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Year in Review
Now that I am closing out my sophomore year of college, it is hitting me that I am halfway through getting my degree. I am only one year from applying to medical schools, and choosing my path for the next four years after my undergraduate career. This year has been transformational for me in one main way. I am more and more confident that I have chosen the right path, and look even more forward to pursuing medicine.
I took my first Biochemistry course in Spring 2017, and it reinforced my decision to be a Biochemistry major. Not only am I doing well in the class, but I find the material extremely interesting and I look forward to studying it more, instead of dreading the next two years. The next course, which covers metabolism, will hopefully also be relevant to my research and give me some new ideas and allow me to connect with our research more than I have been able to thus far.
This brings me to reflect on one of the GOALS of Honors, Original Inquiry. I have been a part of the Stanford Lab in the Physiology and Cell Biology Department, and Davis Heart and Lung Research Institute since January of 2016. I have gained valuable exposure to research through working under Dr. Kristin Stanford, and am now working on an undergraduate thesis project. We are looking particularly at how exercise in mother’s affects the metabolic health of their offspring, and determining the mechanism of this effect. I am going to be staying in Columbus over the summer of 2017 to do as much work on this project as I can. This experience has been a large part of my college experience so far, and will continue to be as I plan on pursuing my research until graduation.
A thesis project is one of my aspects of Academic Enrichment as well. It is tied into my hopes of going to medical school, for which research experience is a positive to have on your CV. Working on this project is giving me a chance to learn more about the real world, as well as explore what research would be like as a career alternative to medicine. Beyond this experience I am building a curriculum that is geared towards medical school while pursuing my own interests. I am deeply interested in proteins and their importance for basically every bodily function, which has resulted in my choice of major, Biochemistry. The first course has given me a glimpse of this and the complexity of our bodies, making me only more hungry to learn more. I am also completing a minor in Classical Humanities, as I have always been fascinated by Greek and Roman mythology and how these ancient cultures still have influence on our world today. Along with this, my courses have taken me in several directions to broaden my experiences, as I am going to be taking a second sociology course, will have experience in molecular genetics, microbiology and HIV, dinosaurs, epidemiology, and german films from the holocaust. My planned curriculum takes me well beyond the required hours of upper level course work, while being in subject areas that are personally engaging for me, and putting me in good position to continue on to medical school after graduation.
These varying courses contribute to my Global Awareness as well. My courses in sociology, anthropology, epidemiology, HIV, and classics are opening my eyes to different perspectives from around the world. Ideas, perspectives, and local issues from Africa, the Mediterranean, South America, and more are all becoming a part of my own cultural log book. In addition to this, I am still not giving up on the chance to do research, an internship, or study abroad in Denmark, to increase my understanding of European life, delve deeper into my own family’s background, and search for ways that Europe and the United States may work together to help the rest of the world, especially in health care. My biggest hope is to get an internship with Novo Nordisk in Copenhagen to experience the pharmaceutical industry, not just for my own career interests, but also to get a feel for the global distribution of pharmaceuticals, the business side of it, and how we can improve access to life-saving drugs.
My Leadership Development experiences have been mainly two things, I served as vice captain of our club tennis team for one semester, and was recently elected to serve as Treasurer for the club for the next academic year. These experiences have been important for me not only to gain leadership experience, but to have an opportunity to try to improve our club tennis experience and club in general. As Vice Captain I was able to help run practices and make sure our tournaments ran smoothly, and as Treasurer I hope to be able to steer the club in the right direction in terms of our finances to make sure we can continue to do all of the things that have made my club tennis experience so far one of my favorite parts of college. I am also the President and Founder of a club on campus called Odysseys of Change. This experience has given me the chance to really see what it is like to lead a team, and has been a great learning process. I have had to navigate the universities policies, as well as recruit other members and get a club started from scratch, gather resources, and make connections. While we are still in the infancy stage, it has been a great experience, and hopefully by the time I graduate I will be leaving a club that can be sustained by some great successors, with programs in place that I can be proud of.
Odysseys of Change will also play a big role in my Service Engagement. We hope to function as an organization that uses Classics/Mythology and the Arts for social activism and service. I was inspired to found the organization by a group called the Medea Project, founded and run by Rhodessa Jones in San Diego. With the help of one of my Classics professors, Dr. Tom Hawkins, who is now the advisor for the organization, I have been able to gain some connections and a vision for what we can do. My hopes are that we can establish a theater group with the Columbus HIV community, do work with the Nisonger center for children with Autism in the Wexner Medical Center, and use mythology as a way to get kids interested in reading in Columbus schools. In addition to this organization, I have been active volunteering for political organizations, especially for the Hillary Clinton campaign in the election season of 2016. Over this summer, I hope to get a volunteer position in one of the free clinics in Columbus. I will also be looking into volunteer positions at Riverside Hospital.
This year has been a great year for my academic development as well as for my confidence in my career choice. In conclusion, I am confident I am on the right path to achieve my goal of medical school, as well as graduate as a successful, engaged member of the Honors community with experience in all of the GOALS areas, with honors research distinction.
