GRANTS & SCHOLARSHIPS CRITERIA

GRANT TYPES may include, but not be limited to:

  • Optometric scholarships

  • Optometric related research

  • Public education

  • Distribution of materials

  • Providing optometric eye care for under-served areas

 

GRANT RECIPIENTS may include, but not be limited to:

  • Optometric students or educators  

  • Educational Institutions

  • Michigan Optometric Association/local optometric societies

  • Charitable or philanthropic organizations relating to vision and optometric care

 

GRANT LIMITATIONS:

  • Projects must be primarily Michigan based.

  • Grants will be awarded on a project basis and may be renewed only by re-application.

Public education grants shall be for projects which inform the public of the value of regular, professional eye care, but which do not directly benefit individual eye care providers or specific groups of eye care providers.  

  • For additional clarification of this limitation, please see Addendum A

  • Scholarships are only awarded to 3rd year optometry students for 4th year training;

            student must be Michigan residents, or intend to practice in Michigan, with a 2.7 or   

            better GPA. Scholarship applications are due by May 1st of each year. Additional

            scholarships may be considered if submitted as a grant proposal.

 

CONSIDERATION OF REQUESTS:

  • All applications must be submitted online using the MFVA website (themfva.org)

  • Research and Project Grant Applications must be completed and submitted using the MFVA website (themfva.org) online process by March 1st or September 1st each year

  • Scholarship Applications must be completed and submitted using the MFVA Website (themfva.org) online process by April 30th each year.

 

Research & Grant Application questions are to be directed to Mitchell Dobrzelewski via e-mail at dewittop@comcast.net

 

Scholarship Application questions are to be directed to Dr. Julia Holmes via e-mail at holmes.julia@charter.net 

Addendum A 

Grant Limitations

Individuals or groups of people may benefit nominally by way of stipends for things such as travel reimbursements, meals, research participation incentives, etc. when the overall benefit of the service provided by that individual or group regarding MFVA’s mission outweighs the value of the stipend provided by the grant. Such determination of valuation of service will be made by the MFVA Board of Trustees.

For example, there will be no compensation or money given to an optometrist or an optometrist in a group practice or group practice that is a direct benefit to their business or businesses.  This could be either in compensation or for equipment.  Similarly, there will be no compensation directly to a university professor or researcher that is already receiving compensation from a related institution.  However, for optometrists who may be taking time out of their office, and away from generating revenue for the same, they could receive a stipend or reimbursement for some types of expenses.  The Board could do this in partial recognition for their volunteerism to the profession of optometry.

Compensation to research participants (patients) may be considered/authorized, since incentivizing participation will likely contribute to more robust optometric research outcomes.