Second Year in Review

The Dunn Scholars program has been instrumental in my personal development since I have begun college. Immediately the first day in Columbus, I was introduced to a group of motivated, sport-oriented students from across the country. After the initial weekend of bonding activities, we spent the rest of our first year as floor-mates, seeing eachother daily and constantly planning things to do outside Morrill Tower. Throughout our second year, we have had to put in the effort to stay connected as we spread across campus into various dorms. The effort required forced us to either stay in touch with our new friends, or allow the relationship to dissipate. Some friendships were strengthened, others dwindled. This experience has taught me much about the necessity of caring for relationships that I want to keep.

All this time, having friends from the beginning has allowed me to take greater risks in developing the person I am and has afforded me confidence that I would not have had if I had to venture out and make friends from scratch. I think it all would have come together eventually, but by building such an important piece of college life so early in the process, I have had the opportunity to stretch myself in other directions. For example, I have been able to really focus on my studies, knowing that I have a great group of friends I can catch up with whenever I can get away from the books. I have also been able to try out various clubs and groups outside of the Scholars program, confident that I will succeed in them thanks to the Dunn Scholars program starting me off on the right foot.

Year in Review

Probably my most memorable experience from the first weeks at OSU is the day trip I took with the Dunn Sport and Wellness Scholar program to a team-building workshop. The workshop was outdoors, mostly in the woods, somewhere just outside the city. As the name suggests, the purpose of the workshop was to promote team-building within a group. Our Scholars group had been together for only a few days and had spent the previous days taking part in similar activities on campus. The workers there split us up into groups and took us into different parts of the woods. There, we had to complete odd challenges using team work. One of challenges included crossing a path using a limited number of blocks that we had to stand on. If anyone fell off, we had to restart. This would not be have been too difficult, but we were also not allowed to talk to each other. The other activities were similarly difficult, but even more difficult to put into words. In one we had to work together to lift a bowl of tennis balls onto a pyramid using ropes, with specific members of the group limited in what they could do; some were blindfolded and were the only ones to touch the ropes, some could not talk but had to guide those blindfolded, and a third group could only talk, instructing the others what to do. I’m not sure how much this developed our ability to work together, but it definitely helped us get to know one another a little better.

G.O.A.L.S.

[ “G.O.A.L.S.” is a place where students write about how their planned, current, and future activities may fit into the Honors & Scholars G.O.A.L.S.: Global Awareness, Original Inquiry, Academic Enrichment, Leadership Development, and Service Engagement. For more information, go to: http://honors-scholars.osu.edu/e-portfolio. Delete these instructions and add your own post.

Global Awareness: Students cultivate and develop their appreciation for diversity and each individual’s unique differences. For example, consider course work, study abroad, involvement in cultural organizations or activities, etc .
Original Inquiry: Honors & Scholars students understand the research process by engaging in experiences ranging from in-class scholarly endeavors to creative inquiry projects to independent experiences with top researchers across campus and in the global community. For example, consider research, creative productions or performances, advanced course work, etc.
Academic Enrichment: Honors & Scholars students pursue academic excellence through rigorous curricular experiences beyond the university norm both in and out of the classroom.
Leadership Development: Honors & Scholars students develop leadership skills that can be demonstrated in the classroom, in the community, in their co-curricular activities, and in their future roles in society.
Service Engagement: Honors & Scholars students commit to service to the community.]

Career

[“Career” is where you can collect information about your experiences and skills that will apply to your future career.  Like your resume, this is information that will evolve over time and should be continually updated.   For more information, go to: http://honors-scholars.osu.edu/e-portfolio. Delete these instructions and add your own post.]

Artifacts

One thing that represents my first year at OSU is my General Chemistry textbook. Though it is certainly not exciting, it has been central to my academic life here. General Chemistry has hands-down been my most difficult class these first two semesters. At times, it felt like chemistry was the only class I had. Of course, I spent plenty of time on my other classes, but they were simply not as demanding. The book is a good representation of my first year because I, like many other students, spent a majority of my time adjusting to the workload of college. I adjusted fairly quickly, but in order to feel as though I was achieving what I wanted to in the class, I had to spend an ample amount of time doing work beyond what was assigned. This is because I aimed not to merely keep up with the class, but to excel in the class and learn as much as I could from all the work I was doing. My textbook represents my first year because I now feel that I have accomplished what I set out to do. I feel that I have a thorough understanding of nearly all the information in the book and am proud of all the work I have done. This will serve me well as I move on to Organic Chemistry next year and beyond. Organic is said to be the demise of many pre-med students, so hopefully with the groundwork I have set this year, I will do just as well next year.

About Me

I am Austin Campbell. I am from Huron, Ohio, which is a small town on Lake Erie. If you know where Cedar Point is, Huron’s right next-door. I am majoring in Biology in the Pre-Med track. Of course, I am pre-med because I hope to attend medical school after my years as an undergraduate. I chose biology because it has always been my favorite subject, and it seemed to be an intuitive preparation for medical school. Biology is also interesting to me because it is the science of life, which, I think, is as exciting as science can get. I enjoy the major because it touches on a wide range of information, allowing me to take classes in very different subjects that still pertain to my primary field of study. I am passionate about developing my knowledge base, living a healthy lifestyle, and spending as much time as possible with my friends.