VIA Character Strengths Assessment

After taking the VIA Character Strengths Assessment, a survey which reveals the qualities that come most naturally to a person. My survey revealed that my top five strengths are:

  1. Kindness
    • I was not very surprised when I got kindness as my top character strength because kindness has always been a part of my personality and identity. I also believe that I am an empathetic person which is an important part of kindness and I think that it shows through my relationships with people closest to me and how I strive to treat others.
  2. Prudence
    •  I relate well with the strength of prudence because I am always very careful about my decisions and I tend to think a lot about what impact my words and actions will have. I am also a very organized person and I like planning things out.
  3. Honesty
    •  I identify with the strength of honesty because I think that many people view me as a trustworthy person because I am honest and tell people my true opinion. I also believe that I am honest with myself in that I take ownership of my behavior and actions.
  4. Fairness
    •   I connect with fairness as one of my character strengths because I think that I am generally pretty good at being able to put myself in other people’s shoes and understanding that everyone is going through something that others do not know about so it is important to treat everyone equally.
  5. Judgement
    •   Out of my top 5 strengths, I feel the smallest connection to judgement because it is a strength that I do not really notice myself using as much. I think that I use the aspects of judgement when making decisions, but it doesn’t play a very big role in my everyday life.

Columbus To-Do List Experience

On October 6, I visited The Fox in the Snow Café with my HES peer mentor group. We all got coffee and tried different pastries and baked goods from the café. The pastry and baked goods display looked extremely pretty and aesthetic, and they all tasted even better than they looked! I really enjoyed the whole experience because the food was amazing and everyone in the café was so nice and friendly. Also, the café had an appealing and cozy atmosphere because the décor was very minimalistic and warm. Through the experience, I learned that Fox in the Snow Café sources all their milk from local dairy farms and makes all of the pastries fresh in house every day. I would definitely recommend Fox in the Snow to a friend because it is the perfect place to spend a morning with some friends or family sharing company and delicious food.

About Me

Hello Everyone! My name is Abby Carruth. I grew up in Dayton, OH with my twin sister and younger brother and my dog, Bailey. I love to read, go hammocking, and play with puppies/dogs so you can often find me in my hammock or dog sitting my sister’s dog after classes. On campus, I am  involved with the Society of Women in Engineering and Engineers Without Borders. I am currently a pre-Biomedical Engineering Major, but I am also interested in possibly majoring in Spanish and/or Humanitarian Engineering. I am very interested in cell engineering and synthetic organs/tissues so I hope to learn more about those areas and potentially work with them in the future. My goal for my professional career is to attend graduate school and work in the industry. As an undergraduate student, some of my goals are to study abroad and to continue to serve the community through service. I want to study abroad to learn about different communities and practices and to be able to immerse myself into a new culture. I was active in community service during high school and I want to continue this practice throughout college because it was always a very rewarding experience to be able to see how helping in even small ways can make such a large difference for people.

Year in Review

During my first year at Ohio State, I feel like I grew a lot as a person and a student. The transition from high school to college was difficult at first but by using different resources and talking with fellow students, I learned to develop better study habits and find a routine that felt good for me. Since the beginning of freshman year, my classes and various academic experiences I had helped further shape my goals and aspirations. I entered freshman year as a pre-Biomedical Engineering major, however, throughout the past year, I have found that the FABE major better fits with my future goals and also chose to pursue minors in Humanitarian Engineering and Spanish. One very influential experience in developing my goals and aspirations was my service learning trip to Guatemala (image below). The trip was a really amazing experience for me and it made me realize that one of my goals is to work in the non-profit sector.

Some steps that I have taken this year to help accomplish my goals were: taking electives to help find my interests, participating in various student organizations, and taking advantage of opportunities provided by my scholars program. In the second semester of my first year I took two engineering elective courses, FABE 3200s and ENGR 5797.22s, both of which helped to solidify my goals and gave me experience I would need to accomplish them in the future. By participating in various student organizations, such as SWE and Design for 90, I also gained very valuable knowledge and experience to help me on the path to my aspirations. Finally, by taking advantage of the many opportunities provided by my scholars program I was able to develop relationships with fellow scholars students, learn about a variety of different things, and receive mentorship from older students and faculty.

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 guidance on using your ePortfolio, including questions and prompts that will help you get started, please visit the Honors & Scholars ePortfolio course in Carmen. To get answers to specific questions, please email eportfolio@osu.edu. Delete these instructions and add your own post.]

Artifacts

Coaching -I have been playing basketball for almost my entire life, but this past spring season I had the opportunity to be a part of the game in a new way, as a coach. I learned so much about myself throughout the season and being able to watch each of the girls grow from the beginning to the end of the season was a very special experience. Coaching helped me to find a new self-confidence because I had to be able to lead the team and be someone that the players could trust and look up to. I was blessed with an amazing group of players and families who supported me through my first coaching experience and I hope to continue coaching in the future.