometric Leadership Network (SOLN) and the Association of Practice Management Educators (APME), is proud to announce the winners of the 2024 Premier Edge Student Business Challenge: Malia McDowell, Class of 2026 from University of Alabama, Birmingham School of Optometry, and Nastasya Liem, Class of 2026 from UC Berkeley, Herbert Wertheim School of Optometry and Vision Science.
To apply for the scholarship, students participating on their school’s Private Practice Club executive board had to submit a business plan that described their professional and personal plan to achieve private practice ownership. The two finalists presented their business plans at the 2024 SOLN Student Private Practice Leadership Conference on June 8. Typically, one winner is selected for this scholarship, but since both business plans were exemplary, the judges decided to award each student a $10,000 scholarship.
Malia McDowell’s business plan centers on the community of St. Clair County, in Alabama, where she will focus on providing the highest quality eye care, free to qualifying St. Clair County Alabama residents regardless of citizenship status, always striving to “help our neighbor.”
Nastasya Liem’s business plan centers around her mission to “build a united and purpose-driven family that achieves financial freedom, lives debt-free, supports others to be successful, and strives to provide quality eye care to underserved communities globally.”
The Premier Student Business Challenge scholarship was created in 2022 to support optometry students interested in a path to private practice ownership. This scholarship is one of many offerings from VSP Premier Edge™ Career Support to help give doctors and students of optometry a competitive edge at every stage of their career journey.
Over the last ten years, VSP Vision has provided nearly $4 million in scholarship support to optometry students. Learn more about how VSP® is supporting the next generation of optometrists here.
