(PRESS RELEASE) The Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry (ASCO) is offering an educational webinar and resource-rich toolkit for practitioners and others interested in sharing why optometry should be a profession of choice. Components of ASCO’s public awareness campaign, Optometry Gives Me Life, the webinar, and its companion tool kit, includes videos of three featured Doctors of Optometry, downloadable artwork for posters and brochures, and sample social media posts.
Optometry Gives Me Life was launched in March 2019 to address the troubling decline of qualified applicants in recent years, and lack of diversity within the applicant pool. It is a public education campaign that reaches college-aged students who have expressed an interest in pursuing a STEM degree or working in a health profession. The campaign is also focusing on students in underrepresented groups through highly targeted outreach. Visit www.futureeyedoc.org for more information.
“In the first full year of deployment, the OGML campaign is showing positive results,” says Dr. John Flanagan, ASCO president. “The campaign is successfully reaching potential students. What has been missing is engaging current Doctors of Optometry who want to be ambassadors and promote the profession. This is where the toolkit and webinar come in. Our hope is that the webinar will inspire ODs to use ASCO’s materials, attend career fairs and community events, distribute printed materials within their communities, and speak to students and their parents about all the wonderful things the profession has to offer.”
The Optometry Gives Me Life toolkit can be downloaded here.
Watch the complementary webinar here.
ASCO wishes to thank Dr. Jeffrey Lewis, featured OD in the campaign, for sponsoring the webinar.
ASCO also thanks its sponsors VSP Global, Alcon, Luxottica, Hoya, National Vision, Allergan, CooperVision, and the California Optometric Association as well as the 23 schools and colleges of optometry for their generous support of the Optometry Gives Me Life campaign.