The inaugural Student Sight Savers Program screening was held on October 31, 2009 at the DeSales High School auditorium. The National Screening Coordinator of the Friends of the Congressional Glaucoma Caucus Foundation, Ms. Ella Rosamont-Morgan, drove in from Washington DC to attend our screening. Fifty individuals were screened with the help of interpreters and bilingual optometry students. More than half of those screened were Spanish-speaking individuals.
The OSU College of Optometry, under the direction of Jackie Davis, OD MPH, was awarded a two-year grant from the Friends of the Congressional Glaucoma Caucus Foundation to provide free glaucoma screenings throughout central Ohio.
The main goals of the Student Sight Savers Program are to reduce the scourge of vision loss created by glaucoma and other vision problems in vulnerable communities and to provide meaningful opportunities for students to become involved in community service endeavors.
The program was founded by Dr. Eve Higginbotham in 1990, and now has over 30 medical and optometry schools across the nation involved with these efforts.
The OSU Chapter of the National Optometric Student Association (NOSA) is taking charge of this new venture. They hope schedule a screening each month, and they encourage all students to become involved with their community service activities. Membership in NOSA is not required, but a desire to make a difference in someone’s life is.
