Scotlight

A weekly inside look at the unique faces and personalities that make up The College of Wooster Community

Introduce yourself!

Hey, I’m Izzy! I was born in 2001. I’m a senior majoring in neurobiology and I have a sexy little minor in music. I’m almost out of here. 

What are you involved in on campus?

I am the president of Delta Theta Psi, the president of Neuro Club, in the Wooster Symphony Orchestra, a hospice volunteer and work as a Senior Admissions Intern.

Tell me about your I.S.! 

Basically I’m studying how epilepsy works in humans using fruit flies. There’s a specific channel that I’m figuring out how to block/otherwise manipulate to make the “epileptic” fly’s seizures stop – if I can make that seizure stop, understanding the specific ions/other stuff that channel needs to move seizures through the brain could give some insight into how new medication could be made for humans with epilepsy in the future (this is a huge simplification of a lot of stuff I don’t fully understand yet; Dr. Kelly, please don’t read this). 

What advice do you have for juniors as a current senior working on I.S.?

Everything junior year was going so wrong for me. I had no real passions in my major and had no idea what I wanted to do. I love my major but was struggling to come up with a research question to ask that was related to it. Every step of my junior I.S. went wrong and I barely got out of there. I was still very unsure of what my I.S. topic was going to be when I finished my junior I.S. Even in the fall of this year, I was trying a bunch of stuff in the lab and always felt like I had no idea what I was talking about. But, I just kept trying things and now it’s working fine this spring. I am finally getting good data and enjoying what I am researching. So basically, it might suck for a long time but it will be fine! If you get to choose your own advisor, choose based on personality because that remains a constant while what you want to study may constantly change. 

What are your plans for after graduation?

Against all odds, I did get into medical school. I will be going to Ohio University for med school, living it up in Athens. I probably will not be thriving and cannot say that this will be a fun journey, but it definitely will be a time of character growth and development. My grandparents did not have access to any doctors as children, and it is my goal to help people like them that do not have access to healthcare providers all the time or maybe don’t trust the healthcare system that much. 

What is your favorite part about Wooster?

For me personally, it would have to be the schoolwide vandalism that comes with stealing a brick after turning in I.S. I allegedly will be doing this. 

What is something that you are currently fighting for?

I love this campus so much and feel that we are all connected in some way, but many, many people here were raised wrong. We have got to start knocking on bathroom doors. It is more polite to the person in the bathroom, giving them more of a heads up than a violent shaking of the handle or the thump of a shoulder smashing into the door at full force. It also prevents you from looking like an ass, so I would say it is a win-win. I know we can do it. Knock on bathroom doors. 

Anything that you want to plug? Any PSAs for your fellow peers?

I am begging on my knees for people to run for the Neuro Club executive board and I would like to get up. It is not that hard, the advisor is always so supportive, and if you are an academic climber or applying to grad schools, it looks great on resumes. You can do whatever you want with this club. I will not be mad. The world is your oyster, enjoy it.