2019 NZAO Award winners: Tiffany Ong, Steve Yoo, Muthana Noori, Jocelyn Cheng, Luke Oliver, Tanisha Kumar and Joyce Mathan with NZAO president Rochelle van Eysden (centre)

The 2019 New Zealand Association of Optometrists (NZAO) Student Awards night was a relaxed and warm affair, celebrating the achievements of this year’s top optometry students and the important work of the country’s optometry industry association.

BOptom students, from the University of Auckland’s School of Optometry and Vision Science (SOVS), their teachers and NZAO council members gathered at the Cordis Hotel’s Chandelier Room on a balmy April evening to celebrate the award winners. NZAO president Rochelle Van Eysden kept the proceedings brief and upbeat, introducing council members to present the awards and discuss a little bit about who the awards were named for. The audience was also reminded about the NZAO’s work championing optometrist scope changes for many years, enabling Kiwi optometrists to better support the eye health community and the New Zealand general public. Becoming a member of NZAO has a wide range of benefits, said van Eysden, from offering collegiality and support for individual members to working for all to ensure New Zealand optometrists can maximise their full potential in years to come.

This year’s award winners are:

• The Peg Wood Award for the most outstanding undergraduate student in clinical optometry for special populations - Steve Yoo
• The Michael Kalloniatis Award for top student entering BOptom Part V - Muthana Noori
• The Rob Jacobs Award for top student entering BOptom Part IV - Tiffany Ong
• The Leon Garner Award for top student entering BOptom Part III - Luke Oliver
• Most improved student entering BOptom Part V - Jocelyn Cheng
• Most improved student entering BOptom Part IV - Tanisha Kumar
• 2019 Postgraduate Scholarship - Joyce Mathan
• Top Maori/Pacific Island student entering BOptom Part II – Tiana Williamson (awarded at a separate event)