G.O.A.L.S.

The Honors & Scholars program here at Ohio State has the acronym G.O.A.L.S, which stands for Global awareness, Original inquiry, Academic Enrichment, Leadership development, and Service engagement. All of these are important to practice and implement in our everyday lives. However when it comes to my future, there are two that stick out the most to me. Those two are the global awareness, and the academic enrichment.

Global awareness is crucial in today’s society and tomorrow’s. Technology is bringing everybody together with the touch of a button. Cultures are blending together and the world becoming more and more unified everyday. In order to fully capitalize on this I must learn as much as I can about the world around me. Not just here in Columbus or in the United States. But I must learn as much as I can about cultures and trends all across the globe. The business I will do will most likely not just be domestic, but stretching all across the world. Data analytics is all about finding trends, and in order to serve my clients best, I should know what is popular and occurring in their region.

Academic enrichment also very important to me and my future. Data analytics is all about gathering as much information as possible and telling a story. The field is exploding currently and new and new applications are being discovered everyday in fields that one would never think of. Since it’s appearing in all of these fields, I must try to learn as much as I can about anything I can. Knowledge is power and the more I have gives me an edge.

Hackathon

On October 21st I participated in the Hack Ohio 2017 event at the student. This is a 24 hour hackathon where you have the freedom to create anything you want. This ranges from software, to hardware, and also companies were on site to offer their own problems and you design the solutions. I went with two other guys who were also STEM EE scholars. We came with the intention to make a dating site for awkward people. After designing the java background, we had trouble implementing it into an HTML site. The idea was scrapped, I spent the next couple of hours going around and talking to all the different companies, and I designed a program where you type in what you’re looking for in a computer and it displays a list of possible models that you would like.

The biggest impact hackathon had on me wasn’t what I coded or attempted to do. I spent the majority of the time walking around and seeing what other people were creating. I thought I knew a decent amount of coding, but after seeing what other people were building, it was almost intimidating. For example the guys next to us were creating their own version of Google Glasses. Seeing all of these project both excited and intimidated me. I was intimidated because I realized that I had thought I knew a good amount of programming, but I have just scratched the surface of coding. However, this mostly excited me, because all of these guys were older than me, they’ve taken more classes, and more importantly, they’ve taken/are taking classes that I will take. Which means that in the not so distant future I’ll have the knowledge to build my own form of Google Glasses, or solve a company’s hack.

Although currently my team and I weren’t able to contribute to the hackathon in a way that we wanted too, it made us excited for the classes we’ll take in the future. So one day we can create something worth while at the event.

Big Data Analytics Job Fair

 

Recently I went to a job fair sponsored by the Big Data Analytics Association at Ohio State. As a first year, my hopes were low. Freshman always hear that usually at these events they’re always turned down and given a “thanks for coming but no thanks, come back in two years.” Beforehand I updated my resume and had several people review it and make sure it was ready to roll for the evening.

I met with several awesome companies that I could see myself working with. My first table was Nationwide Insurance. Being from Central Ohio, I know how big of a company Nationwide, and I also know that they’re a very charitable, good quality organization. They’re based right here in Columbus and having a summer internship at an amazing company that is a 30 minute drive from my house would just be perfect. My second table was another company similar to Nationwide, Huntington Bank. I met with several other companies but the one that caught my eye the most was one called Soothsayer Analytics. They’re a jack of all trades company when it comes to analytics. They’re a small company with only about 20+ workers world wide. But deal with everything from AI to ICBM’s to working with Abercrombie. Which I mean like come on how cool is that?!

Overall I thought the experience was excellent. This was a really good first job fair and I’m glad I jumped in with both feet. I probably won’t gain any internships with these companies, but I built more connections and the people at Soothsayer were very interested in talking to me later on. I made sure to connect with everybody on linkedin afterward and I’m excited to start building my connections!

About Me

Hi all!

My name is Jaret Mrochek and I’m a freshman at The Ohio State University studying data analytics. I am a graduate of Hilliard Bradley High School and also completed duel enrollment through Columbus State Community College during my junior and senior years. Through my entire academic career my favorite subject has remained the same: math. Ever since I was a little kid I love numbers and how they could tell a story and force me to think differently. I’m super excite to see where this major takes me. I love the flexibility of the field. People ask me what I want to be when I grow up, and I’m happy to say that with data analytics my response is always, “anything I want to be.”

Outside of my academics I was very involved in my school. I was in yearbook, student government, spirit club, ski club, varsity golf and volleyball. I also was as a staff taekwondo instructor at Hilliard Taekwondo Academy for 5 years.

I cannot describe how excited I am for the next four years at tOSU. I’ve only been here for a few weeks and I already can safely call it home. I can’t wait to see what I’ll learn about myself through my accomplishments and my struggles and hopefully land myself in my dream career

Year in Review

[ “Year in Review”  is where you should reflect on the past year and show how you have evolved as a person and as a student.  You may want to focus on your growth in a particular area (as a leader, scholar, researcher, etc.) or you may want to talk about your overall experience over the past year.  For more information, go to: http://honors-scholars.osu.edu/e-portfolio. Delete these instructions and add your own post.]

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.]