Essilor of America has announced the recipients of the 2015 Varilux Student Grant Awards, a competition among optometry students.
This year, 16 students were awarded $1,000 each in grant money from Varilux, and from those winners, one national award was given.
This year’s national honor was awarded to Luke Cyr, a fourth-year student from New England College of Optometry in Boston, Mass. Cyr wrote the winning case study titled “PAL Failure Fit Successfully with Varilux Lenses.” Cyr’s written study was selected for the top prize due to his innovative thinking, analysis of the case and dispensing skills used to meet his patient’s needs.
“As part of our ongoing commitment to the optometric profession, we are honored to support the future leaders of optometry through the Varilux Student Grant Award,” said Howard Purcell, O.D., F.A.A.O., Dipl., and senior vice president of customer development, Essilor of America. “We look forward to this program each year and are proud to be a part of the advancement of these students’ careers and our industry.”
Cyr will receive an additional $2,500 in prize money and will be a guest at the 24th annual Varilux Optometry Student Bowl, the highly anticipated annual event sponsored by Essilor at Optometry’s Meeting in Seattle on June 25. Essilor also awarded $2,500 to Jim Pelham, his faculty advisor at New England College of Optometry
The students’ case studies were reviewed by a panel of judges and were reviewed on criteria including: dispensing skills, application of Varilux lenses to patient needs, analysis of the case(s) and analysis of the lens design and lens performance.
Other 2015 grant recipients are:
- Theresa Radtke, Arizona College of Optometry Midwestern University Eye Institute
- Amy Belloli, Rosenberg School of Optometry University of the Incarnate Word
- Angela Nguyen, State University of New York
- David Nguyen, Marshall B. Ketchum University
- Kellen Robertson, Pacific University College of Optometry
- Sarah Kuipers, Indiana University College of Optometry
- Brad Boyle, Illinois College of Optometry
- Logan Oliver, Southern College of Optometry
- Andrew Steele, The Ohio State University – College of Optometry
- Zoé Lacroix, Université de Montréal Ecole d’optométrie
- Leanne Roach, University of Houston College of Optometry
- Spencer Sechler, University of Alabama College of Optometry
- Nia Sayady, University of California at Berkeley School of Optometry
- Jitesh Chauhan, NOVA Southeastern College of Optometry
- Allison Brewer, Northeastern State University