Hannah Johnson is a senior at Western Washington University from Bellevue, Washington. Her major is biology and anthropology with a minor in psychology, set to graduate in fall and take the optometry world by storm!
At a young age, Johnson knew she was squeamish around blood but remained determined to go into the pre-med field. She drew inspiration from attending her uncle’s practice and found her passion for eyes. “I really want to be a vision therapist. It’s a type of neurodevelopmental therapy to help little kids with vision problems (like a cross eye) help retrain their eyes. I spent my freshman and sophomore year shadowing as many optometrists as possible,”Johnson says.
Currently, Johnson is copresident of the i-Care club, an organization she became involved with sophomore year. “The purpose of our club is to help other optometry students survive the application process and the pre-optometry process,” Johnson says. Everyone needs a certain amount of community service coming in so why not do it together? It was really awesome getting involved with the club. I could go nerd out at these club meetings and talk about what I loved about eyes!”
The i-Care club also works closely with The Frank Haskell Lion’s Eye Clinic, a free clinic for low income applicants. “Many of the Lion’s Club members are retired optometrists who still want to help the community, but don’t want to practice. What the clinic does is really cool, people can come in and get a free eye exam and free glasses, which would usually cost hundreds of dollars,” Johnson says. They can come in and see real optometrists who are licensed in the area that come and volunteer their time. It’s just so awesome, clients get treated with dignity for the amount of time they’re in. Everyone walks away so happy. They look so much more professional, they can get jobs easier, they can see better.”
Johnson also plans on attending a mission trip with the Lion’s Club to El Salvador in September and is involved in a glasses drive on campus. “We thought we’d collect glasses to bring with because solely they’re (the Lion’s Club) nonprofit, we only get glasses from donations so I thought trying Western would be great. The more glasses we have, the higher chance the prescription will be closer to what the person in El Salvador needs,” Johnson says. “The glasses drive on campus is running until the end of the month but we are constantly intaking glasses from the community. We collect them all year round; I go to estate sales and pick up glasses. My trunk is full of them, all the time. Western students don’t think they can help because they don’t all wear glasses but El Salvador also needs sunglasses for UV protection. If students ever wanted to learn more they can email our club at icc.wwu.gmail.com.” Johnson will be attending El Salvador as an ophthalmic assistant. “I’ll be running pretests for the doctors, and then we’ll have the machines over there to give full eye exams and eye health exams,”Johnson says.
On top of Johnson’s work with i-Care and the Frank Haskell Lion’s Eye Clinic, she has a job with Optometric Physician’s Northwest as the insurance benefits coordinator. “Before clients start vision therapy, it’s my job to call their insurance company and ask series of questions to ensure insurance can’t go back on their promises,” Johnson says. “It’s definitely strengthened me. I wanted to learn about the business side of optometry. Now I understand how the system works more.”
As far as the future goes, Johnson hopes to attend Pacific University. “My uncle went there and I hope to follow in his footsteps,”Johnson says.
Johnson’s words of wisdom for students are to make friends in your major or field of study. “It’s been really fun for me to find a whole new friend group in the sciences. I’ll have the same study group all quarter and it’s great having your walls down. You can let it consume your life, but why live with constant anxiety. People forget the world will not explode if you don’t pass a class,” Johnson says. “Practice with people, constantly help each other out. You have to give as much help to others as you want to get back. I definitely wouldn’t do as well if I couldn’t rely heavily on other people. Don’t let it consume you, but work so hard. It’ll pay off eventually and it will get easier over time.”