Freshman Year in Review

Year in Review:

At the beginning of my freshman year of college, I was not the same person as I am today. The summer before I came to college was probably the biggest rollercoaster of emotions for me. In positive news, I got to travel to London, England and meet my family, and I also got to travel to Cancun, Mexico. These vacations allowed me to spend quality time with different parts of my family, and they were happy times. However, my best friend, my Grandma Pat, passed away before I came to Ohio State. Losing her to ALS was the hardest, saddest thing I have ever witnessed. So, this rollercoaster of extreme heights of happiness, and the drop of sadness made me a particularly fragile person. Luckily, here at Ohio State, not only did I develop academically and professionally, I also developed socially to stand strong after my fragile period. My initial expectations for the year were to not only succeed in my classes, but to make memories with friends and go out to explore Columbus. I think that I met these initial expectations pretty well, and that I managed to balance academics and social life through my freshman year.

Personally, I have grown into a completely different person this year. I have become more outgoing and open to trying new things, and have also become more social just as in going out and doing things more often. One example of trying new things that is a big milestone for me is trying new kinds of food. Being a (mostly) vegetarian, it is hard for me to step out of my routine meals and want to try other things, but here I have broadened what I eat through friends encouraging me to “just try it!” Looking back at these small but major changes shows me how just opening up and becoming outgoing has changed me. College has been full of new and unexpected experiences. Our first day of college as a Scholars cohort was a defining moment for me. We went onto a high ropes course, and I am afraid of heights. Deciding to become a new person in college is part of the process to changing, so on that first day I decided to try to conquer that fear. I climbed to the top of the course and jumped off forty feet swinging back and forth through the trees. Heights aren’t that big of an issue for me anymore! Another experience I attempted was to take two five credit hour classes at a time, which resulted in me withdrawing from one of the courses. This unexpected change, of school being difficult, was something that showed me how I need to push myself the hardest I ever have in order to succeed here. It also showed me that I don’t have to take all of my harder classes at once, and that I had to find out what course-load I could handle. Using this withdrawal as a learning experience showed me to be more optimistic about the negative aspects of life.

Many exciting and wonderful things happened this year. The first thing I found exciting was attending my first Ohio State football game, which was one of my favorite memories as a Buckeye. Another wonderful thing that happened was I got the chance to show my roommate from out of state my hometown. Showing her where I grew up was memorable for me because coming from such a small farming community is something I don’t choose to share that often since I don’t feel it reflects who I am, but opening up and displaying this vulnerability showed me how confident I was becoming. Another wonderful thing that happened was that I became a member of my sorority, Alpha Omicron Pi. I cannot express enough how amazing this organization is, and what it has done for me. Every single little thing that I don’t like about myself, my sisters show me how they value that aspect of me. I have never been so confident or happy with such fantastic women surrounding me. I have matured into someone I didn’t know I could become. After struggling with self-esteem issues all throughout high school, I never thought I could love the person I am as much as I do today. Professionally, I found a career field that I love through academics. My Addicting Drugs course has been the most interesting course I’ve ever taken, and it confirmed my career plans. I have also been able to experience and go to some very interesting places. For example, COSI Science Museum, the Columbus Zoo, a tour of The James Medical Center, a tour of Ohio Stadium, many concerts throughout the city, shopping trips to Easton Shopping Center, and finally a trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

All of this happiness doesn’t mean I haven’t also dealt with hardships. I struggled through General Chemistry, maintaining a grade that doesn’t reflect how hard I worked. I cried over a tub of ice cream after failing my first midterm when I thought I aced it. I went through the worst two weekends of my life for sorority recruitment, and had the process show me just how emotional and personal joining a Greek organization can be. I fought through the homesickness, and the fact that I was two hours away from the most important people in my life. I had to miss my Grandpa’s funeral to take a midterm, and didn’t have my family by my side as I mourned for him. I’m not saying that these things were not important, but these hardships were overshadowed by the happiness I have achieved here. Fast forward to this moment, and I know what I want to do academically and professionally, and I am content with who I am. Moving forward, I hope to continue to feel this at peace with myself, and to work towards my bachelor’s degree, stay involved in STEM EE Scholars, and in Alpha Omicron Pi. Next year I hope to have gained a leadership position in my sorority, and possibly attain a pharmacy technician job, along with making more memories and good times. I think the best way to describe me after finishing my first year of college is by a quote, the amazing John Green said, “I’m on a roller coaster that only goes up, my friend.”

Taking on new heights: Trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee

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April 9, 2016.

