Meet Sydney and Devyn! Both are third-year students at Ohio State and have been dedicated WOW volunteers since spring 2024. Devyn is pursuing a degree in nursing, while Sydney is majoring in vision science. Devyn is very passionate about helping people, and felt like nursing would be a great fit for her outgoing personality and love for science. Sydney is attending optometry school early this fall through OSU's 3+4 program. This program switches your major to vision science, and the first year of optometry school courses becomes your senior year major coursework. She has always been interested in science and helping people wherever she can. After learning more about optometry, she knew it was a perfect fit for her because of the people apart of eyecare and actively being able to help people with their sight. Though they’re cousins, their unique paths have given them diverse experiences to share!

What is your favorite part of WOW?

Devyn: My favorite part of WOW is when the kids' faces light up at the experiments we do with them. I also love getting to expose kids to different units of science that they might not get to learn about or spend much time on in class. I love that the joy the students associate with WOW could be the beginning of a lifelong passion for science and possibly influence their future career choices.

Sydney: My favorite part of WOW is experiencing the joy kids have from engaging in the experiments we bring. No matter what grade we are visiting the students always have a great time. They are very engaged, learn a lot, and we consistently hear about how much they enjoy WOW. It is so much fun to see how much of an impact we are making for these kids.

What have you learned from WOW that you could apply to your future career?

Devyn: A big part of nursing is patient education, and WOW has helped me so much in terms of learning how to explain things to kids, and how to adapt to different their learning styles. I definitely recommend WOW to anyone who plans to work in the medical field and is interested in pediatrics.

Sydney: One thing I have learned from WOW is how to explain complicated concepts in simple terms. This is a skill that will be very useful for discussing eyecare to patients. In the case of pediatrics or complex cases it is important to be able to help people understand what is going on with their vision.

What's your favorite part about OSU?

Devyn: One of my favorite parts about OSU is getting to be a part of the African American Voices Gospel Choir. We rehearse every week and perform at different engagements at OSU and around Ohio. My favorite memory with the choir is when we got to sing at a prison and one of the inmates played a really awesome Saxophone solo. 

Sydney: One of my favorite things about Ohio State was choosing to do random roommates my freshman year. On the 12^th floor of Taylor Tower, I met one of my now closest friends, and I am so glad to have gotten to make a personal connection like that at OSU.