My third year on campus was the most significant of my academic career.  I began Fall Semester juggling my job in campus dining, taking a full course load, and interning in the Ohio House under Representative Dan Ramos (Ohio’s 56th district).  This internship served as my first experience with professional writing: I frequently wrote letters on policy issues to constituents, assisted Rep. Ramos with the writing of a keynote address and the editing of an op-ed he published in The Columbus Dispatch, and sent e-mails on behalf of the 56th district’s office to other governmental departments.  Additionally, I assisted in policy research and helped organize our office’s database–and I gained additional duties after Rep. Ramos’ legislative aide moved on to a private sector position.

Several very personal issues affected me just prior to finals in December, but I ultimately finished the Fall term with a 3.74 for the semester.  In the spring, I was accepted as a Humanities Scholars mentor for the third consecutive year as well as a Peer Mentor for the freshmen honors seminars–and I completed a training program for each of these positions.  In late February, I was promoted to a student lead position at Marketplace on Neil (the specific dining hall where I work).  March saw me going on a spring trip with Arts and Humanities Scholars to Washington, D.C., which I felt was a nice complement to the internship I had completed in Autumn and to an honors English seminar I was then enrolled in (entitled “Imagining the Nation in Popular Cinema”).  By April, I was formally approved by ASC Honors for candidacy for honors research distinction in English; I should complete a thesis focusing on issues of authorial agency in slave narratives under Professor Elizabeth Hewitt by the end of May 2016.  Though the personal issues from the previous semester adversely affected my academic success in Spring Semester, I did achieve Dean’s List and continued to progress in my Sociology minor, achieving an A in Research Methods in Sociology.  Despite the differences between APA formatting and MLA formatting, I feel the skills I gained in that class should serve me well as I work on my English major thesis this upcoming school year.