In Review: Game Show Guru

FORTUNATE ONE: Senior Karyssa Harris took a spin on Wheel of Fortune this winter. (Carol Kaelson/© 2021 Quadra Productions Inc. All rights reserved.)

Karyssa Harris ’21 has long enjoyed watching Wheel of Fortune on television and playing the legendary game on her smartphone. “I’m super into it,” she says.

In February, she played for real.

The developmental biology major from Carson City, California, was a contestant on the show during “College Week Spring Break,” which aired nationally in April. Harris solved two toss-up puzzles and earned $4,000.

“It was so surreal,” she says. “When my mother dropped me off at the studio the day of taping, I screamed before walking in.”

Harris had sent Wheel of Fortune two audition videos before receiving an email from a show representative last summer. She successfully auditioned again on Zoom.

Harris has been studying remotely in California since March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so the day of taping was an eye opener.

“They taped six shows that day, so there were about 20 college students there,” she says. “It’s the first time I’ve interacted with col-lege students since the pandemic hit.”

Harris is in the Rochester Early Medical Scholars (REMS) program, an eight-year program for select students that leads to a bache-lor’s degree from Arts, Sciences & Engineering and an MD from the School of Medicine and Dentistry.

She will return to the University this fall for medical school.

“I want to be a doctor,” she says. “I’m just not sure what kind yet.”