There is more that meets the eye with Wright State graduate Elizabeth Harris, who will mainly see blue, green, hazel and brown in her future career in optometry.
Most people do not reap much from failing a portion of their driver’s license test, but Harris found her career path after being told she had to visit the eye doctor before getting her license. That was the beginning of her fascination with learning how contacts and glasses help the eyes. “I didn’t think about this (career path) until I started to wear contacts, and glasses and contacts became very intriguing to me,” said Harris, who graduated in May. She will continue her education at the Southern College of Optometry in Tennessee this fall.
In high school, she had a good biology teacher who piqued her interest in biology. With the combination of a good teacher and a failed eye exam, Harris pursued her new interest in an undergraduate degree in biological sciences at Wright State to better understand how the body works specifically with the eyes and brain. She likes how complex the eyes are. “It’s such an essential sense,” Harris said.
Harris is interested in vision therapy, helping individuals by training their brain and eyes to work together. “The light filters through the eyes, but it’s the brain that really sees,” she said. She explained the process of vision with the brain and eyes. “It basically involves light passing through your eyes through the pupil where it strikes the retina and activates the rod and cone cells that enable vision. They then pass the signal through the optic nerve, which sends the signal to the visual cortex in the brain that translates the image,” she said.
She was involved in many activities in the Wright State community, including intramural soccer, the Campus Crusade for Christ ministry, Premed Society and Biology Club. She also plays the guitar and piano.
Harris is interested in vision therapy, helping individuals by training their brain and eyes to work together. “The light filters through the eyes, but it’s the brain that really sees,” she said. As an optometrist, she will work with patients who have lazy eye, traumatic injuries and diseases affecting the eyes.
Both of Harris’ parents are Wright State alumni and her two siblings also attend the university. At Wright State, Harris was able to work in the research lab of Daniel Organisciak, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, where she intensely studied the biology of how the eyes work on a microscopic level. “Wright State has a lot of great opportunities, she said. “It’s small enough where you don’t feel like just another number without it being too small.”
