I recently became a part of the board for the American Optometric Student Association chapter at ICO. It has been a joy to work together with other classmates to promote AOSA to students. At ICO, you are automatically a member of the AOSA! This helps every optometry student become more involved, which is an important aspect of keeping our profession thriving. I’m learning a lot about what AOSA can do for optometry and how students can get more involved with their state associations.
One of the annual events that AOSA holds is the Quiz Bowl. It is a pretty big event in the optometry school world! Two representatives from each class year compete head-to-head in an optometric quiz/trivia competition. The overall winner then represents ICO at AOA/AOSA’s Optometry’s Meeting. Academy is held in Boston, MA this summer. Our representative will have to stand out among the sea of other optometry schools across the nation and Canada.
If you couldn’t tell yet, our theme for Quiz Bowl this year was pirates. Everyone was dressed to the tens and I was very impressed at how many people went all out with their outfits and props. AOSA provided food and drinks before the event, and afterwards, we all crowded into the Lecture Center for Quiz Bowl to begin.
While we were waiting for Quiz Bowl, we realized that we were missing the judges and the MC. Needless to say, they all showed up fashionably late. The judges (with the big help of a 4th year) created an introduction video that will always be imprinted in my mind. It featured the judges singing a parody of “Part of Your World” from hit Disney movie The Little Mermaid. The best part wasn’t even seeing our professors & preceptors singing and dancing. The BEST PART was that they were all dressed up in mermaid costumes and wigs!
There were three rounds of questions that covered topics such as optics, disease diagnosis, vision science, and many other areas of optometry. The first round started off with a low amount of points. With each round afterwards, the points doubled and then tripled!
As a first year, we have touched over many of these subjects, but compared to third years, we’re not that quick to come to a conclusion with our answers just yet. It was fun to see the contestants competing over the buzzers and to see what kind of answers they had in store. The fan support from the audience was just as outstanding as we all cheered on our fellow classmates. ICO is one rowdy and supportive crowd!
After succeeding in the third round of questions, David Schaeffer, ’17, came out victorious. We’re all excited to have him represent ICO. Best wishes to David as he travels to Boston for Optometry’s Meeting!!