ASCO Exhibits at AOA and NOA to the Promote Eye Opener Sessions Program
ASCO staff was busy in June and July promoting the new Eye Opener Sessions Program, in addition to the Optometry Gives Me Life (OGML) public awareness campaign at both the American Optometry Association’s (AOA) Optometry Meeting in Washington, DC and the National Optometric Association (NOA) meeting in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. The staff gave away OGML t-shirts at both conferences to optometrists and optometry students.
The Eye Opener Sessions program will connect students who are curious about optometry with practicing eye doctors. The goal is to match optometrists with prospective optometry students where they will engage in shadowing opportunities and/or virtual conversations. The level of engagement will be up to the matched optometrist/student. This program will launch formally in the fall.
The Optometry Gives Me Life campaign headed into its fifth-year last month. ASCO experienced a 3% increase in applicants for the 2022-2023 application cycle compared to 2021-2022, making it the second highest number of applicants ever to optometry institutions (2,812 was the highest in 2015-2016). Since the campaign began in March 2019, the applicant pool has increased by 12%.
If you are a Doctor of Optometry and interested in offering shadowing opportunities to potential optometry students or applicants, contact Paige Pence at ppence@opted.org.