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A Fresh Perspective

By Karlen McLean, ABOC, NCLC

Opticianry and optometry students recently submitted insightful, highly creative projects for the Transition Healthy Sight for Life scholarship program. The winners, whose entries included posters, essays, presentations a music video, and a children's book, offer a fresh take on educating patients on the importance of healthy sight with a proactive, integrated approach for delivering quality eyecare.

"I was inspired to write about healthy sight education for baby boomers by my friends' and my own quest to stay looking and feeling young," said Marian Considine from Erie Community College.

The team of Radbert Chin, Ja-Hyung Lee, Anthny Trinh, and Cleo Yeh of the New England College of Optometry put together "Every Year," a music video that spotlighted the importance of yearly eye exams.

"We decided to create a presentation that was not only educational, but at the same time entertaining to the audience," Chin said. "We used material from our pediatric course and the song ‘I'm Yours’ by Jason Mraz. We enlisted the help of many talented students from other classes, who provided the soundtrack for the video."

Brian Abert, a graduate of Southern California College of Optometry and now an optometry resident at the West Los Angeles Veterans Administration Healthcare Center, wrote "Adventures in Vision," a kid's book with a dinosaur that reinforces healthy vision and the importance of comfortable eyewear.

"My plan was to create an educational tool that could entertain and educate both children and adults," he says. "I chose the dinosaur theme because it adds an element of attention-grabbing fantasy to the images." EB