This photo was taken while hiking with two of my sorority sisters at Rainbow Falls Trail in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. I recently got the opportunity to take a road trip to Gatlinburg for a fraternity formal. This experience was one of the highlights of my first year at college because it really showcased how much I have grown as a person throughout this past school year. Never did I think that I would be driving six hours to a place I’ve never been, with people I didn’t know existed a few months ago, to do things I never thought I would do. For example, I went hiking for the first time and completed the rocky, uphill 6 mile venture to sit under a waterfall with some of my closest friends. The trip to Gatlinburg is special to me because it showed me how I have grown and developed as a person throughout this first year of school, and how I have learned to be open to trying new things.

G.O.A.L.S Essay: Why Leadership Development and Service Engagement are important to me

The two G.O.A.L.S. that are the most applicable to my personal future are Leadership Development and Service Engagement.

Leadership Development is not only important to my personal future, but very important towards my future as a professional. Having leadership skills is crucial in an everyday environment and in a work setting. Being able to lead a team of individuals is a key trait to possess as a professional. Leadership Development is so important to me because in the future I want to be a leader. In my career as a pharmacist, I will lead a team of medical professionals and pharmacy technicians. To be successful in this, I will have to develop my skills throughout my college career. Currently, I think a great way to learn to lead is to gain a leadership position in a club or organization. As a member of Greek Life, there are numerous ways to gain a leadership position, in many different areas. In the next four years, I intend to become my chapter’s social chair. The duties of this position include setting up venues for events and communicating with the leaders in other chapters to coordinate events. This positon will be perfect for me because it will allow me to reach out to individuals I would otherwise never even know existed. The opportunity to speak to the leaders in other chapters will give me a well-rounded view of the diverse world Greek life at The Ohio State University offers. A position as social chair also will allow me to be a spokesperson for my chapter, advocating for other chapters to host events with us, which is a big position to take on. I will also have to make announcements about the events planned to the women in my chapter, which will allow me to lead even within the chapter. This position will only help me become a well-rounded person and leader. Having this leadership position will prepare me to lead a team of professionals in my career field. Another leadership position I plan to have in the next four years is a position in the Pharmacy Club, where I am currently a member. It is important for me to get a position in this club for a few reasons. First, this club consists of my peers who are also pharmacy majors, which allows me to get to know the people who are in my classes and who will possibly continue on to graduate school with me. Interacting with these peers and creating relationships with them is vital to my personal and possible professional success since I will create a network of connections through them. Another reason being a leader in Pharmacy club is important is because it will allow me to work with the professionals we bring in to our meetings, which could lead to even more connections, and maybe a possible job. In conclusion, leadership is important to me because it allows me to become a better individual, team-member, and professional.

Service Engagement is not only personally satisfying, but it also is beneficial to show how involved I am outside of my schoolwork. Throughout high school and currently in my college career, I have invested a pretty large amount of time to volunteering and service. Personally, I enjoy working with children, like tutoring or mentoring students. In high school I found enjoyment in volunteering in my local elementary school, aiding for a kindergarten class that was taught by the same teacher I had for kindergarten. Being able to work with the children was beneficial to both their success and for my own personal gratification. I was able to watch them grow into learners who have dreams and goals for the future. Continuing this volunteering through the Columbus Performance Academy and STEM EE Scholars during college has only furthered my love of service for children. Another service based organization I am involved in currently, and plan to continue throughout my four years of college, is called Circle of Sisterhood. Circle of Sisterhood is a philanthropy based organization that is aiming to build a school for children in Nepal. It consists of all Greek women from the Panhellenic chapters at Ohio State. We do fundraisers to raise money to donate to help start the funding for the school, with events such as selling donuts and coffee to students preparing to take finals. As the Chapter Ambassador for my chapter, I educate the women in my sorority about Circle of Sisterhood, and try to get them involved in this great organization. Not only is it focusing on educating children in a low income country, but it is also bringing together groups of women who would probably never even know each other. This utilization of all Greek women allows for great collaboration of ideas for our events and fundraisers, and is showing to be very successful in spreading the word about Circle of Sisterhood. Overall, service speaks to me personally because it allows me to be a part of something bigger than myself, and to be involved outside of just my academics.

