The Allergan Foundation Awards Focus Grant to Support ASCO’s Career Video

May 16, 2014

ROCKVILLE, MD, May 16, 2014 – The Allergan Foundation has awarded a competitive Focus Grant to The Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry’s (ASCO) to support the Be a Doctor of Optometry: Put Your Future in Focus video. The Allergan Foundation joins Luxottica in supporting ASCO’s initiative to promote the Doctor of Optometry profession.

The video, previously viewed nearly 4,000 times, is available on ASCO’s YouTube channel and website.

“The Allergan Foundation’s generous support of our career video is greatly appreciated and demonstrates their commitment to the future of optometric education and will allow us to continue appealing to the most qualified and diverse applicants to our schools and colleges,” says Dr. Jennifer Smythe, ASCO President and Dean of the Pacific University College of Optometry. “Our hope is that viewers of the video will learn about the Doctor of Optometry profession and all it has to offer – making a difference in their patients daily lives and excellent work/life balance, to just name a few. As it says in the video, ‘optometry is limitless.’”

The recruitment video highlights students, professors and Doctors of Optometry talking about what students learn and what they can expect from the profession once they graduate, as well as demonstrates the caring aspects of the profession and the more high tech aspects of optometry. It is the latest marketing tool developed for the ASCO-American Optometric Association Joint Project on Further Developing a Robust, Diverse, and High Qualified National Applicant Pool. The video complements the True Stories booklet and the ASCO website, hoping to increase the number, quality and diversity of applicants to the 21 schools and colleges of optometry in the 50 states and Puerto Rico.

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The Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry (ASCO) is a non-profit association representing the interests of optometric education. Founded in 1941 and headquartered in Rockville, Md., ASCO is committed to achieving excellence in optometric education and to helping its member institutions prepare well-qualified graduates for entrance into the profession of optometry. Its membership encompasses the schools and colleges of optometry in the 50 states and Puerto Rico. A number of optometry schools outside the United States are affiliate members.