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The Annual Holiday Food Drive kicked off this week, and goes until Tuesday, Dec. 2. They’re collecting non-perishable food items to support the St. James Food Pantry, which serves food to low income families and elderly people in need of assistance. Suggested items include canned fruit, vegetables, tuna and meat; cereal; boxed dinners; soup; pasta; pasta sauce; and peanut butter. As soon as the food drive ends, the Holiday Clothing Drive begins. It starts Tuesday, Dec. 2 and goes through Tuesday, Jan. 6. If the last few days are any indication, this winter is going to be COLD. For all you students going home for winter break, keep an eye out for any items you may no longer need. Last but not least, this year the board would like to start a new tradition: They want to adopt about 20 at-risk individuals, aged 18-21, for Christmas. These youth are part of an organization called ChildServ. The goal is for people from ICO to adopt one person and buy them gifts for Christmas; you can do it on your own or in a group. Gifts don’t have to be extravagant, and you’ll receive information about your individual in advance. Before the board commits to ChildServ, they’d like to gauge interest. If you’d like to take part, or have any questions, please email Umema Ahmed by the end of the week. All donations are greatly appreciated!

Illinois College of Optometry Study Determines Birth Order Can Affect Reading Readiness and Academic Performance CHICAGO – Birth order is thought to affect everything from a child’s personality to IQ. Now researchers at the Illinois College of Optometry have concluded that birth order can also affect vision. In the first known study of its kind, researchers have concluded that first-born children tend to have better eye movement skills, which suggest a higher reading readiness prior to entering kindergarten. Drs. Christine L. Allison and Darrell G. Schlange, professors at the Illinois College of Optometry in Chicago, presented the findings at the American Academy of Optometry’s annual meeting in Denver. “Our research demonstrates that first or only children enter kindergarten with better visual function,” said Dr. Allison. “This may result in early school success and earlier reading when compared to children later in the birth order,” said Dr. Schlange. The results suggest that coloring, drawing, putting together puzzles, solving mazes and working in activity books — activities first-born children are routinely encouraged to perform before entering kindergarten — may lead to better eye movement skills at that age. Parents can help their children develop the eye movement skills necessary for early reading by focusing on one-to-one activities, such as reading books to their children, and near eye/hand activities such as coloring, drawing, or playing with puzzles, the researchers said. The study also looked at changes in visual function and found that 30 percent of students had developed vision problems between kindergarten and third grade. Not one of these students had been diagnosed with visual problems during their pre-kindergarten exams. “This is a trend we expect to see more often,” said Dr. Allison. “Students today use technology, such as computers, hand-held devices and tablets, in the course of their school day, but we are finding that those devices put undue stress on visual systems while they are still developing.” Researchers are careful to point out that increased screen time is only one variable at work; others include changes to kindergarten curriculum, less time for recess and recreation, and increased demands on students’ visual attention. Nevertheless, they recommend monitoring children’s use of backlit screens, even for educational purposes, to give kids’ visual systems a better chance to develop appropriately. The findings are part of a longitudinal study that followed a small population of students with similar socioeconomic backgrounds from kindergarten to third grade. Students at a Chicago parochial school were given comprehensive eye examinations including vision tests and full ocular health evaluations the summer before they entered kindergarten. A subset of the same group was examined again the summer prior to entering third grade. “We believe more research is needed to further examine the rapid changes in our children’s visual functions,” said Dr. Schlange. “Ours was a small sample size but we saw big changes.” Changes in visual function can have an effect on academic performance. “Reading in third grade historically moves away from the ‘learning to read’ model and becomes more focused on ‘reading to learn,’ which is why it is so important to diagnose any new or worsening vision problems before they cause academic difficulties,” said Dr. Allison. Based on their research, the doctors advise parents take their children for yearly eye exams beginning in kindergarten. “Very often, kids don’t know they can’t see properly, and they won’t tell their parents they have trouble seeing,” said Dr. Schlange. “That’s why it is important that children return for yearly follow-up exams as they get older and they experience increased visual demand from activities in and out of school.”

