Month: November 2017

G.O.A.L.S.

The STEM EE Scholars program has been a huge part of my freshman year. Underlining all of the requirements and activities with the program are The Ohio State University Honors & Scholars G.O.A.L.S.: Global Awareness, Original Inquiry, Academic Enrichment, Leadership Development, and Service Engagement. While all facets of G.O.A.L.S. are important, I believe that the two most relevant to me and applicable to my future professional goals are Academic Enrichment and Leadership Development.

Like most Honors & Scholars students, I challenged myself all throughout high school with honors and AP classes. I always wanted to take the hardest classes and pack as much knowledge as I could into my brain. When I joined the actuarial science club here at Ohio State, even as a freshman with a very small chance at getting an internship, I still went to the actuarial receptions and company presentations to learn as much as I could about my future profession and possible employers. As an actuary, that thirst for knowledge is imperative because of all the actuarial exams that you need to take. Even after I am an FSA (Fellow of the Society of Actuaries), I will always be looking for new ways to approach and solve problems.

Beyond pushing my education to the limit, I want to learn skills that will help me succeed in the professional world. One of the most important of those skills is leadership. In high school, I was a captain on the varsity soccer and swim teams. I was also part of the group that helps at our high school freshman orientation. In my first semester at Ohio State, I have become involved with the actuarial science club, men’s water polo club, and WOW. In the actuarial science and water polo clubs, I am only a member because I am a freshman, but I definitely plan on holding leadership positions as I get older. Being a part of WOW, where I do science experiments with young children, has taught me patience and the skill of being able to simplify and explain concepts that others may not understand. I believe that being able to lead is a very important skill in the professional world and I look forward to finding a job that will allow me to showcase my skills and give me opportunities for promotions.

The Ohio State Men’s Water Polo Club

Throughout my entire life, I have been very involved with sports, but my main two were soccer and swimming. During my junior year of high school, some guys from the swim team and I wanted to start a water polo club because all of the other schools in our conference had a team except for us and we wanted something to do during the spring season. We did everything that the administration told us we had to do. We got over fifty signatures of people saying that they were interested in joining and we found a teacher to sponsor the club, but the athletic and activities director turned us down. The next year, we did the same thing and got turned down again.

When I arrived at the Ohio State University, I knew that I wanted to stay involved in sports, whether it was club or intramural. I had never even thought about playing water polo here until the activities fair when I saw their booth. Even then though, I didn’t really want to join because it was a new sport to me and I didn’t want to embarrass myself. I was excited to try it in high school because we were all going to learn together, but now I have no idea how good these players are. Despite my fear of being humiliated, a couple days later I went to my first water polo practice ever. I was relieved to find out that I wasn’t the the only one playing for the first time. Obviously there were some very talented players on the team, but I was glad I wouldn’t be struggling to learn the sport all alone. Throughout the semester, I got much closer with all of the guys on the team and my improvement was unbelievable. Now I am still definitely not a star, but by the time our conference tournament came around at the end of the season, I was one of the first players to come of the bench. Joining the water polo team was one of the best decisions that I’ve made here at Ohio State because it taught me to face my fears and try new things. The sport is a lot of fun and I cannot wait to see how much I improve in the next three years.