Glatt to receive Lanford Presidential Prize at Commencement

Patience Glatt, whose ambitious higher educational journey can be illustrated with an impressive set of numbers, has been selected as the recipient of the 2024 Lanford Presidential Prize.

The award is the highest distinction granted to a graduating senior at SUNY Fredonia, said President Stephen H. Kolison Jr. “The requirements for selection are rigorous and the recipient exemplifies excellence in and out of the classroom,” Dr. Kolison added.

Generously created and endowed by the late President Emeritus Oscar E. Lanford and Mrs. Lanford through the Fredonia College Foundation, the award recognizes a member of each graduating class who has exhibited balanced achievement and exemplifies Fredonia ideals. Ms. Glatt will receive the Lanford prize at the morning Commencement on Saturday, May 18.

It has been a dream of mine to become an optometrist since I was 14 years old.” – Patience Glatt
 

The largest and likely the first number standing out on Ms. Glatt’s college transcript is 160 credit hours – far beyond the minimum 120 needed to meet graduation requirements – that she will have at the end of the semester. Glatt began earning college credits from Jamestown Community College while enrolled at Jamestown High School, where she graduated 13th in her class and placed in the top 5 percent of graduates.

Credit hours were also earned in two semesters spent at another SUNY comprehensive school before transferring to SUNY Fredonia, where she will, upon graduation, have 94 credits with an overall 3.97 GPA and a 4.0 GPA in her major, Psychology. She earned 9 Advanced Placement credits as a high school student. Glatt has been named to the Dean’s List every semester she’s been enrolled in college.

The smallest but perhaps most significant number, two, is the number of acceptances Glatt received from optometry schools. She will attend the Kentucky College of Optometry in August to earn a Doctor of Optometry degree. Glatt maintained a full course load during her junior year, which she devoted to studying for the Optometry Admission Test.

“It has been a dream of mine to become an optometrist since I was 14 years old,” Glatt said.

To advance that dream, Glatt was an optometrist technician at Family Eye Health and Contact Lens Center in Lewiston, ME, during the summer of 2022. She assisted the optometrist by performing pretesting using the autorefractor, non-contact tonometer and optomap retinal imaging device. Glatt also prepared the examination room for the optometrist by setting the phoropter and recording device.

Glatt has undertaken three successive internships at 716 Eye Care, Fredonia, NY, beginning as an entry-level, observation-based opportunity. From there she expanded her educational learning objectives by exploring different components of the practice and the industry in general. As a medical scribe during all three internships, she assisted the optometrist by recording the optometrist’s notes during examinations, formulated the assessment and plan based on the doctor’s notes and checked patients in and out and also verified insurance.

By getting to know the community well through the internships, Glatt has come to consider Fredonia to be more of a home rather than just the town where she goes to college. She’s had the pleasure to get to know many Fredonia residents as they come in for their eye exam.

“It is now very seldom I go into any store or restaurant in town without seeing a patient I have met. When I am in class and not scribing, many patients ask my boss where I am,” Glatt said.

Glatt completed research with Department of Psychology Associate Professor Darrin Rogers, who primarily researches sexual aggression, in the spring and fall semesters of 2022. Her research project was presented at the campus student research exposition in 2023. A case study on an ocular disease that she will present in poster form at the 2024 event will examine a patient with a macular hole and the prognosis as a result of the treatment.

Campus engagement and community service are two areas where Glatt has also excelled. She has been inducted into the Psi Chi honor society, the international honor society for psychology students, upon achieving a 4.0 GPA in Psychology, and Tau Sigma, the transfer student honor society.

“I try my hardest to help others who I can relate to, so it was important to me to become involved in helping transfer students adjust to Fredonia,” Glatt said. She also volunteered at Dining in the Dark, a fundraiser for the Chautauqua Blind Association, while simulating the experience of having low vision, through the campus Health Professions Advising Club.

Glatt has received academic awards through the Fredonia College Foundation including the Adele Maytum Hunter Scholarship, Alice Sam Biology Scholarship and the 1929 Graduates Bioethics Scholarship.

The Chautauqua Regional Community Foundation has also awarded scholarships to Glatt from the Marguerite E. Olson Memorial Foundation, the Wyman L. Ansley Scholarship Fund, the James and Delores Erickson Scholarship Fund and the RoseMarie K. Cappa Lindstrom Memorial Scholarship Fund. She was also the recipient of the George and Helen Wilde Memorial Scholarship and Walter and Grace Hazzard Scholarship, also through the foundation.