Salus University - President Mittelman's Blog

Looking forward to the 11th annual Looking Out for Kids: Week of November 3, 2017

 

Students, Faculty, Residents, Staff, Alumni, Board Members and Friends,

I cannot believe that we’re already into November! There are still leaves on the trees – albeit, starting to change – and the weather has been unseasonably warm. That being said, I know our students and faculty are already thinking about finals, wrapping up this semester and looking forward to the holidays - which are right around the corner!

In the Pennsylvania College of Optometry, Jordan Heidelbaugh and Joshua Heersink were awarded the highly competitive Practice Excellent Scholarship from the American Academy of Optometry Foundation. The scholarship is funded through VSP Global Eyes of Hope Global Charitable Fund and included a travel grant to participate in the American Academy of Optometry’s 96th annual meeting. Congratulations to both of you!

Last Saturday, a group of Salus students, faculty and staff, primarily from our Speech-Language Pathology program, participated in the Moss Rehabilitation Brain Injury Challenge: Race for Recovery in Tyler State Park. Organized by Mr. Bob Serianni, Salus had a great showing with Alison Finklestein finishing second in her age group and yours truly finishing third in my age group (and yes, there were many more than two in Ali’s group and more than three people in mine!) Special mention to Dr. Brooke Kruemmling, Don Kates, Ken Newton, Shelley Slott and Leah Morton for great finishes, tackling those hills and helping to motivate the rest of us! It was a fun event.
We’re at the final stages of preparing for our Looking Out For Kids charity fundraiser next Saturday night (November 11). I had the opportunity to “spread the good word” about Salus and the LOFK event on NBC 10 yesterday when I was interviewed by Rosemary Connors, who will also be our celebrity host. The interview provided a great platform to discuss how the work you all do in the Philadelphia and Montgomery County schools really changes the lives of those students we care for. You can view the full interview here. In addition to highlighting the work that we do in the schools, we’re also honoring Ms. Shelly Yanoff, the former Executive Director of Public Citizens for Children and Youth (PCCY) with our Lighthouse Award for the wonderful work she has done on behalf of underprivileged children in Philadelphia. By all accounts, the event is shaping up to be a huge success thanks to the great work of Dr. Sue Oleszewski and her staff as well as the very generous support we’ve received from our many corporate sponsors. A very special thanks goes to National Vision, Inc., our title sponsor and to Essilor and Lindy Properties, our platinum sponsors. If you’d like to donate to the LOFK charity, please go to our website. 

On Monday, Salus hosted an interprofessional training seminar in preparation for the 2017 Veterans Readiness Initiative (VRI) screening events. The first screening will take place at Montgomery
County Community College on November 20. The VRI program was developed to provide multi-sensory screenings to veterans at local community colleges in an effort to identify potential vision, auditory and or vestibular issues they may have as a result of their service. If individuals are found to have problems we can initiate treatment plans and help to ensure these veterans have access to local VA clinics and providers.


Finally, as we approach this beautiful weekend, please keep those family members and friends who were affected by the awful attack in New York in your thoughts and prayers.

Mike