Interview Questions

1. Are you enjoying your major? Why or why not?
2. How do you manage your time between your involvement and your academics?
3. Have you enjoyed the ACES living-learning community in Smith-Steeb? Why or why not?
4. Have you had the chance to explore your desired career through internships, field experience, etc.?
5. What is your favorite memory from last year?

Responses

1. Anna is a Psychology major and she loves it. She has wanted to pursue this career path since junior year of high school and all the college classes that she has taken have confirmed her passion. Her professors have done the same.
2. She has a planner to help keep her organized. She goes through her week and writes down all of her assignments so that she is not overwhelmed. She also tries not to overbook her schedule with extracurricular activities.
3. Anna has enjoyed the ACES living-learning community because this is where she made a lot of her closest friends.
4. Anna has had the opportunity to participate in a research study about depression. She went to meetings where they interviewed participants in this psychology study. Part of the study involved rating therapists and observing how they administer cognitive therapy.
5. She had a lot of great memories from last year. Some of her favorite memories are from when she would go out and explore Columbus.

1. Jen plans on majoring in Athletic Training, but she still has to apply to the major. Although she is not in the major yet, she loves it. She was able to observe the Ohio State basketball team which just confirmed her passion.
2. School comes first for Jen, but she tries to fit in as many activities in her schedule as she can which sometimes causes her to have a messed up sleep schedule.
3. Jen loves the living-learning community because it is where she made most of her best friends and she likes living on the same floor as them. She really missed having this when we were forced to finish school virtually.
4. Last summer, she had the opportunity to work at Athletica, a local physical therapy. As I mentioned before, she also had the opportunity to work with the Ohio State men’s basketball team where she helped with stretching, tape, medication, and filling up the waters.
5. Jen’s favorite memory from last year is getting to know everyone on her floor. In order to do this, she decided to have a pancake night and messaged everyone through groupme. About 15 people came and they all had a lot of fun getting to know each other. Her and her friends also decided to have a friends-giving which is also one of Jen’s favorite memories.

Unfortunately, I was not able to interview Jen and Anna before we were required to finish the semester virtually. We were able to complete the interviews over FacTime. However, due to our current situation, it will be difficult to continue this mentor mentee relationship. I hope that we can still keep in contact though because I think we can all help each other in this difficult and unfamiliar time. We could all share different ways that we find are working for us in terms of how we are handling our school work and managing our time. We can also share ways that we are staying healthy, physically, mentally, and emotionally. After talking to both Anna and Jen, it seems like they are handling the current situation well. They both are able to get their work done. However, they do miss being able to go out with friends. I do too, but one way I can continue to mentor them is offer them ways to stay connected with their friends and make sure they are aware of all the resources campus still has to offer, even virtually.

1. How do you like to study? Have you found a good place for studying on campus?
2. What type of volunteering and involvement were you involved with in high school?
3. Why did you choose ACES?
4. What is your dream job and why?
5. What has surprised you about Ohio State since arriving on campus?

I interviewed Jen Kaufman who is majoring in athletic training and Anna Enriquez who is majoring in psychology. After conducting this interview, I learned a lot about about both of them and how their first semester is going at Ohio State.
Jen likes to listen to music while she studies. She also likes to do homework in places that provide a lot of background noise, which is why she often studies in the union. She also likes to study at Thompson library, the basement of Smith-Steeb, and on her floor. Anna on the other hand, prefers to study at the 18th avenue library. However, like Jen, she likes to study in her room because it is more comfortable. As I continue to mentor both of them, I would like to show them some other places to study such as the Geology Library in Orton Hall. It’s one of my favorite places to study and not many people know about it.

Jen did not volunteer often in high school. However, she worked a lot. She also started a club at her school called delta. It advocates students against drugs and alcohol. Anna was not involved in too much in high school either, but she was a member of the Matthew 25 Ministries which is an international humanitarian aid and disaster relief organization. She was able to get involved with this organization by volunteering her time to organize donations and make donations herself. This sounds like an amazing opportunity and I am glad that she is continuing service at Ohio State through ACES.

Since Jen is majoring in athletic training, it makes sense that she initially wanted to be in the health and sciences scholars program. However, she is happy to be part of ACES and also wanted to be part of this scholars group for a variety of reasons. She loved how it applied to a wide variety of majors which allows her to interact with a diverse group of students. It also provides her with many different opportunities. Anna loves to volunteer and help people, so she thought that ACES would provide her with many opportunities to do that.

