Alyson Dahl
When 2025 Council Scholarship recipient Alyson Dahl was 15, she received news that no teen wants to hear: Alyson would be unable to get a driver’s license due to her vision loss. Alyson was diagnosed with coloboma just a few weeks after she was born and has had low vision her entire life. Because she couldn’t drive, Alyson learned how to get where she needed to go safely, and to fully use the few public transportation options available to her in Pleasant Prairie.
While Alyson says it was difficult at first for her to accept that she wouldn’t be able to get a driver’s license, it did motivate her to apply for college somewhere more friendly to pedestrians. There are few places better suited for nondrivers than New York City, and that’s where Alyson will be living this fall as she attends New York University (NYU) with the intention of getting on the school’s pre-med track.
“Right now, I live in a suburb, which means there is no bus stop near me and few rideshare options available,” Alyson says. “I have to rely on other members of my family to get to where I need to go a lot of the time, and that doesn’t really allow me much independence. New York is one of the best cities in the country for public transit, so that really encouraged me to apply to NYU.”
Alyson attended LakeView Technology Academy, a vocational high school in nearby Kenosha, where she joined the school’s SkillsUSA club. SkillsUSA is a workforce development organization for students that hosts a variety of competitions across the state. Alyson says that when not preparing for competitions or working with local restaurants to plan fundraisers, the group helped her learn crucial problem-solving and critical thinking skills. “Not only was the club fun, but we learned so much too,” she says. “Everything we did really helped me to understand what I needed to know to have a successful career after college.”
Alyson hopes that after completing her pre-med studies at NYU, she can continue on to medical school, specifically for adolescent medicine. As someone who has experienced health issues herself throughout high school, she says joining NYU’s prestigious medical program felt personal. “It took a while for them to diagnose what was wrong with me, and that whole experience was so draining,” Alyson says. “It made me really think about ways I could help other people who were in my shoes feel less stranded.”
While living in New York will offer Alyson plenty of public transportation options, those options are not free. In addition to books and tuition, she says some of her Council Scholarship funds will go toward securing regular transportation around the Big Apple. “NYU has always been a dream of mine, and this scholarship is a huge opportunity for me to have the freedom to get around independently,” Alyson says.
The Council has been awarding scholarships to postsecondary students who are blind or low vision for decades. You can find more information about our scholarship program at WCBlind.org/Events/Scholarships.