This is Jonny McCormick, a freshman at the Ohio State University. I asked him to tell me the most significant thing that he had learned in his life. In response, he told me that he learned that you should always do what you love, and what makes you happy at the end of the day. “It’s important to always find time to give back,”  he told me. He gives back through community service and mission trips. He told me that his favorite mission trip was when he went to New York to help repair the houses of the victims of Hurricane Sandy. “People always forget that the hurricane happened, but my family doesn’t. It’s awesome to meet the people we’re helping and know that we’re making a difference.” Jonny went on another mission trip this past summer to New Jersey to help with the victims of Hurricane Sandy once again. Jonny’s biggest aspiration is to live a full and happy life.

This top 5 strengths quiz was interesting to me because it made me do a lot of introspection and quick thinking. However, there were a couple of questions that I missed because I couldn’t decide where I was on that certain scale in a short enough time span. Nonetheless, I obviously attained results, and somewhat agreed with them to a certain extent. For my top strength, I got adaptability, which I actually slightly disagreed with. I would not say that I am not an adaptable person, but I wouldn’t say that I’m an extremely adaptable person either. And I certainly would not say that my biggest strength is my ability to adapt easily and quickly. I did agree that one of my biggest strengths was empathy. I would actually probably say that that it was my top strength of the five that were listed, even though it was only ranked as my fourth most prominent strength. I also agreed that one of my top strengths was connectedness. I have always believed that everything is connected, and everything happens for a reason. I have never thought of these beliefs as qualities, though, so it was interesting to see how those underlying beliefs translated as a characteristic. Furthermore, I agreed with the restorative and developer traits. I am a people person and I get a lot of satisfaction from helping others and knowing that I did something to brighten their day. I would say that I am a problem solver, which goes hand in hand with the restorative quality. On a side note, all of my group members for the film project also had restorative listed as one of their top 5 strengths, which will be helpful in overcoming any obstacles that we face while working on the project.

I personally enjoyed this assessment/project. I understand that it is difficult to assess a person’s strengths because it could vary day by day and people change, but it was helpful in seeing what my strengths were. It’s very cool to see that there is a system like this that can analyze and assess you without actually interacting with you. I think that it will also be interesting to see how my strengths change in the coming years, as I develop and adapt to different environments and am faced with new tasks and goals. Just like the positive psychology video we watched in class stated, it is important to focus on the good aspects of yourself, and work to strengthen them. This does not necessarily mean that you must ignore all of the bad aspects of yourself. I do agree that you can lead a fuller and happier life if you have more of a positive outlook on yourself. Also, I think that once you focus on developing your strengths, your weaknesses will naturally improve as an effect. I also enjoyed their recommended tasks that you could do to create a more optimistic approach towards life in general. All in all, I enjoyed learning about my top 5 strengths and analyzing them. Although I know I have other strengths that pertain to me, I also acknowledge and agree with the ones that they gave me (for the most part). I am excited to see where we go with these top 5 strengths in humanities scholars, and to see how my strength develop as I grow and adapt.

The first week here went very well. As it was move-in week, there was always something happening on campus, and everyone was in a constant state of excitement. I had to rely a lot on my phone’s GPS as I had not yet acquainted myself with campus— (though I am still not completely oriented yet, if I’m being honest). However, the classes were fine and the people were very nice. I am very excited to experience OSU football now that I am officially a Buckeye. I am also excited to see what other opportunities this campus has to offer, to meet new people, and, of course, to see what my classes are like when things are in full swing. I am, however, pretty nervous for my classes to move into full swing, since I know the courses are going to be more challenging and the teachers are going to be expecting more from me than they did in high school. It was overwhelming receiving all the syllabi and seeing everything that the teachers had planned out for the semester in its entirety, especially since I am not a big long-term planner. There is a lot more weight put on tests here than there was in high school, which also makes me nervous. There are fewer grades in general so pretty much everything you turn in will have more weight. However, I am sure that I will be able to accommodate myself to this in no time. As for the Humanities Scholars group, I am excited to see what all the events are about and experience them. The events vary in what they are centered around, whether it be arts, people, cultures, etc. and I like that very much. I like that humanities is such a broad subject, so there’s a ton that can be associated with it. I hope and expect to grow closer to the people in my Scholars group and to learn more about our Scholars program. I especially hope that I am able to go on the Chicago trip because the last time I went I was too young to really appreciate it and it is such a big city with so much to offer. All in all, this year looks like it will be interesting!

[Artifacts are the items you consider to be representative of your academic interests and achievements. For each entry, include both an artifact and a detailed annotation.  An annotation is a reflective description of the artifact that attempts to communicate its significance.  For more information, go to: http://honors-scholars.osu.edu/e-portfolio. Delete these instructions and add your own post.]