Jen’s dream job is to be a physical therapist and I am so glad she is pursuing this dream. She wants to be a physical therapist because there are so many different environments that she could get a job in. For example, she could work at a school, a clinic, or a hospital. In order to fulfill her biggest dream though, she would love to get a job working with a professional team. Anna’s dream job is to be a clinical psychologist. Like Jen, she is pursuing this dream and I am so excited for her. As I mentioned before, she loves to help people so this is another way that she gets to do that.

There is not much that has surprised Jen about Ohio State besides the fact that it is easy to get around and the food is good. It also took Anna few seconds to think about what has surprised her about the school. She said that she was surprised by how quickly she was able to learn to find her way around campus despite it being so big. Like they always say on campus tours, you can make a big school small, but you can’t make a small school big.

These are my two mentees, Jen and Anna. Unfortunately, our schedules do not line up very well so it was difficult to find time for all of us to get together. We decided to get dinner since this was the only time we were all free. We did not want to take public transportation when it was dark outside, so we decided to go somewhere that was within walking distance. We felt more comfortable walking somewhere that was close to campus rather than taking the bus. However, in the future I would like to take them somewhere further off campus. We are very fortunate because we get to ride the COTA bus for free, so I think this is definitely something we should take advantage of. We talked about going to a few different places in the Short North, so hopefully we will be able to make it there next semester. After brainstorming a few different places, we decided to go to Noodles and Company. All of us live in Smith-Steeb, so we are rarely that far North on High Street. It is also somewhere we are able to use our Buck ID cash, which made it more appealing.

I was most looking forward to really getting to know my mentees. We have met a few times, but never really had a good chance to get to know each other. I also think we were all excited to eat somewhere that wasn’t the union. One thing that we found we all had in common is that we are getting tired of eating at the union, but are often too lazy to walk anywhere else since it is so close to our dorm. We talked a lot on our walk to Noodles and Company and I learned a lot about both of them. When we finally got to the restaurant and ordered our food we never stopped talking. We ended up staying a lot longer than I expected and I look forward to doing this again with them. In one of our conversations, we talked about how we all miss driving. Since I’m from New Jersey, I mentioned that I have never pumped my own gas. They were so surprised when I said that and it was just one of the many things we laughed about that day.

I would definitely go back to Noodles and Company because it is right on campus and the food is really good. However, despite not being busy, the workers seemed to struggle with keeping everybody’s orders straight. We were all waiting for our food wondering why it was taking so long when one of the workers came up to us to ask for our orders again. They had to ask another group of students for their orders as well. We eventually got our food though and it was delicious. I also think that this situation is probably rare because I have been here a few other times and never had a problem. I would also recommend this place to a friend because it is a good alternative to campus food and you are able to use your buck ID there. It is also very affordable. It was not very crowded when we went either, despite being there around 6:00 p.m., which was nice. However, we did go on a Monday night; it may be more crowded on the weekends.

I learned a lot about what it is like to live in Columbus through this experience and I hope Jen and Anna did too. For example, in researching where to go, I discovered that there are a lot of unique places and restaurants to visit that are easy to get to and are close to campus. There are so many restaurants and stores that students are able to walk to. There are also various modes of transportation that make exploring the city so much easier. For example, we could have taken taken the COTA, scooters, bikes, or an Uber. We decided that walking was our best option, but I hope to go somewhere a little further and more unfamiliar to us next time we venture off campus. I also learned that you do not need to spend a lot of money to do something fun in the city with friends. As students, we get discounts for so many amazing events such as concerts and sporting events. Most of the restaurants near campus are also very affordable. There are so many opportunities for students to get off campus and I can’t wait to explore more of the city with Anna and Jen.

This is me and my partner’s presentation that we developed to teach our psychology class about Vygotsky and his sociocultural theory. We developed a lesson plan that helped guide our instruction, which is also linked below. We included a pretest to test what students could recall from the reading and asked various questions throughout our presentation. I really enjoyed this project because I am studying Early Childhood Education and I learned a lot about how to create a lesson plan and keep students engaged in the lesson. It also made me appreciate all the thought and planning that teachers put into their lessons to accommodate all of their students. It can be difficult to come up with ideas and activities that are unique and engaging. However, this project did present some challenges for me because it was my first time creating a lesson plan, but now I know a little more about how to construct one which will be useful for me as a new teacher.

Presentation

Lesson Plan

This is my group’s presentation for our ACES Pillars Film Project where we watched a documentary and discussed how the four pillars, positive social change, service, community, and advocacy, were represented in the film. The documentary we watched is called Homeless: The Motel Kids of Orange County. It focuses on the life of multiple families living in a motel and what they have to do to survive. It is an eye opening film that reveals a lot about the struggles these families must face and overcome. It really inspired me to want to contribute to my community in any way possible. A gesture as simple as donating food or a couple of dollars can go a long way to help families in need.

Presentation