Out of the 5 G.O.A.L.S. of the Honors Program, I’m choosing to focus on Global Awareness and Academic Enrichment in my first year at Ohio State. I think Global Awareness is an extremely important aspect of our program, as it helps to encourage diversity and understanding across different cultures. I have already attended two “Open Doors” sessions, in which I was officially trained by OSU’s Bias Assessment and Response Team to become an Open Doors Partner. In these trainings, we learned how to recognize and react to bias, in an attempt to understand and lessen its impact on (and off) campus. I also plan to declare a Spanish minor in the coming semester, which I think will further enhance my development in the Global Awareness aspect of G.O.A.L.S.
As my second focus, I believe Academic Enrichment is one of the most widely recognized goals across campus. The majority of students who choose to pursue higher education already value academic enrichment, and I want to further this by taking challenging classes while I pursue my degree. After my first semester, I will already have 7 credit hours of Honors classes finished. The Honors Sociology course that I am currently enrolled in is my most thought-provoking class, and I truly believe it is making me a better scholar. Every class, we have in-depth discussions of the sociological concepts that shape our world, and I believe this is helping me to branch out past the usual STEM-based classes that I tend to focus on.