United States—Patrice Hicks focused her outreach event at the University of Utah on raising awareness on the importance of eye exams to the black community. Highlighting the eye diseases that disproportionally burden this community, she presented alongside Dr. Angela Elam, an ophthalmologist, who explained the clinical aspects of eye diseases and the impacts on this group. Hicks focused her presentation time on effectively communicating the research aspects, while also speaking about representation within ophthalmology and vision research. She concluded her remarks with a a call-to-action, highlighting why eye and vision research is crucial for minority communities. Promoted via flyers and emails to various listservs, Hicks says the only downside of her event was the inability to record due to university policy. She was still, "glad to see many thoughtful questions from those that attended the event" during the 20-minute Q&A session at the conclusion of her presentation.

United States—Play ball! Fellow Mayur Choudhary chose a unique, but appropriate audience for his presentation on physical eye safety—his fellow cricket players from the Triangle Cricket League (TCL) in the Raleigh, NC metro area! Presenting to a group 27 cricket players ages 8-45, Mayur captured their attention by tying his presentation to a beloved activity, covering everything from the effects of prolonged sun exposure on eye health (since cricket games can range anywhere from 4-8 hours), oxidative damage in the eye, the role of anti-oxidants on one's vision and how to protect oneself from physical injury during cricket. To keep the audience engaged, Mayur utilized videos of cricket and associated injuries, cross section images of eyes with oxidative damage. Mayur took advantage of his relationships within the TCL to facilitate event promotion, including using WhatsApp and emails from the league president. A post-event survey revealed Mayur's audience were able to understand his science communication and found the information useful and informative.

United States/India— "Appropriate planning, clear communication, and understanding the audience" are the three lessons Fellow Rohan Singh credits with the success of his outreach event. Over the course of January, Rohan organized a held a webinar with the goal of educating students in India and the United States about the paths available to them as they pursue research during medical school and as a postdoctoral fellow. Comprised of a 30-minute presentation and 15 minutes of discussion, Rohan introduced his audience to the goals, commitment associated with and process of research experience. Since he promoted the webinar widely through the use of flyers, Rohan notes, "At the beginning of the webinar, I asked the audience about their current level of training which helped me adjust the language of my presentation accordingly."

India —For her event, Priya took advantage of an ongoing intervention in her community through which to implement a health education intervention to establish a diabetes mellitus referral pathway. Presenting to a audience of health care personnel at at Scheer Memorial Hospital, Priya and her co-presenter team consisting of a Retina Specialist, Outreach Coordinator/Optometrist and Assistant Manager took turns communicating the symptoms, risk factors and and care pathways associated with diabetic retinopathy. Conducted virtually, the presentation benefited from several communication materials including a slide deck, posters, pamphlets and referral slips which carried Priya's message forward even after her live event.

Australia — Instead of one outreach event, Maria Cabrera-Aguas (University of Sydney) essentially planned three separate events through the ideation of the Sydney Eye Podcast. This was developed with the goal to educate the public, patients and carers/family members about corneal infections caused by bacteria and the herpes simplex virus, and antimicrobial resistance in ocular infections. Maria incorporated every aspect of the Fellowship to plan, promote and evaluate each of her three podcast episodes. Discussing how she incorporated key lessons from the webinar, Maria says, "Firstly, I defined my audience: layman people, patients and carers. I simplified the language used in the podcast by explaining and defining key words such as keratitis, cornea, and antimicrobial resistance. When I chose to do a podcast, I chose my voice, my guest’s voice and the music as the channel to communicate my message." Maria's impressive planning was bookended by her thorough metrics and evaluation she conducted across all six platforms on which the episodes were hosted. "The podcasts had a good reception considering the topic which may not be very trendy compared with COVID-19, mental health or how to lose weight," she says. "Particularly, I was very happy with the email response score of 8.7/10 for the third episode. The day of and the day after this email was sent, the downloads spiked. "

United States—Khang Huynh (University of Rochester) noticed a lack of local formal training opportunities for STEM students and trainees who are interested in policymaking. He partnered with the University of Rochester Science Policy Initiative (UR SPI) — an initiative that hosts a Hot Topics in Science Policy where members or guests are invited to advocate for issues requiring science-based solutions — to discuss the increase in myopia over the past 1/2 century and its intersection with education, urban planning and healthcare policies. "The event was successful in encouraging UR SPI members to learn about and conceive unique solutions to public health issues outside their expertise," says Khang. "I am curious to see how the responses of people without STEM training or those in grassroots community organizations differ from attendees of my event."

