About Me

Hi! I am Kaira Alcalá. I am from LaGrange, Illinois. LaGrange is a town about 15 minutes outside Chicago. I am majoring in political science and I hope to minor in Spanish. What I am most looking forward to this year is making new friends who I can study with for my classes. I am most nervous about living on my own, but I’m really excited to be surrounded by fellow Buckeyes. I’m a hardworking and motivated student and I can’t wait to see how I grow as a person and as a student this upcoming school year.

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.

When I attended my first first year success series “So You’re in Honors?..”, I learned about G.O.A.L.S. G.O.A.L.S. IS specific to students in the Ohio State Honors and Scholars program, and can help students plan future activities to benefit their academic career. The acronym G.O.A.L.S. stands for global awareness, original inquiry, academic enrichment, leadership development, and service engagement. Once we learned about what each letter stood for, we discussed in small groups how we can one day reach all of these goals.

To begin, we discussed how we can increase our global awareness. As someone minoring in Spanish, I would like to one day increase my global awareness by studying abroad in Spain. Studying abroad gives students the opportunity to experience a different culture in an academic environment. The Ohio State University in specific, offers a lot of opportunities for students to travel abroad. In addition, through The University’s Office of International Affairs, students can find various resources and scholarship opportunities to fund their travel abroad experiences. I recently set up an appointment with a man who works in The Office of International Affairs. He informed me about a summer trip to London that I am interested in it gave me a list of scholarships in which I can apply for. This opportunity would help me reach my goal of increasing my global awareness during my time at The Ohio State University.

Next, we discussed original inquiry. Ideas on how to create original inquiries related to experiences with professors involving research opportunities at the university. Today at my major informational session, I learned about various research opportunities at the University. Although many people may think that research is specific to a science or math related field, political science also offers opportunities in research. Through research opportunities with my professors, I can further develop my understanding of what I am interested in and gain hands on experience. These research opportunities will give be the perfect platform for original inquiry.

Furthermore, we discussed academic enrichment. As students in The Honors and Scholars Program, we already are expected to take rigorous and challenging courses. However in order to succeed in those classes we must work outside of the classroom. Expanding our academic enrichment extends far beyond the classroom and one must expect to put in additional time, into the course in order to succeed. At The Ohio University, we are offered many resources as students in order to succeed, such as tutors and office hours. As a student in the Honors and Scholars Program, I will be using these resources in order to ensure my academic enrichment.

Next and most importantly, we discussed leadership development. Through the Moral Scholars Program, I was offered the opportunity to take a course titled Diversity and Social Justice Leadership. I am currently taking this course and I’m learning more about diversity and social justice than I have before. With the material I will learn in the class, I will go beyond the classroom to demonstrate what a politically correct leader can look like. Often, when people think of social justice leaders they think of older people. But the most important leaders are our peers, from which we can learn from every day, and I hope to be somebody that my peers can learn from.

Lastly, in my first year success series I learned about service engagement. Recently I applied for my first Buck-I-Service trip to New York City for this upcoming winter. In New York City, we will be working with those experiencing homelessness and struggling with poverty. Service is something that I am really passionate about and I look forward to giving back to my community during my time at The Ohio State University. 

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 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.]

Artifacts

[Artifacts are the items you consider to be representative of your academic interests and achievements. For each entry, include both an artifact and a detailed annotation.  An annotation includes both a description of the artifact and a reflection on why it is important to you, what you learned, and what it means for your next steps.  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.]