Year of Service

Synopsis

 

I dedicated my Year of Service project to the social issue of public speaking. I spent my time with the Speech and Debate Team of Wooster High School.  Public Speaking is such a pivotal aspect to success in the world today and I felt that with my experience and success on the team that I would be able to build up the skills of these younger students.

 

I had various tasks at this site. I had to help students review material, concepts, and scripts for what they wanted to speak on.  From there we had to cut, trim, shape, and formulate speeches into the time frame that corresponded with each category, while maintaining the messages, entertainment, and engaging aspects of a speech.  Once this was completed, I collaborated with students and coaches to help shape the whole speech. In how dialogue should sound; focusing on rate, tone, pitch, and all aspects of delivery.  We also put in blocking, or movements that would be engaging and appropriate, but not distracting.  All of these are looked at to enhance the performance and shape speeches to be the best that they can be.

 

Through my Year of Service I was able to take away a lot, and learn numerous things.  The project allowed me to further develop and enhance my oratory skills by practicing with the students and continuing to listen to how the head coach constructed her feedback.  Also, working as an assistant coach from another city I had to learn great communication, organizational, and time management skills, as well as needing to think a little outside of the box.  Talking to coaches of the team and students I was sometimes a middle man and had to relay messages, and I learned out to clearly communicate changes, concerns, and progress to all parties.  I also had to stay organized. There were weekends I would go home to help with practices or tournaments so I had to make sure I was well organized and had my school work done in advance and had the logistics of traveling back and forth lined up correctly.  Which also leads into time management.  With all of the travel and distance with the project I had to work efficiently at practices to make sure I was getting through the amount of speeches that coach wanted me to help with, while still being able to develop relationships with all of the students.  Coach and I had a spreadsheet that we used for practice times that worked really well to help us stay organized and efficient in our efforts.

 

We also got creative in how we worked, knowing that I could not always make it back. So sometimes I worked with students via skype or FaceTime.  We also used video, which was great because students gained a lot from watching themselves and seeing the issues we were working with them on.  This allowed me to gain a great sense of adaptability.

 

I loved my Year of Service and plan to continue my service with the program.  Maybe eventually working to become a true coach and help continue the success of the program and growing successful students and preserving the importance of Public Speaking for years to come.

Year in Review

[ “Year in Review”  is where you should reflect on the past year and show how you have evolved as a person and as a student.  You may want to focus on your growth in a particular area (as a leader, scholar, researcher, etc.) or you may want to talk about your overall experience over the past year.  For more information, go to: http://honors-scholars.osu.edu/e-portfolio. Delete these instructions and add your own post.]

G.O.A.L.S.

I have been exploring academic enrichment, leadership development, and service engagement.  By scheduling and excelling in numerous honors, college prep, and AP courses I feel my academic enrichment has begun.  Through the Honors and Scholars programs, the opportunity to continue taking challenging courses in an atmosphere where students want to succeed academically will offer a benefit to all who are involved.

My leadership development began early.  I was selected as a squad leader in our high school’s marching band as a sophomore.  Since then I have completed three years as a squad leader.  In addition, I was chosen as a squad captain for Speech and Debate the past two years and a team captain on the Varsity Cross Country and Track teams.  Even with all of these positions, my leadership skills could become more developed and much improved.

Thanks to my church and youth group, family interests, National Honor Society, and even our school’s History Club, I have also had the opportunity to involve myself in a plethora of service activities.  From working bible school, cleaning up around the community, running blood drives, ringing The Salvation Army bells, and charity bike rides my service engagement has always been an important factor of how I live my life.

I will strongly improve on my academic enrichment, leadership development and service engagement in order to begin making impactful and healthy lifestyle choices if chosen for Honors and Scholars.  My involvement in original inquiry and global awareness will grow exponentially. I look forward to taking advantage of the opportunities that future programs will present to me in regards to originally inquiry.  When looking at global awareness, I am confident in the fact that I will look deeper into cultural divides and global affairs.

 

Career

 

I am currently a sophomore at The Ohio State University. I am a student in the Max M. Fisher College of Business and studying Logistics Management with a minor in Leadership Studies.

