ST. LOUIS, Mo.— OptometryStudents.com (OS), a division of AOAExcel, a wholly owned subsidiary of the American Optometric Association, has announced a new alliance with International Vision Expo East set to take place March 14th to 17th in New York. OptometryStudents.com will be the title sponsor of the official Optometry Student Party to be held during the expo, which attracts hundreds of optometry students from 26 schools in the U.S. and Canada each year. The party will take place at Bowlmor Lanes in Times Square on Saturday, March 16 from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. and is open exclusively to optometry students.

Founded by Matthew Geller, SUNY College of Optometry Class of 2013, the website launched in 2009 as a resource for students working toward their optometric licenses.

“The goal of OptometryStudents.com is to provide an avenue for students to become the future leaders of our profession and to ensure optometry’s growth and stability,” said Geller. “We recognize that an alliance with International Vision Expo is ideal to help us to continue to grow, considering they welcome more than 500 optometry students each year, providing them with amazing educational and networking opportunities.”

International Vision Expo, which is co-owned by Reed Exhibitions and The Vision Council, will also host the OS Core Leadership Team, the OptometryStudents.com site operators who work to help fellow students via their brand. The Team will provide pre- and post-show journalistic coverage of the expo, ranging from first-time attendee experiences and tips to specialty topics such as vision therapy, clinical optometry, finance options and business solutions.

“OptometryStudents.com is now one of the largest and most widely visited resources for optometry student information on the web,” said Tom Loughran, group vice president of Reed Exhibitions. “Our focus is to align with strong organizations that have the students’ best interests in mind and see International Vision Expo as a valuable resource for young optometrists entering this prestigious profession.”