Two meaningful experiences I have had at Ohio State include getting a summer internship back home and making it into my engineering major, chemical engineering. These are both meaningful experiences to me because it further accomplished my career goals and showed that my hard work has paid off in the short run. It also has given me the determination to keep working and fighting for what I ultimately want to strive for. After a rough start in classes as a freshman, this definitely reassured me that I was in the right place and even though I had setbacks, could still accomplish my goals.
One major meaningful experience was actually not doing well my first semester of sophomore year. I came in really determined to do well and work hard and was very disappointed on my final outcome. I look at this as a meaningful experience because I learned that hard work doesn’t always pay off and you can have setbacks as you move through your life that don’t add up. This taught me to accept it, learn from my mistakes, and also how to adapt to change. I went through some major changes in friends, experiences and grades. With all of this combined, I really was starting to give up, but from this and the guidance of others I learned how to pick myself up and use it as a lesson. Another meaningful experience was one of my chemical engineering classes. I had an amazing professor during spring semester and I really feel like I found someone to look up to. I would spend much of my week in his office asking questions, asking specifically the questions “why?” or “how?” and he would take the time to work with me to fully understand not just the material but how we got their and the implications of it. He also worked to show students that we should not be striving for our grades, but for understanding the material and working hard and he rewarded us with good grades. I believe this was meaningful because it gave me a professor that I look to for help and guidance in my career and experiences out of the classroom.