My Artifacts and Experiences my Second year at OSU

(3 Artifacts)

Coming into Ohio State as a second year, I wanted to get more involved in residence life to improve all resident’s experience at OSU. In order to do this, I joined RHAC’s (The Residence Halls Advisory Council) Finance Committee, F.U.N (The Residence on Tenth’s Hall Council), and worked as an OWL (Ohio State Welcome Leader). As a member of the RHAC finance committee, we look over grant requests that are aimed to better OSU’s residents’ experience living on campus and decide how much of our funds we can contribute to make those programs possible. As a member of the hall council for The Residence on Tenth’s Hall Council we review possible activities we can do to strengthen the bond between the residence halls and their residents. Creating bonds among upperclassmen at OSU can be hard when everyone already has established friendship groups their freshman year. Continuing to find and form more friendships is something that is important to me. In order to accomplish this, I worked as an OWL before school started. Not only did I help residents move in, I also helped create a community for us to all move into.

In order to broaden my horizons I attended a lecture of the author Wil Haygood, coming as a guest speaker to OSU. During the lecture he focused on presenting his new book Showdown: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court Nomination That Changed America. He not only discussed the books he wrote, he also discussed the many issues facing and faced by the African American community regarding representation, discrimination, and barriers to equality in society. By going the the lecture of Wil Haygood I learned that I, as an Arab, Palestinian, and Muslim, resonate with many of these issues that African Americans faced and continue to face in United States of America

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One of my goals for this year was to obtain a Resident Advisor position at OSU. I am happy to say that I was chosen to be an RA for next year at Morrison Tower. I am excited for the position as I will get to help welcome (back) students to OSU and have a hand in creating an inclusive and active community at Morrison and on my floor. In addition, this position will help improve my leadership skills.

This year I was able to take my first trip to Canada, specifically Toronto, as an International Affairs Scholar. This trip allowed me to see a new country I have never seen before and broaden my horizons. Two of the most educational places I went two while in Toronto were the Royal Ontario Museum and the Aga Khan Museum. The Royal Ontario Museum was not only interesting but it was filled with many artifacts and relics that allowed me to visualize the past. In addition, the Aga Khan museum taught me a lot about the different Spiritual beliefs of a branch of Islam as well as art around the Islamic world.