Journal 3: Spring Semester Project

For my spring project, I am thinking about doing something that relates to working out and getting fit. During my freshman and sophomore year of high school, I was on the Men’s Soccer team at my school. They gave us a workout basically every day so I kept myself in shape that way, but since I quit soccer, I have gotten, quite frankly, fat. One of my shortcomings is not being able to enact change that isn’t required of me to do. When working out was part of my expectations as a soccer player, and I was held accountable for being there at practice every day ready to train, I had a reason to go and was able to keep myself going, but once I quit, not having my own mode of transportation really kept me from maintaining that habit of working out every day. I didn’t have the ability to go to the gym whenever I wanted to because my mom had to drive me, so I stopped going and got out of the habit of going. Now, having a gym so close to my dorm should encourage me to go, its just getting that push to start going again for the first time that I need, and being required to do it by this project may be exactly that push.

I think this project aligns well with the goal of Leadership Development. Being able to go regularly to work out and take care of oneself is a trait of a leader, and I think that this project would help me accomplish this goal. I could start this project at any time before, during, or after winter break because working out is something that a lot of people do year-round, but I probably will not start to try to go to the gym until after coming back to school for spring semester. To be quite honest, part of the reason I haven’t done this earlier is because my mom kept pushing me to do it which makes me not want to do it. I know she just wants the best for me, but if she’s the one telling me to go do it constantly then am I really doing this for myself or for her? I want this to be a project about bettering myself for myself not bettering myself because my mom told me to. This means, I would rather her not find out that I was doing this until I have been going consistently for a few weeks at least. This means I can’t start while on winter break because she would know. My next few steps to accomplish this project would be to get all my old workout clothes from home and bring them back with me at the end of winter break and to start going to the gym every day. I would want to be going to the gym consistently no later than by the end of January.

I think this project would be really good for me and help me live a better, and healthier, lifestyle. I don’t enjoy being the way I am now living a sedentary lifestyle. It doesn’t make me feel good about myself. I want to be confident in who I am on both the inside AND the outside, not just one. I am looking forward to starting this project because it will help me in the long run and may actually be the difference between life or death later on in life.

Columbus To-Do List Part 2

Goodale Park was a great place to visit. It had a pretty lake to sit at and enjoy the view and plenty of open space to run around and play a game of soccer.

This is part of the Lower Scioto Greenway. It was a relaxing walk down the path, especially with the river running alongside on the right.

This is one of the paths at Bicentennial Park which is part of the Scioto Mile in Downtown Columbus. It was very busy when we went with scholars at the beginning of the school year, but by early fall, it is pretty empty and does not have much to do. It was still pretty, but the restaurant and stage were boarded up for the winter already.

This is the Columbus Commons in Downtown Columbus. It was nice for a few minutes, but besides being an open field with a stage, it does not have much to do in early fall. The shops in the front of the park were not open when I went and there were not many people there. It was definitely better earlier this year when I went with scholars.

This is the Whetstone Park of Roses. This was probably my favorite park I went to. Even though most of the flowers were gone for the season, it was still quite enjoyable to go on a stroll through the park. I climbed the outlook in the center of the picture and it provided some great views of the park. I made sure to be extra careful because it was still wet from the rain.

I learned a lot about the parks of Columbus through this project. It was fun visiting the different parks and experiencing what they had to offer. They each offered something different that the other ones did not. Bicentennial park had great views of the river and a splash pad in the summer. The Lower Scioto Greenway had a long winding path that could take you very far. The Columbus Commons had a large stage and restaurants to welcome you to the park. Goodale Park had lots of open space that was shaded by trees making it great to play a sport or relax by the lake. Whetstone Park of Roses had a lot of special little nooks and crannies that made the place unique and gave it a great charm.

Because of this project, I want to go explore more of the parks around Columbus. I saw a few I wanted to go to, but couldn’t because they were too far away even though they looked really pretty. I am hoping that before my college career is over I will get to explore all of them. If someone else was considering doing this list, I would suggest going to the ones you want to go to rather than the ones that are just close. You get a lot more out of the parks you actually enjoy and want to be at rather than at parks you go to just because they are convenient for you to go to.

Overall this was a fun experience that I enjoyed a lot more than I thought I would. Columbus has some great parks worth visiting!

