BUFFALO—Earlier this month, SUNY Erie Community College’s Vision Care Technology Program was honored as one of its field’s Top 30 training programs in the United States by the vision care field-focused OpticianEdu.org.

Ranked amid community colleges, technical school and higher education institutes from across the country, SUNY Erie’s Vison Care Tech curriculum was heralded by the optician-led site for its laboratory instruction and clinical externships, which are provided at one of 70 approved vision care sites across Western New York. The honor is the latest for a program that’s been honored locally and nationally in recent years with its students’ professional placement and field awards bestowed on its faculty and staff—such as 2016’s National Academy of Opticianry’s Educator of the Year for Department Chair John Godert. 

ECC’s Vision Care Technology Program offers classroom, clinical and laboratory training, utilizing state-of-the-art instrumentation in preparation for careers in the vision care field. Classroom lectures, clinics and laboratories involve skills training in such focuses as lensometry, biomicroscopy, and retinal imaging. Through the two-year program, students are prepped to participate in credentialing exams administered by the American Board of Opticianry, the National Contact Lens Examiners and state licensure exams through the Office of Professions, New York State Education Department; and enter careers in such locations as private optometric and ophthalmological practices, national vision centers, and health maintenance organizations.

For more information on the program, please contact Department Chair/Professor John Godert at godert@ecc.edu or (716) 851-1570.

Since 1946, Erie Community College has met the needs of a diverse student body while contributing to the economic vitality of Western New York. As a member of the state’s SUNY system, the three-campus college provides flexible, affordable and accessible educational programs in an accommodating academic environment. Equipped with the knowledge of these programs, ECC’s faculty, staff and students strive to enrich their host communities through skill, service and partnership. For more information, visit www.ecc.edu or call (716) 851-1ECC.