End of Year 2.

I had an incredible sophomore year. I learned so much more and got to really solidify my place on this campus. I was appointed Philanthropy Chair in my fraternity which I am very excited about. I made incredible friends and got to meet wonderful people who are in greek life. I wrote a post about my experience in BuckeyeThon and how much I have grown from my experience this far. I am applying for a brand new director position for the new committee on Columbus engagement. I know it is a wonderful opportunity that will positively impact BuckeyeThon for the indefinite future. I think I am a very good fit for it and I have learned quite a bit from our Current Leadership team about the effort needed to help our battle against pediatric cancer.

I was reminded how important my studies are. I had a few setbacks in the fall semester that hurt my standings in my courses. I ended up receiving grades that I was very unhappy with, and I feel are an inaccurate representation of myself as a student, so I put forth all my effort and completely rebalanced all aspects of my life for the spring semester. I am striving to earn a 4.0 GPA once final exams are solidified. I have never achieved this before and I am very close to reaching the goal.

The Coronavirus pandemic has made this semester unlike any other. I have been lucky enough to be safe in my home in Maryland but unfortunately I lost all 3 of my jobs. My professors have been very considerate and accommodating, and I have made sure that my studies are still a priority in quarantine. I am feeling confident in my final grades.

I sent the entire Spring semester and part of Fall searching for an internship. After a long and heavy search I had nothing but dead ends in early March. Luckily enough in mid April, an Insurance Operations position with Branch Insurance in downtown Columbus opened up, and I just accepted an offer for this Summer. This position can be worked remotely and it is the perfect fit for what I was looking for. I am extremely excited to experience this coming Summer and to see what my first semester of Junior year has in store for me.

My experience in BuckeyeThon.

I really want to talk about the emotional and personal depth I have developed within my experiences from BuckeyeThon now that we have concluded our 2020 Dance Marathon. I am incredibly proud of having been able to raise money last year as a team member and the being selected as a General Body Member this past year. I got to lend a hand in a multitude of areas and I ended up being place on the Family Relations Committee. This is a group of students who divert all their efforts to taking care of our sponsored families and making sure they are properly represented at our events and by our organization. I got to make and decorate the ribbons, 1 per BT kid representing all of their interests that we showcase in a display that also pays tribute to our Angel kids/families. Leading up to the night before the Dance Marathon, I was able to fundraise $1,000 which I am so incredibly proud of. It was a very emotional moment for me. At the actual Dance Marathon I am in the Union awake from Noon on Friday through Midnight Saturday. For 2/3rds of the time I spend time hosting a few of our BT Kids and their Family Members throughout the event. They get to explore the entire building and our 20+ simultaneous activities. They also get plenty of ceremonies and special moments dedicated to them. It was one of the most emotional weeks I have had and I am beyond grateful to be a part of a wonderful organization, and getting to know the incredible people sponsoring our families, as well as getting to know the families.

G.O.A.L.S. Update & Career Plan Reflection

My GOALS have certainly been expanded and polished as I have completed my first half at The Ohio State University. My Global Awareness has been heightened through my coursework and discussions within courses at the John Glenn College of Public Affairs. I also took some cultural courses including Mafia Movies (Italian), Fan Fiction (World Literature), Spanish 1155, International Business, and Criticizing Television which broadened my awareness. I have been lucky to take part in campus organizations that have a wonderful appreciation and mixture of students with unique cultural backgrounds and really provides a space where we all get to share our sense of identity. For Original Inquiry, I have really excelled my course work, pushing it forward and getting to my specialization coursework. For Academic Enrichment, I continue to enroll in courses within the John Glenn School of Public Affairs to diversify my knowledge, my studies, and my writing capabilities.

I have excelled in Leadership Development and Service Opportunities. I have been appointed my fraternity’s Philanthropy Chair and will have plenty of service opportunities to provide my chapter with for my Junior year. I have taken up the Stewardship Coordinator Position within BuckeyeThon’s Family Relations Committee which allows me to take care of the families we sponsor and organize social events for them.

For Career reflection, I have really solidified my plans to explore the Insurance Industry after graduation. I am unsure if I’ll want to start with wider area’s such as Life & Health or Property, as well as the unique career paths I can follow from those. Scholars has taught me leadership skills as well as networking opportunities. I am pursuing plenty of internships this semester for the upcoming summer. It is hard to find an opportunity in Insurance as a Sophomore so I am also looking at Bus Management, Accounting, and Finance positions as well. Any work at all Sophomore year is helpful. I am excited to see what comes from it.

End of Year 1

At the end of my first year here at Ohio State, I had an incredible experience. I got to learn about the unique specialities within the Fisher College of Business, and after deciding among International Business, Insurance, Accounting, and Finance, I chose Insurance. I felt quite a few of my peers were pursuing Accounting and Finance, I needed something that would provide me with a really unique perspective in an area of study not often offered by other schools. I decided I would pursue a double major in Public Affairs with the John Glenn College.

My extracurriculars were an exciting source of personal growth. I have really enjoyed living with my friend in the Dunn Sports & Wellness Scholars program up on the 13th floor of Morrill Tower. Not many college students can say they had 11 other roommates in a dorm. I got to see unique offerings from Ohio State and build social mobility through the Buckeye Leadership Fellows Foundations program. My favorite was pledging Theta Chi fraternity. It is a wonderful group of aspiring young men and it really helped me make connections and friends on such a large campus.

I have been working at the student union as an Audio Visual Technician. I got to work the BuckeyeThon Dance Marathon, Ohio’s largest student-run philanthropy focusing on pediatric cancer. I also fundraised and we collectively raised $1.7+ Million which is incredible. Working that event was very inspiring and I think I will apply to their General Body for next year. I would be remiss if I did not take part in such an incredible opportunity and get to make even more friends.

