I got the 2nd half of my semester volunteer hours (6 hours, 5:45am – 12pm) volunteering for Downtown Columbus’s Hot Chocolate Run on Sunday November 18th. This was a fundraiser put on by Allstate Insurance and the Make A Wish Foundation. I volunteered with my fellow scholars, Amanda Acosta, Jordan Ndeli, Madhurima Kota, and Anna Mattei. We were on the chocolate mug duty, which entailed us to fill the goody mugs with chocolate fondue, wafers, bananas, marshmallows, and hot chocolate. Once the goody mugs were filled, they were given to the runners at the finish line tent as a celebration. This event was a lot of fun because everyone was cheery and many of the volunteers in the tent were Ohio State students!

For my first 5 volunteering hours of the semester were completed during the DSWS Day of Service on Saturday November 17th from 12-5pm. I was in the group that helped the Rock City Church’s Dream Center initiative. This was the group that was hosting a Thanksgiving meal for low-income and homeless Columbus citizens. At the church, my group helped fill and organize the goody bags that would be given to all of the people who attended the thanksgiving dinner. The bags were filled with socks, toothpaste, toothbrush, soap, etc. After we filled the bags we organized their storage room which had toiletries and non-perishables, along with a lot of coats. Around 3pm we then mobilized into some neighborhoods nearby and passed out the flyers notifying people of the free thanksgiving dinners.

I really enjoyed this service opportunity and it reminded me how much I loved volunteering in high school. I will be looking to join a service group on campus next semester, or try and implement a service aspect into an organization that I will be involved in after next semester.

My first track group meeting was on Thursday Oct 25th at 7-8pm in the RPAC meeting rooms. I am in the business track group, which is led by Emily Callicotte, Alex Rowland, Mackenzie Wells, and Abigail Schmitt. For our first meeting we just got to know each other and the leaders talked about their experience so far in Fisher. They gave us a document with class suggestions that are both interesting and will help to make our course load lighter. I am excited to learn from these upperclassmen about the inner workings of Fisher and how to be successful in our majors!