Artifacts

Taste of OSU is an annual event put on at the Ohio Union each February which involves a large majority of the culture clubs at The Ohio State University. It is an event where community members can come together to experience the various cultures represented at OSU through food and dance. I have attended this event twice. My first time I volunteered with the OSU French Club. In preparation for the event, I helped to prepare the food that the club would serve and I helped serve the food the actual day of the event. I enjoyed sharing French culture with people and found it beautiful that so many people were interested not only in French culture, but in all the various cultures represented. I think events like this are key to creating a tolerant community by expressing cultures in a non-overwhelming way that sparks interest and does not create backlash like some more overbearing events unfortunately do.

taste

Spring semester 2015, I took the second of two introduction to engineering classes required for students pursuing an engineering degree at The Ohio State University. The majority of this class consisted of a design project. Teams were tasked with designing and creating an Arduino code for an Alternative Energy Vehicle (AEV). This class introduced me to the engineering design process. I thrived in the team environment and realized engineering was in fact the degree I wanted to pursue. My team’s final report is a good summary of all that we accomplished over the semester. Creating reports for this class introduced technical writing to me and the various types of documents used in the engineering field. Link to Final Report

In May 2015, I traveled with the International Affairs Scholars Program to India. This two week trip looked to show participants Indian culture and give them a larger perspective on countries in the process of joining the “developed” world. This trip opened my eyes to the negative effects of development and the politics involved in the process. It struck me to see highly industrialized areas next to squalor. I realized there is a difference between sustainable development and development for developments sake. I noticed the priceless value of a strong foundation and the importance for strong infrastructure in the quest for sustainable development. Most importantly I realized sustainability takes time, more time than countries are willing to give.

India

Over summer 2015 I was charged with looking after a few cats of my friend’s while she was on vacation. While visiting her house to look after the cats, I took a series of pictures that I am very proud of. These pictures show off the beauty of nature and I love the way the clouds play with the lighting. This photo session helped feed my interest in photography, more specifically photos of nature. Below is a collage of a few of the pictures I took.

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Also over summer 2015, A couple of friends and I embarked on a camping trip. This trip was a recipe for disaster, or so it seemed at the beginning; one of the group members arrived late, we arrived at the camp site after dark had fallen, it was raining, and we found that our tent had no workable polls. Several of the group members became frustrated and not helpful what-so-ever. I helped to form a plan of action and with another friend found some string in my truck to “MacGyver” a tent together and got everyone fed. Below is the tent we managed to put together. The camping trip ended up a success and I learned the value of a good attitude in stressful situations.

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Over winter break 2015, I read the book, Antarctica, An Intimate Portrait of a Mysterious Continent. This book was transforming. It refreshed my sense of wonder and sparked the idea of possibly attending graduate school. This book revealed my interest and passion for climate change and showed me some research projects I could further look into to expand my interest. After reading this book, I have actively tried to develop my climate interest and have considered graduate school, an option I was not considering before reading this book.

Ant

Over the 2015-16 school year I took part in the Second Year Transformational Experience Program offered at The Ohio State University. One of the advantages of taking part in this program is students have the opportunity to receive funding for a project of their choosing. My project was for my study abroad for summer 2016 in Montpellier, France. Creating my proposal gave me the opportunity to reflect on what this study abroad experience will mean for me and put in to perspective what goals I have for myself going forward. It revealed to me the value I put on being a globally aware student and the influence being an International Affair Scholar has had on my global perspective. Link to Proposal

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