PINETOWN — A Pinetown native was among 130 students recently awarded a degree from Southern College of Optometry in Memphis.

Austin Swain, O.D., the son of Steve and Cathy Swain, recently received the Doctor of Optometry degree from the college and since, has started working as an associate in Wynne, Arkansas, Swain said. He is a graduate of Northside High School and Campbell University, where he received a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry.

Swain said, though he always wanted to be a doctor of some kind, he first started to develop an interest in optometry in high school. As one of the most important senses of the human body, there is so much about the human eye that can give hints to other issues going on in the rest of one’s body like lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure, among other conditions. And though many people are unaware, children should have eye exams at the age of about six months in order to help with early detection of things like lazy eye and other ocular diseases that can prevent further vision loss down the road, Swain said.

Southern College, established in 1932, is an independent, not-for-profit institution of higher education with nearly 500 students from 40 states. The school’s Eye Center serves nearly 80,000 patients annually, helping make the college on of the top in the nation for optometric education and its Community Outreach Program reaches more than 12,000 children through vision screenings provided annually to Shelby County, Tenn., students in public, private and charter schools, according to a press release from SCO.

As a student at SCO, Swain spent his first two years participating in classroom instruction and labs, which led to his third year where he started seeing patients in the school’s clinic in addition to continued classroom instruction, he said. In his fourth year, he was rotated from a private practice outside of the school to an institutional practice — Memphis VA Medical Center.

“SCO is one of the top-rated schools,” Swain said. “It does a fantastic job of clinically preparing us for the real world. They like for their students to go into private practice. The teachers and faculty are all very highly rated, and they’re great to work with. The reason why I chose private practice is because it’s more of a primary eye care where I can see infants up to geriatrics. It doesn’t limit me to one subspecialty. I hope I can continue to grow and learn. I always want to learn and be challenged and use my skills to better myself and ultimately, serve patients. That’s who I am here to serve.”

Jim Hollifield, director of communications at SCO, spoke about the school’s recent graduates.

“SCO is proud that Austin and other graduates return to their hometowns and put their education and training to use by helping their patients with their vision care needs,” Hollifield said. “Dr. Swain joins more than 7,000 SCO graduates nationwide in using their skills and talents as optometrists.”