For the past decade, Kansas City University (KCU) has welcomed hundreds of local children to campus each year for a week-long vision clinic that changes lives through the power of sight.
Hosted in partnership with the OneSight EssilorLuxottica Foundation and underwritten by Fidelity Security Life Insurance Company, the clinic is organized through Score 1 for Health, a preventive health program within the Center for Population Health and Equity at KCU. The program provides free, in-school health screenings for children across Kansas City and Joplin, Missouri.
This year, more than 80 KCU students joined a volunteer team of optometrists, technicians and OneSight staff to provide free eye exams and prescription glasses to nearly 700 children, ages 5–18, representing more than 100 local schools. This year marked the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic that the clinic offered dilated eye exams, giving children a more comprehensive vision check in addition to standard screenings.
“Vision is just one part of a child’s overall health, but it affects everything: how they learn, move and interact with the world. When you can fix something like sight, you see an immediate impact on a child’s ability to learn and grow,” said Annette Campbell, MPA, RN, director of Score 1 for Health.
KCU volunteers worked side by side with optometrists and OneSight professionals to ensure that over 95 percent of participating children received new, high-quality eyewear made on-site. For many, it was their very first pair.
Among the volunteers was Nivedha Madhan, a first-year KCU medical student who joined the clinic to combine her passion for service with hands-on learning. “In medical school, we focus on the big picture, the tree. But this was like looking at the leaf — so specific and tangible,” she said. “I've always been drawn to service, and that’s what led me to medicine in the first place.”
Now in its tenth year at KCU, the vision clinic continues to reflect the University’s commitment to service, compassion and community partnership. The program prepares future physicians and health sciences professionals not only to practice medicine but also to make a lasting difference.
“Some kids came in with glasses held together by tape, and others hadn’t had glasses for over a year,” Madhan said. “Watching them walk out with a new pair the same day was incredible. You could see how much it meant to them.”
Teachers often report that students return to class more confident, engaged and ready to learn. They participate more, talk more and see their world in a new way. “When kids get to pick out their own frames and feel proud wearing them, the likelihood of them caring for those glasses goes way up,” Campbell said. “They also feel pretty darn cool when they see themselves in their new glasses. Watching a child look in the mirror and smile is such a joyful, genuine moment.”
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