G.O.A.L.S.
The G.O.A.L.S are a central part of the honors experience at Ohio State. My experience here will be shaped by my approaches to each of the five G.O.A.L.S. which I hope to fulfill doing things I can use in the future.
The first goal is global awareness. I hope to study abroad in Denmark as part of this goal. I already speak Danish and have been to the country before, but actually living there and going to school would be a totally different experience. Not only will I be able to explore my own family’s background but I will also have a head start in understanding the cultures of Europe since I will be able to understand the language. I also have significant interest in taking courses like anthropology and classics which incorporate world history and the study of cultures different from our own.
Original Inquiry is perfect for my future; in which I hope to be doing research. Ohio State has a wealth of opportunities for this, and I hope to get a research position with a faculty member in the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department or at the Wexner Medical Center. I also plan on applying for a program at Cincinnati Children’s called SURF which would be a great opportunity to work with world class faculty in health fields like pediatrics that I hope to be a part of someday. These experiences may lead to me being able to apply for funding through the university to perform my own research.
The A stands for academic enrichment, which is inherent in the honors program. As part of my general education requirements I am planning on taking upper level courses in addition to the honors course requirement. I also plan on adding a minor in addition to the biochemistry major which would allow me to explore topics both of more interest to me, or which would add another element to my pursuit of medical school, minors like classics, public health, or earths sciences with a specialization in paleontology. Outside of the classroom I plan to get an internship which would help me discover how my education is used in the real world.
Leadership development will be important if I ever hope to move up in a company should I go the route of corporate R&D, and in general good skills to have. The internship aforementioned would hopefully also come with opportunities to display my intuition or to lead a project. On top of that I am already a member of club tennis, and plan on joining College Democrats and maybe other organizations where I will have an opportunity to organize and lead a group with similar interests.
My service engagement will come from the Wexner Medical Center and Club Tennis, and hopefully other opportunities I am not aware of yet. Club Tennis organizes several events to help the Columbus area and volunteers at other events. As a student I have the unique opportunity of being a college volunteer at the Wexner Medical Center and the James Cancer Hospital. These opportunities are not only service opportunities, but are also vital experiences in my development as a potential member of the medical community and will help me decide on the path I wish to pursue whether it be that of a doctor or researcher.
The G.O.A.L.S. are important for the honors program to help develop students with more than an education. They are a part of how a student develops hopes for the future and learns more about themselves, and what they are capable of doing. I hope my experiences centered on the G.O.A.L.S. become reality not just because they are good learning opportunities and are fundamental to the honors program, but because they have real benefits I will be able to reap while doing things I really enjoy.
Career
[“Career” is where you can collect information about your experiences and skills that will apply to your future career. Like your resume, this is information that will evolve over time and should be continually updated. For more information, go to: http://honors-scholars.osu.edu/e-portfolio. Delete these instructions and add your own post.]
Artifacts
Johan Poster DHLRI Research Day Final-1t0yzel
This poster is one that I have presented at several research days for Dr. Stanford so far. I only did a bit of the work, but it represents to me the potential in the thesis project I am working on, and could result in a publication with my name as an author. Being a part of the Stanford lab has been one of the defining experiences of my college career, and I hope to continue presenting posters of our work in the future.
About Me
My name is Johan Harris, and I am from Loveland, OH. I am an incoming freshman at OSU and am majoring in Biochemistry. My hopes have been to become a pediatrician in the past, but those are quickly being challenged and altered, perhaps for a future in research or material science. Throughout high school, I enjoyed science, but AP Chemistry really showed me the incredible potential of the atom and my teacher’s passion really convinced me to major in biochemistry.
Sports, on the other hand, have always been a passion for me. I played soccer until middle school, when I realized I enjoyed tennis a lot more, and the feeling of having complete control of my own destiny as the only player on the court. Though I still follow soccer closely, tennis immediately impacted my life. I spent four years on the high school varsity team, many hours spent at the Club at Harpers Point, and got the opportunity to see the world’s best play every summer at the Western and Southern Open just twenty minutes from our house. I also worked at my club as a children’s tennis instructor, and a receptionist since the summer after sophomore year.
I am also proud to say I am bilingual, and a dual-citizen. My mom is from Denmark, and she taught me and my brothers how to speak Danish simply by speaking it to us from the second we were born. I am fluent, and hope to spend some time on study abroad in Denmark to utilize and further develop my language skills, like learning to read and write danish even better than I am able to now. We have traveled to Denmark every summer to visit my mom’s family there, and some of my best memories are of parties we have had at my grandparents’ house with all of our cousins playing soccer in the backyard.
While at OSU I hope to continue tennis by being on the club team, and hopefully finding ways to get involved at the Wexner Medical center or in research labs. I know that I will have to go out and find what interests me most, and OSU will be a great place to do exactly that. I am really looking forward to being an Ohio State Buckeye, and continuing my exploration of the potential in the building blocks of the universe.