 

I have previous work experience as an Office Assistant through Resident Life, Staff at the Boys and Girls Club of Wooster, i was on the start-up staff when Wooster opened it’s Dunkin Donuts/Baskin Robbins, and worked as a Research Assistant at the OARDC (Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center).

These previous experiences have allowed me to gain valuable skills and insight to organization, communication, teamwork/team development, and time management.

I have gained skills in public relations, presentation, event/activity planning, dedication and commitment, as well as gained insight to operations and establishment.

 

I am now looking into internships and factory positions in order to immerge myself into the professional areas that I seek to work at going forward.

Below I have attached my resume:

Buchholz_Zachary Resume-1a6aa14

Artifacts

 

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Above is an image of an iconic marching band show from my high school. Now, where many are used to seeing the cursive letters of people form the incomparable Script Ohio, my school took the idea and made it their own.  This was created by our band directors, all proud OSU alumni, when they came back and got into music education at Wooster.  Script “Woo!” was created as a way to bring flare to the homecoming game on Friday nights.

This is included because of what it represents to me and where I come from, and from what I learned from it, being a marching band member and marching it all four years of high school.

This show taught me a lot. Where a lot of people see the show and think, “Oh, just follow the leader,” this could not be any farther from the truth.  This formation can only work if you do your part and know where you should be and what you should be doing.  If you just follow the leader, there is a chance that they could mess up. If you follow them, and in turn everyone else follows you, you are just as responsible for leading the mistake.  This formation teaches will power and independence to fight the crowd and do your part. It also taught how every part matters. If somebody was out of place or out of step there would be collisions and misalignments, which would cause the overall image to be hampered. So this formation taught me how to know my part, do my part, and by doing that ultimately helping the entirety of the group.

 

This leads to the artifact below. Below is pictured an instructor helping an individual. I selected this image because it demonstrates the fact that people want to and will be helpful when people need it. I believe teachers, instructors, directors, coaches and our peers are critical in forming who we are.

Without somebody willing to help us, we could never get better or understand. There would be no advance or gain in the knowledge or skill trying to be learned.  Having good influences in life who are willing to teach, and help you are the kind of people you should surround yourself with.  This way, you can continue growing as a student, citizen or whatever it is you are striving to improve.

My coaches and teachers had a huge impact on how I see things and how I live my life.  For that, I am very thankful, and because of that, I try to do the same for others.  By doing so, I learned that I love helping others and will continue to be there for others whenever they need it, and for whatever they need it.

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All in all, my artifacts represent how you need to do your part to insure the success of the whole, self discipline and independence, not to always follow the leader in case they go astray, and to teach and work with others so that you can help them improve themselves, and in the process you may just improve yourself as well.

 

About Me

Well hello.  My name is Zachary Leo Buchholz, but people call me Zack.  I am a proud graduate of Wooster High School in Wooster, Ohio.  Now, as a proud student at THE Ohio State University I plan to use all my past academic, and personal experiences, in order to establish a strong footing going into the real world looking for meaningful relationships and a meaningful career.

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I plan to get there using my background in numerous bands and orchestras, speech and debate, cross country and track, and more!  Band and orchestra taught me the value of doing your part within a whole.  Without everyone working together and following through on their part, the overall production of the group would be hampered, and ultimately not reach the final goal.  Meanwhile my time in speech and debate was teaching me how to become personable.  By learning how to entertain, be myself, and defend my opinion I learned valuable lessons in communication, leadership, and teamwork.  Finally my time with cross country and track helped me discover and value the hard work and dedication it takes to reach a desired outcome, and ultimately pushing through the pain and struggles to finish what you started.

Furthermore completing plenty of honors, college preparatory, and AP courses in high school I liked to challenge myself in a variety of courses.  I spent the last summer as a research assistant in the ORIP at the OARDC under Dr. Warren Dick and worked with him and his lab.  The time in the program was a great experience for me as student and person.

Currently I am an undeclared engineering student exploring the resources and opportunities of a large university.  Though this is my first semester of college I love my school and the people here and cannot wait continue to discover what it means to be a buckeye.