Resume and Reflection

Alexandria Yoby’s Resume

The STEM EE Scholars Program has helped me develop both as an individual and as a scholar. The program promotes this growth with many different aspects. One aspect of the program that aided in my growth as a person was the academic enrichment part of the program, which not only in the classroom am I challenged, but also through our STEM EE required events. As a STEM EE Scholar, I am required to go to eight scholarly events, such as lectures, do it yourself projects, and speeches. Just this semester I was fortunate enough to attend a lecture on Ebola and the Zika virus with my peers to enhance my knowledge. At the end of the lecture we were told that we were now 99% more educated on viral diseases than the rest of the population, which shows the kind of knowledge you can gain in STEM EE. These academic skills and things I’ve learned out of the program prove that I can join another group of individuals and pick up just as much information. Another aspect of STEM EE that is very important in my heart is the service we as a program engage in. For the program, I volunteer at a K-8 charter school in downtown Columbus. Working with the children and seeing how tutoring them makes a difference is my favorite part of being a STEM EE scholar. These leadership skills I gained through tutoring children are transferable to my future career since one day I will have to train other employees, and through engaging with others and teaching others I will be better at this.

Another co-curricular activity that has positively impacted me is my sorority, Alpha Omicron Pi. I could go on for days about how great this organization is, and all of the things it has done for me. One transferable skill I’ve learned through my sisters is self-confidence. Every little thing that I thought was wrong with me or not good enough, my sisters at Alpha Omicron Pi have taught me to embrace about myself instead of hiding it. Self-confidence is so necessary in a work environment because it shows how invested you are in an idea, a project, or a proposal, and how important whatever you are doing is to you. Another skill I have learned through my sorority is time management. We have a lot going on as an organization, with our chapter business meetings, our social events, our council meetings, and our meetings with other Greek organizations, we have many obligations. I have learned to manage my time for other things besides my sorority, such as homework, classes, and other friends, which is a very transferable skill in the workplace as well. As a professional, you have to be able to manage everything going on at work with your everyday life. I see my commitment to my sorority as sort of a preview of how work will be, I have my time for my sorority and then my time for school; in the future I will have time for work and time for myself.

My Strengths

My top five strengths according to Strengths Finder are adaptability, woo, empathy, achiever, and restorative. This strengths play an active role in my life whether it be through my academics or my personal life. Adaptability, my most important strength, means that I am a flexible person who prefers to go with flow, and let my future play out one day at a time. The present is most important to someone with adaptability as a strength, and said person is not discouraged or harmed by unexpected occurrences. My second strength, woo, means winning others over. Woo is a very great strength because it allows me to be a “people-person” meaning that I am very open to starting conversations with others, even strangers, as opposed to people who are less outgoing. Empathy, my third strength, means that I can determine what other people are feeling by putting myself in their shoes, or even just knowing what other people are feeling based on their actions. My fourth strength, achiever, is a very prevalent one in academics; achiever means that I have a lot of stamina and tend to work extremely hard towards any of my goals. Also, achievers are very productive when busy, which is a great quality to have. Restorative, my final strength, is a person who is adept at dealing with problems, figuring out what is wrong, and then how to solve the problem. All of these strengths come together to form the person I am today.

In my academics, my strengths come together to create the successful student I am. Most important, adaptability allows me to adjust to any situation in the classroom, whether it be a new way of learning, for example an experimental classroom, or may it be doing poorly on a first test, and having to change the way I study. No matter what my academics throw at me, with my adaptability, I am able to adjust to these changes and end up successful and on top of my education. Achiever is so important in my academics because it motivates me to work as hard as I can in the classroom and outside, and allows me productivity while being busy trying to balance coursework from five classes. Restorative is also an important strength to have in academics because it allows one to solve the problems they face. With academics, a restorative person is always fixing, updating, and improving, so this is very effective in the case of schoolwork. In my current personal life, I think that woo is a very great quality to have. Going off to college is a major change in anyone’s life, and it can be very hard for the less outgoing people. Luckily for me, my strength of woo allowed me to be outgoing and spark up conversations with other students and make some lifelong friends. Empathy is also a great strength to have, because being able to place yourself in someone else’s shoes allows you to help understand people, especially your roommates which is vital to living with another person for an entire school year. Overall, my strengths make me a well-rounded person academically and in my personal life.

Knowing my strengths allows me to take on my future knowing that I am well prepared mentally. My strengths allow me to resemble a well-stocked artillery, full of strengths to help me take on a career in the medical field. Having this strength of wanting to achieve my goals and work as hard as I can towards them is vital to succeeding as a STEM sciences major and throughout professional school. I think that seeing my strengths showed me that I in fact have what I need inside of me to succeed through my schooling to become a licensed pharmacist, and succeed in the field. My strengths will always be there for me, assuring me that I can in fact achieve my goals as a pharmacist, whenever I hit a rough patch in y schooling or once I have become a pharmacist. I know that I can utilize these strengths now that I am aware of them to help my future success and to fall back on when things get hard. In conclusion, my strengths make the road to my future possible, and they will prepare me to become a successful pharmacist, preparing my lifelong success.

