My first semester here at OSU was a challenge. My schedule was pretty difficult as it was filled with 8ams and classes that would end after 5 pm. I had difficult classes, like precalculus and chemistry, but the workload in all of my classes was very manageable. It was challenging at first to learn how I can properly balance school, work, studying, and my social life, but once I finally figured out what worked best for me, I was able to be very successful. This first semester made me realize how different high school is in comparison to college. I was very fearful of not fitting in as well as not being able to handle my schedule however I found out during this semester that everyone is friendly and it’s really easy to make friends once I pushed myself to put myself out there and balancing my schedule took some time to figure out but everything was very manageable. I felt like I was pretty involved in the Humanities Scholars group – I loved attending the activities provided and the class is a nice break from my other classes. I hope to be much more involved next semester in Humanities Scholars – I would like to attend more events and start making new friends within our group. I went on the Chicago trip with the Arts and Humanities Scholars groups and it was so much fun! I hope to do more activities like that, that expanded my interests and allowed me to explore different cultures and activities that I would not normally do.

“Really my passion in life is helping people”

“In high school I was really interested in a lot of different things and that is kinda my personality; I love helping people though. So when I first started in high school I wanted to do anthropology, I wanted to do something for the sciences so it was really hard for me when I got here, to Ohio State, to pick my major. I started off in “University Exploration” and another aspect of my personality is I’m really bad at decision making but I need to have a direction or else I freak out. For me, freshman year was all about trying to find what I wanted to do. I had to narrow it down to just a few things and found out that science wasn’t right for me. I found out that everything I wanted to do in high school wasn’t right for me. What I did was, after my freshman year, I decided that I wanted to do public affairs and double minor to kinda focus in on what I wanted to do. Really my passion in life is helping people. What I decided to do was public affairs and then go to law school because I feel like the best way to help someone is by changing the system, not just individual help. I think really what you need to do is change the policies that are affecting everyone. For me, that is my direction but finding it was really crazy and scary but now I’m here and it worked”. – AJ F.

My first week at Ohio State was full of different emotions. At first I felt a little strange when my family said goodbye to me on move-in day. Although they were only going to be an hour and a half away, I felt something change, as if I could feel myself officially “growing up”. After they left, I was really excited to start to officially be on my own. I love the idea of independence and move-in day really helped me to gain a sense of independence. I was very excited but also really nervous for the first day of classes. I was nervous that my classes were going to be too difficult to manage, but after having been through all of them, I have found that not only do I have plenty of time to manage my work, but I found many resources on campus that are willing to help me and other students succeed. After the first few days of “Syllabus week”, I was really ready to start a whole new way of learning that was so much more different than high school. The first week of classes helped me to figure out who I am as a student and what works best for me. The first week has been really great for me and because I am so occupied, it has made the transition away from home a lot easier. I have been meeting great people and experiencing new things that make me very optimistic for my future here at Ohio State. In the Humanities Scholars program, some of my expectations are to meet many new people and expand my sense of what it means to be in a community. My first week at OSU has exposed me to many great opportunities and because of this week, I have high expectations for my future. I cannot wait to see who I will meet, what I will do, and what the future holds for me here at The Ohio State University.

[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.]