Snowvision’s 2019 SUNY scholars

Peter Walker

Walker said he'd applied after talking to other scholarship winners and is excited about both the optometry and cultural experience he'll gain from working at SUNY.

“I have never been to the States before and I’m looking forward to discovering what the similarities and differences are.”

He added he is keen to learn about all the aspects of optometry that SUNY offers, but is hoping for a particular focus on paediatrics.

Peter Walker is an optometrist with Visique Rose Optometrists, Hamilton.

Zaria Bradley - NZAO scholar

“It is an absolute privilege to receive the Snowvision SUNY Scholarship, and I feel honoured to be sponsored by the New Zealand Association of Optometrists,” said Bradley. “New Zealand has a relatively small, but very supportive, optometry community. Yet we are practicing at the top level of optometry and constantly working to push the profession forward.” Never having visited New York before, Bradley said she is grateful to be given this amazing experience and hopes to bring back a wealth of speciality knowledge to help provide better care to her patients and share her learnings with optometry students. “Opportunities like this scholarship are priceless, as they allow individuals to gain international knowledge and perspectives to bring back and share with our community.”

Bradley is keen to develop her specialty areas of paediatrics and dry eye further and wishes to get involved in SUNY’s head trauma rehabilitation clinic. “This is something we really don't have in New Zealand, despite the fact we see individuals from young to old suffering from various forms of head trauma and associated visual effects.”

Zaria Bradley is clinic supervisor at the School of Optometry & Vision Science, University of Auckland.

The Snowvision SUNY scholarships

Since 1997, the trustees of the Snowvision Charitable Trust have announced annual scholarships for a recent graduate and an optometrist to attend SUNY, New York, for a period of four weeks’ clinical study in optometry. The scholarship is for a maximum of NZ$7,000 and covers travel from Auckland to New York as well as tuition fees at SUNY. This year, the NZAO funded an additional optometrist scholarship, leaving the selection process entirely to the trustees. All three scholarships are aimed at improving the clinical skills of New Zealand optometrists.

The biannual Snowvision conference is scheduled for 5-8 August 2020 in Queenstown.