Germany—To accomplish her dual goal outreach event, Kristina Hess (University of Bonn) organized a Zoom presentation complete with a question & answer session as the end. Kristina spoke with 35 patients impacted by Pseudoxanthoma elasticum (PXE) to explain current therapeutics and their applicability PXE, and also to encourage her audience to participate in studies, if available. While developing content for her presentation, Kristina noted, " I deliberately thought about the audience and their perception of this topic...Additionally, I paid attention to adequate font and image sizes". Kristina's efforts helped her audience engage with the content and participate in an broad reaching question & answer session

United States—For her event, Katherine Andersh (University of Rochester) wanted to use her skills gained throughout the Fellowship to advocate for STEM education and the reduction of racial disparities in STEM. Katherine first developed a succinct one-pager overview of two New York state bills that addressed supporting minorities in STEM. Her one-pager followed an outline taught during the Fellowship to highlight key statistics and craft compelling key messaging. Katherine met with New York State Assembly Member Demond Meeks and members of his staff and engaged in dynamic discussions about his background, his goals for the local community. Katherine shared with him how she and several students had worked to bridge the gap between the scientific community in Rochester and the public. Assembly Member Meeks was supportive of Katherine's aims and he and his staff voiced support for them in the future.

United States—When Brian Thompson (Yale University) set out to develop his outreach event, he knew he wanted to do more than improve understanding—he wanted to inspire the next generation! Using the Moovly tool, Brian developed a video highlighting careers in vision science and medicine. Brian found the lessons from the Fellowship that were most helpful to him during this planning were audience identification and removing or defining jargon. "...It was challenging to make the video informative without having large blocks of text," says Brian. "I learned that I could overcome this challenge by including animations and infographics. These lessons will certainly be incorporated into my science communication ‘toolbelt’!"

United States—Arathy Katha (Ultra Low Vision Lab, Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine) set out to conduct an outreach event that would educate her audience about low vision and the technologies that can help assess visual impairment, such as virtual reality. Normally held in-person, Arathy conducted her event through a virtual Science SLAM, an event organized by Project Bridge and Baltimore Under Ground Science Space (BUGSS), and garnered ~40 participants. In true socially distanced fashion, Arathy said one of the biggest lessons learned throughout her planning was how technical aptitude is now an essential skill for science communication.

Australia—Divya Jagadish (Brien Holden Vision Institute, University of New South Wales) also too advantage of the resurgence of podcasts and radio during the pandemic and communicated her science via a radio broadcast by the Australian Broadcast Corporation (ABC) hosted by science journalist, Robyn Williams. During her segment, Divya informed audiences about myopia, using her own research to provide unique insights. She also used her time to encourage her broad audience to engage in outdoor activities to delay the onset of myopia, and also spoke to the exciting field of research as a career path for her younger audience members. Divya was especially diligent tracking the success of her promotional efforts, a topic covered throughout the Fellowship. "Organizing an outreach event was the most challenging part of this program," says Divya, "but at the same time the most effective way to design and implement communication of your science to a wider audience. "

Australia—Pauline Khoo (University of Sydney) noticed a lack of information available to students interested in pursuing a career in research. Using her outreach event as an opportunity to address this, Pauline reached out to the to the UNSW Optometry and Vision Science faculty, who was already organizing a student conference, to compose and conduct a research component as part of the program. The event was attended by over 100 engaged students, to which Pauline presented on various research career pathways and how to pursue them. This success of this event was evident, as Pauline noted, "At the end of my workshop, there were numerous questions asked by students and I even had a few students email me who were interested in my projects."

United States—Hoping to combine her history of serving with the Animals in Research Committee and chairing its publications sub-committee with her outreach event, Cornelia Peterson (Johns Hopkins University) reached out to her alma mater, The Ohio State University, to establish a platform through which she could communicate the importance and ethical use of animals in eye and vision research within an existing biomedical ethics course. Cornelia's goal of educating her audience (a mix of optometry students and physician residents in graduate programs, all with varying degrees of animal research experience) on the history of animal research was complemented with ethical examples and an overview of the evolution of regulations and legislation around animals in research.