Valley Contax, Inc., in collaboration with Contamac US, announced the recipient of the travel grant to attend the Global Specialty Lens Symposium (GSLS), occurring January 7 to January 10, in Las Vegas.

"We are pleased to award this grant to Alexis Herstein, a fourth-year student at the University of Houston College of Optometry," Valley Contax, Inc. says in a press release. 

Candidates for the grant were required to submit a brief essay detailing their most meaningful contact lens patient, according to a press release.

In her submission, Alexis shared about a young patient who had academic struggles and was initially suspected of having attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder as the cause. 

However, the student was diagnosed with keratoconus, which was treated with a scleral contact lens, according to the essay.

The young boy stated, “I’ve never seen this clearly” after the scleral lens was placed on his eye.

Alexis wrote in the essay that the experience served as a reminder to her that what may seem routine to clinicians can be life-changing for patients. OM