The following students earned a spot on the dean’s list for the summer quarter of the 2013-14 school year by achieving a quarterly GPA of 3.5 or better and earning no grade below a B or H (honors) in all patient care courses: Third Year Anderson, Elisabeth Boettcher, Brittany Boyle, Brad Chan, Adrienne Chawla, Harsh Crampton, Nicole Cullen, Stephanie Encarnacao, Cayley Fiedler, Jacie Fisher, Claire Fridman, Alla Gagnon, Erica Gami, Yesha Guardiola, Bianca Haghani, Sara Hake, Amanda Han, Mengli Hanneman, Angela Ibrahim, Fatima Jaros, Joelle Jawdi, Ammar Keding, Amy Khan, Majid Kusek, William LaLiberte, Stephanie Lemke, Jenna Locy-Fowler, Chelsea McHugh, Caitlyn McLaughlin, Mallory Minnix, Julie Paek, Helen Patel, Eva Petkov, Zory Pukhovich, Irina Quan, Steven Roghair, Christopher Rosenberg, Jamie Sadler, Anna Sayed, Saher Scanlon, Brianne Solomon, Stratton Steinberg, Olivia Tam, Sally Varney, Kelly Vizza, Elizabeth Vuong, Joanna Wilczek, Margaret Wozny, Natalie Yi, Eunice Fourth Year Allenstein, Curran Andrews, Kristie Bartolini, Alyssa Batalo, Dillon Berkowitz, Rachel Blood-White, Christi Bohn, Briana Boudreau, Amanda Broek, John Bugajski, Christopher Burtch, Robert Chan, Jaime Chatha, Manmeet Cheema, Mandeep Choi, Joann Choi, Young Choy, Alexander Dave, Forum Doyle, Brian Drossman, Amy Du, Jessica Finch, Ashley Frizzle, Kinzy Hammond, Paul He, Pearl Hemann, Susan Holcomb, Jennifer Holland, Zachary Holmberg, Kathrine Hueske, Megan Hui, Ian Jass, Ryan Johnson, Tyah Kampschneider, Jenna Katsikos, Ashley Kazmer, Krista Kitzmann, Eric Koutnik, Edward Kruthoff, Christopher Kwan, Stephanie Le, Vy Lewis, Jessica Madriaga, Jayson Marquez, Mark Matz, Milana Menos, Jonathan Metz, Caitlin Morales, Allison Nangia, Ankit Nguyen, Xuan Nguyen Omidghaemi, Sepideh Ovitsky, Erwin Palmer, Brett-Ashley Patel, Dixit Patel, Shreya Peachey, Tayler Polster, Samantha Rai, Harminder Rice, Samantha Ritter, Andrew Robbins, Agnieszka Rogers, Jenna Russell, Michael Ryba, Michelle Satchithanantham, Nir Schad, Jason Schaefer, Angella Servi, Michael Sorenson, Emily Spalding, Melissa Spoula, Melissa Swenson, Jami Tailor, Krupa Tholen, Ashley Toader, Maria Trivedi, Sonal Tsiganenko, Yana Tylka, Barbara Walsh, Elizabeth Walsh, Meghan Weinfurter, Cassandra Wong, Lisa Zielinski, Patricia

The 2014-2015 season influenza  vaccination will be offered without charge to all ICO students, faculty and staff on September 24th, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m., in the gym.  This will take place in conjunction with the ICO Wellness Fair. This event is a ‘walk – up’ – no appointments necessary.  We expect student traffic to be higher between 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. due to lecture and lab schedules.  If you have the opportunity to visit outside these hours, you may experience little or no wait time. For questions, faculty and staff can contact Michael Butz and students can contact Beth Karmis.  If you have questions about the vaccine, take a look at the CDC’s flu vaccine information sheet.

Jill Maher from Allergan will be joining ICO Private Practice Club on Wednesday, September 24 at 5 p.m. in LC room 1201. She will talk about the process of starting a career in optometry, market dynamics and trends specific to optometry. Dinner will be provided. This event will be free for Private Practice Club members and $5 for non-members. Please RSVP for this special event by Monday, September 22 at noon. If you haven’t signed up for PPC, you will have the chance to do so at the event. Clinic attire required. This event will earn you 1 raffle ticket! Private Practice Club will be having a year end raffle as an incentive for members to attend events that they have signed up for. Each event that a member signs up for and attends will earn them a raffle ticket. If a member signs up for an event and doesn’t attend TWICE they will no longer be eligible to win the raffle. PPC will distribute the tickets at the end of the school year.

Pilates will be held in the Gym on Monday evenings beginning September 8 from 6:45-7:45 p.m. ZUMBA will be held on Tuesdays beginning August 26 from 12:15-1:15 p.m. , and replace the Abs & Arms and Waist Down classes that day. Also, please sign up for Fall into Fitness, which begins Monday August 25. Email Sarah Edgeworth with any questions.