UC Merced grad turns sight struggles into eyecare vision

A slightly embarrassing childhood memory oddly ended up shaping UC Merced senior Austin Ofreneo's life.

The Modesto native said he remembered having trouble seeing when he was younger, so he would steal his sister's glasses and hide them in his desk.

"I wasn't paying attention in class because I couldn't see," he recalled.

It wasn't until Ofreneo was 8 and had a vision screening at his elementary school that he found out he needed glasses.

Ofreneo, 21, who graduated from UC Merced on Saturday with a bachelor's degree in human biology, is now the person who administers those screenings.

Two years ago, Ofreneo and his friend and classmate Verissa Lam founded iSight, UC Merced's pre-optometry and vision club.

The club's goal is to provide free vision screenings to preschool-aged children in Merced County.

Lam and Ofreneo both received training to administer vision tests from Prevent Blindness America, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting eye health and safety.

The club uses a vision testing kit it got from Preventing Blindness America. Part of the kit contains several pairs of brightly colored glasses preschoolers wear when they take their eye exam. Ofreneo calls them "magic glasses."

This year, the club conducted 300 vision screenings on children throughout Merced schools.

These tests are important because you are less likely to complain of vision problems when you are between 3 and 5 years old, Ofreneo said.

Leslie Schleth, head nurse for Merced City School District, said the club helped the district conserve resources.

While the club tested students' eyesight, Schleth would also perform routine hearing and dental exams, she said.

Usually, the procedure would require the district to pull a nurse from another school to help, but that wasn't necessary with all the extra help from the UC Merced students.

Ofreneo and Lam, who also graduated Saturday, are planning to apply to Optometry School next year.

What attracted both students to the profession was the relationship patients build with their doctors.

"I've seen the same doctor since I was 8," Ofreneo said. "You build relationships with your patients, and I want to be able to do that when I'm older."

Ofreneo is the type of person who, despite knowing his career path, will still dabble in a number of disparate hobbies -- a habit he picked up at UC Merced.

He was the a member of Hip Hop Movement, a performing arts club, and Filipino American Alliance. He also raps and plays piano and guitar.

UC Merced is such a young school it encourages a pioneering spirit, he said, and many students grab opportunities to take leadership roles.

"Since there's not a lot of people here, everyone has to multitask," he said. "It's a very family-like environment."

Multitasking is a chore familiar to Ofreneo.

In high school he became interested in break-dancing, but it wasn't until college that he perfected his moves.

"(In high school) everyone was so much better than me, so I was intimidated," he said. "Growing up, I always had image problems. At UC Merced it's a blank slate. You can be a pioneer and you don't have to be intimidated by anybody."

And you can give folks vision.

Reporter Jamie Oppenheim can be reached at (209) 385-2407 or joppenheim@mercedsun-star.com.