I loved my first year and I am beyond excited for my upcoming sophomore year at The Ohio State University.

Buckeyethon!

This year I participated in all aspects of Buckeyethon. I pledged and raised $601 for the event and was a member of our DSWS team wearing Orange attending the Grey day shift on Saturday. I loved the event and realizing how much good it does for families and children that are tragically diagnosed with cancer and similar diseases and afflictions.

I actually was at 100% of Buckeyethon for both shifts. I am an Audio-Visual Technician at the Union so I was on duty for the entire Scarlet shift. It was at this point where I enjoyed the event the most and truly felt like a Buckeye. I worked the audio console for the Great Hall and the best part of that was playing each honored child’s theme song as they ran down the red carpet with Brutus. After that the rave hour when you are exhausted but have hit a huge pump of adrenaline was exciting as a tech, I got to dance around with my managers and coworkers.

The scarlet shift is absolutely electric. It is much better than the grey shift and has twice the amount of participants. Buckeyethon reminded me of how much work my grandmother had put into that hospital and how it is a beacon of hope for families all over the country.

Allstate Hot Chocolate Run

I got the 2nd half of my semester volunteer hours (6 hours, 5:45am – 12pm) volunteering for Downtown Columbus’s Hot Chocolate Run on Sunday November 18th. This was a fundraiser put on by Allstate Insurance and the Make A Wish Foundation. I volunteered with my fellow scholars, Amanda Acosta, Jordan Ndeli, Madhurima Kota, and Anna Mattei. We were on the chocolate mug duty, which entailed us to fill the goody mugs with chocolate fondue, wafers, bananas, marshmallows, and hot chocolate. Once the goody mugs were filled, they were given to the runners at the finish line tent as a celebration. This event was a lot of fun because everyone was cheery and many of the volunteers in the tent were Ohio State students!

DSWS Day of Service

For my first 5 volunteering hours of the semester were completed during the DSWS Day of Service on Saturday November 17th from 12-5pm. I was in the group that helped the Rock City Church’s Dream Center initiative. This was the group that was hosting a Thanksgiving meal for low-income and homeless Columbus citizens. At the church, my group helped fill and organize the goody bags that would be given to all of the people who attended the thanksgiving dinner. The bags were filled with socks, toothpaste, toothbrush, soap, etc. After we filled the bags we organized their storage room which had toiletries and non-perishables, along with a lot of coats. Around 3pm we then mobilized into some neighborhoods nearby and passed out the flyers notifying people of the free thanksgiving dinners.

I really enjoyed this service opportunity and it reminded me how much I loved volunteering in high school. I will be looking to join a service group on campus next semester, or try and implement a service aspect into an organization that I will be involved in after next semester.

Track Group Meeting 10-25-18

My first track group meeting was on Thursday Oct 25th at 7-8pm in the RPAC meeting rooms. I am in the business track group, which is led by Emily Callicotte, Alex Rowland, Mackenzie Wells, and Abigail Schmitt. For our first meeting we just got to know each other and the leaders talked about their experience so far in Fisher. They gave us a document with class suggestions that are both interesting and will help to make our course load lighter. I am excited to learn from these upperclassmen about the inner workings of Fisher and how to be successful in our majors!

True Colors Reflection

The true colors activity done in our leadership class was very interesting to see how my fellow scholars panned out. I had preconceived notions of which color that many of my peers would identify with. Maybe A was Orange when I actually thought they would be Blue based on previous interactions, meanwhile B I thought to be Yellow and they in fact were! Taking the indicator exam which was a scale based on groupings of adjectives was a successful determinant for which colors people act as. I tied between Blue and Orange which meant that I was very in tune with my emotions, crave deep bonds, and tried to be a ball of radiating positivity. However I also spend just as much effort into being open-minded, skillful, and considerate of others.  I’ve already been applying this to our playful Dunn Scholars community. I am always roaming from Morrill’s suites on our exclusive 13th floor, doing my best to engage with everyone in the program. People will call my name as I walk to the door and ask how I am, prompting the memorable “Sensational” response they hear in return. I love discussing most anything will my fellow mates and learning of their viewpoints in relation to my own. This helps me to become more considerate and insightful in my goal of becoming Well-Rounded and a positive contributor to the Dunn Scholars community.

Leadership: Its importance to me

I believe I’ve had a very special and unique high school experience. One of the organizations and activities I devoted a heaping amount of tine to was the rebuilding of Annapolis High School’s Key Club. I joined sophomore year with 15 students and then the club fell with a massive staff turnover, yet by Senior Graduation, I was the president watching over 132 recognized members. It even earned me recognition from The City’s Humanitarian Commission and US Senator Chris Van Hollen. I learned an absolute ton about who I am as a person, and all of the different types of people that I am around. My most coveted event was the Santa Run which was an exciting toy drive I started, jointed with the Annapolis Fire Department. This past Christmas was our 3rd annual one. We’d raised either 1 or 2,000 toys, and then our 25 most dedicated members were selected to become “Elves” at “Santa’s Workshop” (a big secret warehouse where the toys were stored). There every person would get a child’s age and gend and pick 1 big item, and 2 small things to add to their Christmas bag. It’s the most talked about event and every participant is always elated.

It’s Leadership because I was the President of the club and the organizer. It’s also leadership because I was setting an example for the underclassmen on events they can do to become involved in their community and give back!

Key Club’s 2017 Christmas Party

All the Key Club Members who attended the 2017 Santa Run.

Key Club’s Vice President Allie picking out stuffed animals.