At 20 years nine months old, Kaitlyn Hanlin was the College of Arts and Sciences’ youngest graduate this May. She began her UMSL career in fall of 2012 and in only three years has earned a bachelor’s in Liberal Studies. After graduation, she will continue on to optometry school and has already been accepted into the Pennsylvania College of Optometry in Philadelphia.
Kailtyn says she’s known she wanted to be an optometrist since the fifth grade when she was first prescribed contacts.
“When you first get contacts it’s hard to put them in,” she said. “To get your eye to open that wide is really difficult. But my optometrist spent an hour and a half working with me, helping me get it right.”
Kaitlyn, who now understands just how valuable an hour and a half of an optometrist’s time is, says that interaction set her on a path that continued through high school and onto college here at UMSL.
Kaitlyn’s goal is to be an optometrist in a big city. Having grown up in Rolla, Missouri and Jackson, Illinois, she’s well aware for what it’s like to live in a place where you know everyone and everyone knows you—and that just isn’t for her.
