Tusculum College students are working with Impact America to bring vision screenings to pre-school students through a project called FocusFirst.<\/p>\n
Beginning in September, students from Tusculum participated in the project through the school\u2019s annual Nettie Fowler McCormick Service Day. According to Dr. Ronda Gentry, director of the Center for Civic Advancement at the college, six different daycares\/preschools were visited and volunteers used a special high-tech photo optic scan camera, provided by the program, to identify any\u00a0 child with vision issues. Those who were identified were then referred to local physicians who treated them at low\/no cost.<\/p>\n
The goal of FocusFirst is to provide a cost-effective direct response to the vision problems of children living in urban and rural communities. During Fall 2016, Impact America – Tennessee AmeriCorps Members, working with college student volunteers,\u00a0provided free vision screenings to more than 14,500 children at 414 Head Starts and daycare centers located in low-income communities in 16 Tennessee counties.<\/p>\n
Tusculum College became the first to partner with Focus First in the State of Tennessee, now joined by The University of Tennessee.\u00a0For the spring semester, Dr. Melinda Dukes, professor of psychology, will be working with a group of her students to screen at daycares and preschools as part of a service-learning project for her courses.<\/p>\n
According to Dr. Gentry, the plan is to make the assessments a regular part of the college\u2019s service to community efforts.<\/p>\n
Since the fall, <\/strong>2,964 children have been screened in Northeast Tennessee.<\/strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tusculum College students are working with Impact America to bring vision screenings to pre-school students through a project called FocusFirst.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7,1,6],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n