For my second year service project I volunteered with the American Red Cross on the First Aid Services Team (FAST). As a member of FAST, I volunteer at various events around Ohio State and Columbus to provide first aid and emergency medical care to patrons. Some of the events I have volunteered at include basketball games, concerts, hockey games, wrestling matches, races, and more. Overall, volunteering with FAST has helped me give back to the OSU campus and our local community while also gaining clinical experience by treating patients. This volunteer opportunity has also allowed me to utilize my EMT-B certification and help lead fellow FAST members as an advanced responder during emergency situations. While a lot of my time volunteering has been spent waiting on standby, ready to respond to a call at a moment’s notice, knowing that my team and I are prepared to handle any call that is thrown at us helps me realize how important our job is because when something does go wrong, we are there to help. If we did not have the volunteers that we do and were not present at the events we serve at, minutes and even seconds could be wasted waiting for other first responders to arrive on scene, but in the event of an emergency those minutes and seconds can cost someone’s life. I never thought I would have such an amazing volunteer opportunity and while the great responsibility of caring for someone’s life can be intimidating, the moments when I have been able to keep an unresponsive woman breathing by inserting a nasal airway or stopping a girl’s head from gushing blood after being hit by a hockey puck, are incredibly rewarding and have inspired me even more to pursue a career in Emergency Medicine. I plan on continuing to volunteer with FAST until I graduate in order to gain more patient care experience, but also to give back to this community that has become my new home. By volunteering with FAST, I am one step closer towards achieving my goal of becoming an Emergency Medicine Physician.

My friends and I are always searching for physical activities to do whether that be playing Ultimate Frisbee or a pick-up game of basketball, but the cold weather has prevented us from being able to have fun and be active outside this second semester.  So, one evening we decided to go swimming at the McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion and we had so much fun. The hot tub was awesome and I had never been in a whirlpool before which was really cool. Also there were hardly any people there so we pretty much had the pool to ourselves which was great. I missed being able to swim a lot back home, so swimming in OSU’s pool for the first time was amazing. I cannot wait to go there more often and have a lot of fun while getting a good workout in!

Coming from Cleveland, I am very familiar with the West Side Market, and since coming to campus, I have heard a lot of people talk about the North Market. I presumed that maybe it would be like the West Side Market but I really had no idea what to expect of it. So my friends and I took a COTA bus to the North Market on a Saturday morning to see what it was all about. At first sight, I was very impressed with the classiness of the place. It was very nicely organized and all of the little shops, booths, and stores looked great. I was overwhelmed by the amount of options they had for food and I just wanted to try everything. I finally decided on getting a pretzel from Brezel which was the best soft pretzel I have ever had. I also tried out a beef brisket sandwich from Holy Smoke BBQ and ended with a macaroon from Pistacia Vera. Everything I ate was delicious and I cannot wait to go back to try other things out, but as a Clevelander, I think I am still a little biased towards the West Side Market.

I am a big fan of ice cream and ever since I came to campus in the fall, a lot of people had told me that I should eat at Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream. I wanted to see if it was really as good as people from the Columbus area were saying that it was, so my friends and I hopped on a COTA bus that took us to the Jeni’s in the Short North. It was packed when we got there; since there were so many people there, I assumed it must be really good ice cream, but I needed to try for myself. I liked that I was able to choose two different flavors since each serving came with two scoops, but it was also a little pricey. However, once I ate the first spoonful of Jeni’s ice cream, the price was well worth it. It was delicious ice cream and though I would not deem it as the best there is, I am still happy I finally got to try it out!