About Me

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I think the most wonderful part of being a college student is the fact that this portion of your life allows you to find yourself. Currently, I don’t know who I am, I definitely don’t understand myself just yet, and that is perfectly okay with me. I am from a very small town in northern Ohio called South Amherst. One thing that is very important to me is my family. I have a very small, close-knit family unit who regularly meet for family dinners and outings. Another part of my family that is very important to me lives overseas in England. Recently, I traveled to visit and finally meet my family all the way in England, and it was a life changing experience. It kind of set my priorities straight and made me realize that the little things in life aren’t exactly important, it’s more the big things like who you surround yourself with that matter. After visiting this beautiful country, I have (of course) become obsessed with their culture and life, and hope to study abroad there someday! Along with my love of British culture, I love sports. I enjoy watching football, and even after watching my hopes get let down every year, I am still a proud Browns fan. Other sports I enjoy are volleyball and drag racing. I played volleyball all throughout my high school career, and drag raced most of my time in high school, while also avidly watching the pro’s race NHRA on TV. I believe that the things that are important and special to me make me who I am!

My high school was a small public school in a rural community. Our graduating class size was a little over 160 students. Coming from such a small school was a great experience because through my small school I received so many opportunities one-on-one with my teachers and advisors. Having this opportunity to talk with educators helped me develop close relationships with them, which only helped me in the long run and gave me great life-long resources. I also got the chance to attend classes at our local community college during my junior and senior year. I was a part time student for junior year and then progressed onto a full time community college student my senior year. I think that this experience helped me adjust to college life much better and prepared me not only for the more difficult classes but for life and what it’s going to throw at me.

What got me interested in the sciences and specifically STEM sciences was actually my middle school science teacher, Ms. Scalli. I personally have always thanked her for the love of science that she fostered within me. She was so passionate about science and teaching us, and it was clear even when I was so young. I luckily had Ms. Scalli as a teacher from fifth grade to eighth grade, so we developed a close relationship throughout those three years. I remember her calling me into the room to show me a new fossil she had acquired or a new space poster. My mother works for NASA, so I would always bring in something new from the company to show first to Ms. Scalli, then to the other students. To this day, Ms. Scalli continues to keep in touch, and is very happy to see me pursue a STEM sciences major, and I personally give her all of the credit for getting me interested in science. I wouldn’t be where I am today without her love for teaching and learning.

Since fifth grade, my love for science has gradually grown. After being accepted into Ohio State during the beginning of my senior year, and obviously freaking out because I got in and rushing to pay the deposit, I began to explore what the university had to offer. I stumbled upon the scholars program and realized that STEM was perfect for me! Being surrounded by people who like the same things as me was a great way to make what appeared to be a giant school seem that much smaller. I applied to the program and here I am today! The scholars program has made Ohio State feel like my second home, and made such a big university seem so small. I hope to succeed in this wonderful program and grow into a better learner and an even bigger lover of sciences. I can’t wait to see what this program brings and I am so proud and excited to be a Buckeye! Go Bucks!

Artifacts

These artifacts showcase the academic activities I partake in, usually outside of the classroom. Overall this page is to exhibit my involvement in academia, including achievements and honors, along with scholarly endeavors, or other involvement in organizations.

Career

This portion of my ePortfolio is to establish my goals as a student and a professional, showing what I am capable of doing and what I have already done in the workforce.

G.O.A.L.S.

[ “G.O.A.L.S.” is a place where students write about how their planned, current, and future activities may fit into the Honors & Scholars G.O.A.L.S.: Global Awareness, Original Inquiry, Academic Enrichment, Leadership Development, and Service Engagement. For more information, go to: http://honors-scholars.osu.edu/e-portfolio. Delete these instructions and add your own post.

Global Awareness: Students cultivate and develop their appreciation for diversity and each individual’s unique differences. For example, consider course work, study abroad, involvement in cultural organizations or activities, etc .
Original Inquiry: Honors & Scholars students understand the research process by engaging in experiences ranging from in-class scholarly endeavors to creative inquiry projects to independent experiences with top researchers across campus and in the global community. For example, consider research, creative productions or performances, advanced course work, etc.
Academic Enrichment: Honors & Scholars students pursue academic excellence through rigorous curricular experiences beyond the university norm both in and out of the classroom.
Leadership Development: Honors & Scholars students develop leadership skills that can be demonstrated in the classroom, in the community, in their co-curricular activities, and in their future roles in society.
Service Engagement: Honors & Scholars students commit to service to the community.]

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.]