The Arkansas Optometric Association has announced Jade Rice as the recipient of the 2015 Dr. William H. Townsend Scholarship.
Rice was a 2007 Lakeside High School graduate and is currently completing her fourth year at the Southern College of Optometry in Memphis, Tenn. She is the daughter of Paul Rice and Lisa Jones.
Rice is also one of 10 national recipients of the 2014 Dr. Stanley Pearle Scholarship, which is given to students who exemplify being a role model and giving back to their community, while also achieving high scores in academics.
Throughout school, Rice has been a very involved member of Student Volunteers in Optometric Service to Humanity where she has served people in Mexico, Honduras and Colombia by providing free eye exams and glasses to nearly 3,000 individuals.
She has also been an active advocate for Optometry in Washington D.C., and was invited to visit with senators to discuss the importance of bills affecting health and vision care in Arkansas. It is her passion to work diligently for Arkansans and to help resolve the need for vision care in rural America.
Rice plans to practice optometry in northwest Arkansas after graduation in May 2016, along with her fiancé, Jeff Coats, who graduated from the Southern College of Optometry in 2014.
The $1,500 scholarship was established in memory of the late Dr. William H. Townsend, a distinguished ArOA member, and is awarded to an Arkansas optometry student attending an accredited school or college of optometry in the fall of 2014.
To be eligible, a student must be a second-year or higher Optometry student member in good standing in the Arkansas Optometric Student Association and American Optometric Student Association; be an Arkansas resident; be a student in good academic standing; and submit an essay on a topic chosen by the ArOA Board of Directors.
School on 08/30/2015