5 Enjoyable Information About PCO

The Pennsylvania College of Optometry (PCO) at Drexel University has pioneered standard-setting improvements in optometric schooling since 1919. In 1923, PCO grew to become the primary optometry college within the United States to award the Doctor of Optometry diploma. Today, from its Elkins Park campus (since 1998), PCO graduates greater than 120 college students per class—a lot of whom go on to change into leaders within the career. Today, the College continues to supply extra decisions for college kids.

Here are 5 enjoyable information about PCO:

(1) Alumni as Leaders:

The dean, Josephine Ibironke, OD ‘03, Resident ‘04, MPH, FAAO, is a PCO graduate who accomplished her Pediatrics and Binocular Vision residency at The Eye Institute (TEI). She proudly describes having “PCO DNA,” and her return as dean in 2025 reveals how the College cultivates management from inside.

(2) Innovative Accelerated Scholars Program:

PCO is the one optometry school or college with a three-year Accelerated Scholars Program that lets extremely motivated college students full the Doctor of Optometry diploma in 36 months, a 12 months sooner than the standard route, with out compromising on curriculum or medical expertise. The Scholars program has change into identified for its success within the National Board of Examiners in Optometry (NBEO) testing scores and manufacturing of high-quality clinicians.

(3) Early Clinical Exposure:

Students have a hybrid expertise; they follow on actual sufferers from the beginning at The Eye Institute (TEI), PCO’s medical facility initially established in 1978. Serving greater than 37,800 sufferers yearly in the neighborhood, TEI incorporates a number of specialty departments, together with Low Vision Services, Glaucoma, Neuro-Ophthalmic Diseases, Pediatrics and Binocular Vision, and extra. Doctor of Optometry college students acquire early hands-on expertise in expertise wanted to supply eye examinations and deal with imaginative and prescient circumstances, eye ailments and accidents, all underneath the supervision of licensed optometrists.

(4) Diverse Residency Opportunities:

PCO has lengthy been a pacesetter in specialised optometric schooling. In 1983, it grew to become the primary school of optometry to supply a graduate diploma in Blindness and Low Vision Studies. Today, college students can pursue various on-campus residencies that cowl specialised areas like Glaucoma, Retina, Pediatric Optometry, Neuro-Ophthalmic Disease, and Low Vision Rehabilitation, giving graduates an edge in superior medical coaching. The Feinbloom Low Vision Rehabilitation Center continues this legacy as effectively by offering complete companies to sufferers with imaginative and prescient impairments and superior medical coaching to college students.

(5) Global Impact:

For a long time, PCO has been delivering and advancing optometry schooling worldwide, bettering follow requirements, advancing laws, and selling optometry as a main well being care career.