Student Bowl was About Speed and Anticipation For Optometry Student

April Mishley ‘23OD knew she had to be lightning-fast to compete in the Quiz Bowl at the 125th annual meeting of the American Optometric Association (AOA) and the 54th annual American Optometric Student Association (AOSA) conference, affectionately called Optometry’s Meeting.

What she didn’t know was that she needed to be a mind-reader, too.

Mishley, representing the Pennsylvania College of Optometry (PCO) at Salus University, was one of 24 participants in the AOSA Optometry Student Bowl XXXI powered by EssilorLuxottica, a competitive game-show style tradition designed for students to show off their knowledge of optometry at the annual conference June 15-18 in Chicago.

It turned out one had to be quicker than quick to compete in a contest that was akin to Jeopardy on steroids.

“I knew it was a game of speed, but I thought it was a game of speed after the entire question had been read,” said Mishley.

The challenge was anticipating what the entire question would be, and then reacting before the question was fully displayed on the presentation screen.

“They read them out but the question didn’t appear on the presentation screen until after the moderator finished reading the question,” said Mishley. “So almost no questions actually got put on the screen because people were buzzing in before the question was completely read.

The first three contestants to buzz in had the opportunity to answer the question in descending order until the correct answer was given. And, although Mishley knew the answers to most of the questions asked during the competition, she was able to buzz into the top three only two times, and in neither instance did she get a chance to answer the question.

There had been a little pressure on Mishley going into the national competition. PCO/Salus alum Tyler Lesko, OD ‘22, won the competition last year so PCO/Salus was the defending championship school.

“Some of the other contestants were like, ‘Well, the pressure is on you because you’re the defending champion’s school,’” said Mishley. “And, I was like, ‘I didn’t personally win last year.’”

Although she didn’t bring home the crystal trophy, she was able to enjoy other parts of the conference as well, attending professor-led lectures from across the country, meeting students from other optometry colleges and universities, gathering information and resources, and taking in all that the exhibit hall had to offer.

Overall, the Student Bowl competition was a good experience, Mishley said.

“It was really fun, and all the contestants were great. They were all so friendly. It was a very high-energy atmosphere. A lot of bright lights and on-the-spot thinking,” she said. “It was definitely worth it.”

In addition to PCO/Salus’ participationin the Student Bowl and presentations by PCO/Salus faculty members, the University also held an alumni reception at the conference. President Michael H. Mittelman, OD ‘80, MPH, FAAO, FACHE, updated alumni on the University, including announcing that Salus has created a scholarship honoring longtime educators, Drs. Jeffrey and Neal Nyman

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The University is also looking forward to hosting a special continuing education event and reception May 7, 2023.