Eye Clinic Co-Founder Birju Solanki '03 Looks to Next Stage
In 2003, Birju Solanki graduated from Barstow with direct admission to the six year medical program at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. But six years later, his work had taken a different path.
He had changed majors, started a nonprofit organization and received a $10,000 start-up grant from the Clinton Foundation.
Many Barstow alumni, especially those in the local nonprofit sector, might know Solanki. For the past 16 years, he was the Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Kansas City Free Eye Clinic. During those years, he helped just over 6,000 community members receive access to sight-saving eye exams and vision correction services.
In January, Solanki stepped down from his role at the KC Free Eye Clinic to pursue the next stage of his career. He met up with Barstow Alumni Director Lauren Kanan ‘15 for a cup of coffee to discuss his time at Barstow and beyond.
Solanki first came to Barstow as a seventh grader, but moved out of town the following year. After moving a couple more times, Solanki’s parents asked where he would like to finish high school.
“I said, ‘Let’s go back to Kansas. Love Barstow. Can we please go back there?’” Solanki recalls. He returned to Barstow for his junior and senior year.
Solanki was on the tennis team and fondly remembers faculty and staff such as Bill Frank, Scott Daniel and Scott Hill. But not everything from our high school years stays with us.
“I’m in the yearbook as being part of some science club or something,” Solanki said. “I do not recall a single minute of it.”
Solanki appreciated Barstow’s rigorous curriculum and faculty “who were demanding and challenging and had higher expectations.” He said Barstow amplified his world view through language and cultural classes, and was a place where he could thrive and be himself.
“I just remember jumping from group to group and hanging out with different people. Everyone was super cool,” Solanki said.
After Barstow, Solanki moved on to UMKC, but after three years in their medical program, he decided to switch to the business school. He found his interest sparked from hearing students across the hall discussing their marketing and accounting classes. He ended up graduating from UMKC with degrees in biology, chemistry and business.
While at UMKC, Solanki and a classmate volunteered at the KC Free Health Clinic (now the KC CARE Health Center). He said patients frequently asked about dental or eye care needs, which, at the time, were not offered. So, in 2008, Solanki and his friend started the KC Free Eye Clinic, with the help of volunteer ophthalmologists.
“Everyone should be able to thrive having that really essential and critical sense intact,” Solanki said. “And so that was really the impetus behind starting the free eye clinic.”
For the first few years, the KC Free Eye Clinic operated outside of Grand Avenue Temple UMC in downtown Kansas City, Missouri. Each week, they would have to set up and tear down their equipment. But in 2012, they moved into Hope Faith, where the nonprofit remains today. For years, Solanki kept the nonprofit going on a volunteer basis. He sold shoes to make a living. But in 2015, he committed all of his time to the nonprofit, “and that’s when I really took a deep dive into professional development in a nonprofit sense.” Solanki said he had great mentors in fellow Barstow alumni Susan Belger Angulo ‘76 and Mike Sigler ‘72.
During his time leading the nonprofit, Solanki was proud that the team caught emergency cases such as eye cancer and detached retinas. And for his last year and a half, Solanki’s team took the portable equipment bought during COVID and began serving students in area schools.
Solanki said there is great potential for the KC Free Eye Clinic to continue growing, and that it was a hard decision to leave. But as he looks to the future, he is seeking more work-life balance and autonomy. After some time off, he plans to seek new opportunities in the nonprofit, corporate philanthropy or health care spaces.
When the KC Free Eye Clinic won the Clinton Foundation start-up grant in 2008, Solanki said that Bill Clinton’s message then has always stayed true to him.
“What Bill had said at the time, and that still resonates with me, is there’s all these needs all across the world, but some of our greatest needs are just here in our backyards,” Solanki said.
