Optometry College Essay Examples

What began as mere admiration for my childhood optometrist quickly evolved into a fervent aspiration when I began working as an optometric technician at Eye & Vision Care. Having been myopic since the age of 6, I have always had an interest in the inner workings of the eye and decided to apply to this job, without any concrete career plans in mind.

This is a sample personal statement question from the Optomcas centralized optometry admission application (optomcas.org).

Always, I was told from parents and elders that anyone can achieve their dreams through arduous work and dedication. Surprisingly, I hadn’t pondered this until I observed a shivering homeless person standing at the corner asking for help on one snowy, frosty winter day. This affected my life greatly. On the way, I just started thinking about the life of homeless people and how they are not fortunate enough to get their own place to live, their choice of delicious food to eat and several other amenities that we all enjoy in our everyday lives. An incident, like this, sparked an enthusiastic sense of compassion and empathy in me. Along with my family, I started thinking deeply and my thoughts to help the homeless expanded to other areas and I wanted to start helping the community around me as much as possible.

Homelessness is a serious issue that is looked down upon within my community. Many homeless die when it’s too hot, too cold, or too wet. The New Orleans Mission sees this a huge issue and argue that homeless people are real people who need real resources, like shelter, food, and clothes. In addition, they have found that, without supportive services, housing is often not enough to end homelessness. From helping homeless youth, to providing assistance in obtaining disability benefits, to providing transportation, to offering intensive job training assistance to homeless veterans. The New Orleans Mission operate a number of innovative

Going on the end of the year service trip to Denver really opened my eyes to how many people are affected by homelessness. Homelessness can have many causes and can happen to anyone. In our societal system today once someone has reached poverty and become homeless it is very hard to recover from this cycle of poverty.

In addition, I have volunteered at my youth group at Christus Church. I have spent roughly 15 hours involving myself in service projects that help our community. Finally, I have helped with the trail development at Nordic Mountain. I have chipped in 30 hours towards creating trails, raking pine needles, digging up dirt, removing debris, and weed whacking the trails. I not only occupy the willingness to help out the community, but I also possess strong feelings towards a vigorous

At a young age I discovered a passion for helping others and I have continued to be passionate about serving my community since then. At the age of eight years old I began the first year of what would soon be my ten year membership of 4-H. Through that program and my church’s youth group I truly began to understand what selfless service was all about. I first began helping others by walking dogs at the local shelter and helping my 4-H club clean the sides of the highways. I later was able to experience several mission trips that opened my eyes to the larger aspect of service. My love for helping people continued to grow as I got older and I continued to find ways to make a difference. One of my favorite experiences was getting to help cook and serve a meal at a homeless

My decision to pursue a degree in optometry started from an unlikely source within the field of healthcare. I originally aspired to become a pharmacist and had extensive experience as a pharmacy technician throughout high school and the start of college. As I progressed I became more unsure of the profession, and did not feel as though as if I was making a difference. Patient interaction was minimal and I felt that having a more personable connection would make for a better healthcare professional. I always knew I wanted to become a healthcare professional, I just was not sure pharmacy was the path for me.

have been involved in a variety of extracurricular activities, which exemplify my desire to assist people. I have helped to

It was the summer of 2010 and I was attending an inner city missions trip in Peoria, IL. Each morning we served in an urban neighborhood volunteering at a local school or government housing. At the school, we found chipped and faded paint, walls yellowed from old age, water stains on the ceilings and walls, and lockers that were filled with graffiti. The government subsidized housing was in a horrid state of disrepair. Bullet holes riddled the doors and brick facade on the buildings. The windows and doors did not provide the safety the residents needed: ripped screens, broken glass panes and broken door locks prevailed throughout the units. The neighborhood community center had barred windows, broken concrete walks, and trash on the property. I was overwhelmed with the deterioration of the school and the neighborhood around me. I decided that summer, I would do what the neighborhood people could not do for themselves, be an active part of revitalizing broken communities through the

When I first arrived to this homeless mission, there were probably around two-dozen homeless men, women, and children sitting down eating breakfast. I never imagined that young children and infants were a victim to this type of lifestyle. These children knew nothing other than what they had be brought up on. This was their lifestyle and it was heartbreaking to see so innocent children being put in this situation by no fault of their own. As I continued to help out, I talked

Another meaningful experience that sticks out to me is when I regularly volunteered at a children’s homeless shelter in Roxbury, Mass. for two years, and was reminded of the fact that the statistics we hear every day about homelessness are real people – not just numbers. Every child I played alongside,

Primary eye care in the U.S. is a huge industry because there is an overwhelming amount of people that demand Optometrists. The demand for Optometrists is at an ultimate high, according to the American Optometric Association, employment will grow at a rate of 33% and is ranked #12 on the list of America’s top 100 jobs. In 2012 there were 40,000 Optometrists and 202 million people in need of vision correction. There is currently one licensed eye professional per 3,500 people and studies show that on average Optometrists see 19.8 additional patients per week if they are completely booked without adding hours to their practice. This means that Optometrists are doing a lot more than they can actually handle. Over the next decade the amount of patients will continue to increase especially through the elderly and those at risk for Type 2 diabetes. Diabetes “is the leading cause of new cases of blindness” and 2000 to 2050 there will be a 165% increase of people diagnosed with diabetes, so Diabetes will be another main reason for the demand of Optometry (Review of Optometry). The ratio between patients and Optometrist care providers are almost quadruple the amount. Vision Web shares that “over the past decade, as the U.S. population expanded 0.9 percent annually, the vision correction population grew at the same rate” (10). This means that as the population continues to grow, so does the demand for Optometry. The demand for Optometry continues to grow and the only way we can manage the amount of people demanding eye care is increasing the availability of doctors throughout the country. We can start doing this by making sure more Optometry schools are available within the medical field. Gonzaga should have an Optometry Program because of its location, Washington needs an Optometry program, and the demand for it will continue to go on a rise. The lack of Optometrists needs to resolved by adding a new

My participation in Project Homeless Connect was a learning experience. Before my participation, I had assumed homelessness meant as living on the streets or in shelters without basic needs like food and clothing. These assumptions changed when I volunteered at PHC here in Rochester. There is a stigma of mental illness and drug use associated with homelessness and I have been guilty of looking the other way because I thought the same. What I realized that day is I had more in common with the people I encountered than I thought. I was familiar with many of the services offered that day. I personally know how hard it is to get those basic needs met and could have easily been in the same situation myself. I know what a difference having your basic needs met can do for you as an individual; I know how it feels to need and not have anywhere to turn.

To begin with, it is important to start with the fact that more than half a million people in the United States are homeless and forced to live on the streets and either sleep in an unsheltered location, or at a housing project (emergency shelters, short-term transitional housing, or safe havens). Moreover, according to a Social Solutions’ article (2016), 15% of the homeless population are individuals who have experienced homelessness for a period longer than a year (chronic homelessness). It is because of those facts about homelessness that I had decided to volunteer at a faith-based temporary overnight shelter and subsequently record my experiences and what I observed during my visit.