Summer 2008 - ICO Worldwide - Illinois College of Optometry

F E A T U R E : G L O B A L I C O
Outside Perspective
ICO COMMUNITY GROWS AS IT GOES
MORE AND MORE GLOBAL
Perhaps it should come as no surprise that the
Illinois College of Optometry has gone global.
Over the years, the student population has
grown increasingly international, and our faculty
and administrators have become more and
more involved in optometry worldwide.
This issue of ICO Matters looks at this
development and broadens the notion of a
global community to include the work of
students, faculty and alumni within the
United States, but outside the boundaries of
the College’s campus.
For example, ICO students engage in a vast
number of community activities, ranging from
working with neighborhood children, to administering
vision tests around the city, to clothing
and food drives. They volunteer to work with
the Special Olympics, not only braving Lake
Michigan in March to raise money in a Polar
Plunge, but also traveling the country to provide
eye care at the national games.
As part of ICO’s externship program, some
fourth-year students spend time in foreign
clinics and schools. Tim Tsang, OD ’06,
spent three months in Australia at
University of Melbourne’s Victoria College
of Optometry. While he appreciates what he
learned about the practice of optometry in
another country, Tsang says, “The best
thing was seeing a different culture and
being in a different environment.”
Dr. Len Messner (seated far right) at the Tun
Hussein National Eye Hospital in Petaling Jaya,
Malaysia, where he and course partner,
Dr. Lorraine Lombardi (front row center),
presented a neuro-anatomy/neuro-ophthalmology
course in 2006.
7 / ICO MATTERS SUMMER 2008
ICO faculty have also visited different
environments, regularly traveling
to lecture and learn about
optometry. For example, Dr.
Leonard Messner, Vice President for Patient
Care Services and Executive Director of the
Illinois Eye Institute, lectures as part of a
series with Dr. Lorraine Lombardi and the
Pennsylvania College of Optometry’s
International Studies Center. One of the few
experts on neuro-ophthalmology in the country,
Messner has visited Austria, Kuala Lumpur,
Singapore, Poland, Berlin and Spain.
“My being out and about adds to improved
international awareness of the College and the
Eye Institute,” Messner says. And it helps generate
some of the programs that bring foreign
students and optometrists to Chicago.”
Currently ICO hosts Australian, Spanish, and
soon, Korean students, who come to the Illinois
Eye Institute to work in the clinic.
“The Spanish program we’ve been doing here
came about because I was invited to give a
lecture at the Universidad Europea de
Madrid,” Messner says. “Those friendships
led to the rotation for students. One thing led
to another.”
That’s how it’s been at ICO; one year Janice
Scharre, OD ’76, is appointed Working Group
Chairperson of the Poland Refractive Error
Study in Children (2003), the next year she’s in
Mexico on a VOSH mission with Alfred
Rosenbloom, NICO ’48, and this year she’s in
England on sabbatical.
Scharre’s not the only one. Other examples are
Janice Jurkus, OD ’74, who has been an ICO
ambassador on numerous occasions, including
a recent trip to Scotland and Australia. Mark
Colip, OD ’92, just returned from Peru with
Medical Wings International. Dominick Maino,
OD ’78, went to Ireland and Australia this
year, and Yi Pang, OD, PhD, who’s a member
of ASCO’s International Task Force, will also
be attending and presenting work at the
International Society for Eye Research in
Beijing this fall.
Last but not least, members of the ICO community
have always been active in Volunteer
Optometric Services to Humanity (VOSH),
which was founded by an ICO alumnus
(see story p. 9). And they have volunteered with
other organizations to provide eye care around
the world. ICO may not have a formal international
studies program, but the efforts of various
individuals have nonetheless given the
College a new global scope, which augments
the process of teaching and research here at
the Illinois College of Optometry.
DR. JURKUS:
Focus on Research & Training
In December 2007, Janice Jurkus, OD ’74
(pictured top left), embarked on a threemonth
faculty development leave in
Scotland and Australia. After more than 30
years of teaching, the leave promised a
chance to “recharge her batteries.” She says,
“This was an opportunity to see what’s
going on elsewhere, and then to incorporate
some fresh perspectives into what we’re
doing at ICO.”
She found key differences in optometry
training in these two countries, compared to
the U.S. For one thing, the students are
younger. In both Scotland and Australia,
students move directly from high school
into four years at optometry college, bypassing
the undergraduate education that
American students receive. In Scotland, the
educational emphasis is on research, and
clinical training doesn’t begin in earnest
until year five — after students receive their
BSc-Optometry degree. Then the Scottish
optometry graduates engage in a one-year
clinical training at a hospital or practice site.
In Australia, clinical exposure begins somewhat
earlier during the education process.
Jurkus began her sabbatical at Caledonian
University in Glasgow, Scotland, where she
was welcomed by department head
Professor Alan Tomlinson and the research
team at the Department of Optometry and
Vision Science. The department produces a
high volume of research; thus research
budgets and protocols were the primary
focus of Jurkus’ explorations in Glasgow.