Sponsored Pathways

This question creates stress for everyone who attended, is attending, or plans to attend optometry school. Second only to successful completion of the boards, it is the thing optometry students worry about most. First generation college students feel the burden of optometry school debt acutely. “As a firstgeneration college student, my parents, my family can’t help me pay for school, so it’s kind of scary the amount of debt I have to bear. It is very stressful,” said Emely Miniño Soto during a student panel at the 2022 Industry Collaborative.

The average optometry student graduates with over $200,000 in debt, and 10% of recent graduates have greater than $300,000 in debt. Students expect it to take more than 20 years to repay their debt from optometry school alone. Graduates with debt may delay entering private practice, buying a home, or starting a family.

For the profession to continue to grow, we must partner to find ways to reduce the debt burden of students. One way is to increase scholarships. Another way is to ensure students have strong career prospects upon graduation to help them accelerate repayment.

A third way, which combines employment and funding, is for employers to provide financial incentives to optometry students who commit to post-graduate employment.

Sponsored Pathways is one such program. Students have a guaranteed job upon graduation that comes with debt relief. NECO is grateful to industry partners FYiDoctors, Vision Source, and Warby Parker who first participated in sharing the student debt burden through this program. Each company reviewed applications, interviewed, and contracted with students in their third or fourth year to provide a total of $1.5 million in funding aligned with multi-year work commitments.

Relieving the debt burden for students is “life changing,” said Matt Beaulieu during the 2022

Industry Collaborative student panel. “I’m happy to sign away three years of my life to reduce my debt, or five years if you’d take away all the debt.” Matt and the other NECO students also expressed their willingness to work extra hours to help fill the gap in patient care needs and to accelerate their debt repayment.

Applications were filed for more than double the number of spots available, which confirms NECO students’ excitement for the program. NECO sees Sponsored Pathways as a significant opportunity to meet the needs of employers, students, and the college, leading to a stronger future for optometry.