Columbus to do List: Part 1

I chose the nature and outdoor area theme as my experience for the Columbus to do List activity. I picked this list primarily because I enjoy nature, it is free, and there are a lot of options close to campus. I hope to make this experience something that I can enjoy, and I hope that this list will give me a better understanding of the options available to me if I want to go to a park. From my experience of parks around here, they all seem really nice amd well-maintained.

I have now been to Gooddale Park twice. The first time I went and experienced it, it was for volunteer work at the park. It was a large park that is maintained very well. There were large trees all over the park and a lot of dogs that people had brought. I even got to pet a few of them! I love swings, and so of course I had to go and swing on them. I got to visit the large pond too. It had a lot of geese on the water and trees loomed over the water, making the pond look very pretty.  The second time I went, wasn’t for long because I realized I didn’t get the chance to take a picture when I went the first time. I was only there for a few minutes to get the picture and then I left. I went to the pond and took my picture there because it was such a beautiful spot to see.

Scholars Family Mentor Interview

Being is Arch Scholars is a great privilege. With it, you get to be placed into a scholars family with mentors that will help you with any questions you may have. Being automatically assigned to a family seems like it would be extremely impersonal and daunting because your fellow family members may not match with your personality, but luckily for me, that wasn’t the case at all. My mentor that I met with is Becca Finkes. She is a 4th-year CRP major who is also in Arch Scholars. She from Cincinnati, OH and is a part of Servitecture. One of the things she told me she wish she knew about before coming to OSU was the CRP major. She said she didn’t know much about it until she took a planning class just to see if it would be something she was interested in. She said she enjoyed it a lot, and it made her switch majors to CRP.

Something she spoke to me a lot about was study abroad opportunities. She said she had taken two trips so far. She took a trip to Europe that studied the architecture in 4 different European cities, and she took a trip with my RA Simon where they went and stayed in Scotland for a month with one of his family members. She said that the study abroad trips were really affordable because it is possible to get a lot of grants from the university to go on one. I was interested in doing a study abroad trip to Japan and asked her about it. She told me one of the professors at Knowlton that does study abroad trips went to Japan recently. She said that they were likely to go back in the next four years and told me to keep an eye out for it.

She is one of 3 students currently doing a senior undergraduate thesis paper in planning and told me to consider doing it. She said she gets a class with only 2 other people in it that have a faculty member helping them with their research topics. She said her topic was about cities and whether or not they should be banning homeless camps. She personally thinks it is inhumane to ban homeless camps since they have no where else to go. She also talked about this thing we can do as a Sophomore where we can write about something we really want to do that involves education in some way and we can get $2,000 to go towards it. I don’t remember what it was called, but she told me the money can even be used for study abroad opportunities. Since I was sick the day we talked, I also asked about BuckMD and what kinds of sicknesses warrant a visit to the doctor. She told me that I should go even if it was just the common cold so I could be absolutely sure everything is okay, and so that I could get a doctor’s note if I had to miss class. I didn’t end up going, however, because I was starting to get better by the next day. I figured if I got worse I would go, but I didn’t.

Overall, this meeting with Becca was a very productive one. She told me a lot about things I didn’t even know about or consider, and it gave me a lot of useful information. I don’t have any plans as of now to meet again, but if I get more questions, I may meet with her again.

About Me

Hi, I’m Micah Adams. I am a freshman here at THE Ohio State University. I will be studying City and Regional Planning at the Knowlton School of Architecture at OSU. I live in Torres House along with all of the other Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and City and Regional Planning Scholars (or Arch Scholars for short). I am originally from Xenia, OH near Dayton, and I graduated from Xenia High School as a Graduate of Distinction in 2018. I enjoy playing piano, singing, and producing music on my computer. I also enjoy video games and used to play soccer. Some video games I enjoy include Sly Cooper, SimCity, Cities: Skylines, Minecraft, Mario, Pokémon, and The Legend of Zelda. I plan on joining several clubs at OSU after my first semester just to get a footing here and figure out how classes and college life works. I haven’t exactly decided which clubs yet, but I am looking at the Pokémon Club, Scarlet Script Show Choir, and the Music Industry Club.

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 guidance on using your ePortfolio, including questions and prompts that will help you get started, please visit the Honors & Scholars ePortfolio course in Carmen. To get answers to specific questions, please email eportfolio@osu.edu. Delete these instructions and add your own post.]

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 guidance on using your ePortfolio, including questions and prompts that will help you get started, please visit the Honors & Scholars ePortfolio course in Carmen. To get answers to specific questions, please email eportfolio@osu.edu. 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.]