OUR PROGRAM
Opportunities for Medical Students:
The SOAR Fellowship allows medical students with research interests in childhood eye disease to gain additional experience at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute while completing their medical degree. The program focuses on principles of research from exposure to international programs for blindness prevention, ocular genetics, community outreach, and gaining knowledge in biostatistics and manuscript writing.
Opportunities for Physicians and Researchers:
The SOAR Fellowship provides physicians, ophthalmologists, or ophthalmic researchers, early in their careers, the opportunity to collaborate and expand their scope of research at Bascom Palmer with a focus on international pediatric eye disease research and outreach.
Potential Areas of Research
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Virtual Reality Visual Fields
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Telehealth Initiatives
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Quality of Life in Children with Visual Impairments and their Families​
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​International Outreach​
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Health Knowledge Assessment and Dissemination
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Social Innovation
The SOAR Fellowship
Is a donor-funded education program of the Samuel & Ethel Balkan International Pediatric Glaucoma Center at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute. This full-time program is designed to provide a year of focused research experience to students and early career physicians with an interest in clinical research and/or outreach in vision. Fellows are instructed in the principles of research and manuscript writing by working closely with the physicians of The Balkan Center and Bascom Palmer Eye Institute’s career researchers.
Our established national and international programs and initiatives provide a structure from which Fellows choose Basic Science/Genetics, Public Health, or Neuroscience tracks of study. Students of varied ophthalmic knowledge backgrounds are welcome. A stipend for UM Medical Students is offered to offset living expenses.