Committed to Service

One of the hallmarks of the SCO mission is fostering a personal commitment to service. Optometry is a profession dedicated to enriching not only the visual health, but also the everyday lives of patients. That same sense of helping others is encouraged in SCO’s students through service-learning.

SCO’s students serve others in a variety of positive ways. Some are active in the local community by tutoring and mentoring at risk students. Others volunteer their time with service projects such as the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service event where volunteers paint or renovate a local school.

Student Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity (SVOSH) is one of SCO’s most popular student organizations; it provides free eye care and glasses to impoverished international areas via annual 10-day service trips. Since 1975, members of SVOSH have served over 200,000 patients in 16 different countries.

Students also participate in Remote Area Medical to provide vision screenings in underserved areas. Volunteering at the Special Olympics is another way our students give back during their time at SCO.

Whether volunteering time or service through an awareness event or a student organization, opportunities are plentiful for the SCO community to make a difference in the lives of others.

SCO’s clinical education is also designed to highlight the people-focused aspects of optometry and ensure students have the experience needed to be exceptional doctors. Our clinical facility, The Eye Center, is one of the largest state-of-the-art vision and eye care facilities in the nation and the center of our patient care.

The Eye Center has 48,000 square feet of usable space and provides the opportunity to introduce clinical exposure to the students early in the curriculum.

It is designed to be patient, student and doctor friendly, while also incorporating the most up-todate features and equipment such as:

• Examination rooms equipped with the latest in electronic health record management systems.

• 14 individual spaces for advanced technology-based testing.

• A retinal laser center.

• A digital angiography center.

• An advanced procedures and observatory suite.

• Conference rooms for group learning.

• A patient simulation laboratory.

• An optical service area.

• Practice suites which enable interns to experience an exceptional practice atmosphere with the attending staff doctors.

In addition to The Eye Center, students also join faculty members and interns in seeing patients at FocalPoint at Crosstown Concourse and University Eyecare on the campus of the University of Memphis. The MobilEYES Community Vision Unit takes care directly to patients as it travels throughout the community.