The Second Year Advocacy Forum gave me a better sense of how to advocate for change while inspiring me to advocate for change as well. During this forum, I read three projects, one was about NASA funding and increasing awareness of its importance, another was about voter registration reform and voter turnout, and the last was about the workload of college students and its effects. All of these projects used factual details to bolster their argument which in turn helped convince me of the points they were making, while some also inspired me.
In the project about the workload of college students, I found these factual details especially helpful in this project since there were quite a few statistics about how different aspects of college and life affect students’ gpa and mental health. The author of this project specifically referenced Ohio State and what they are doing to help their students with their stresses, which I found to be interesting since it directly relates to me and could be helpful to me at some point. The project about NASA funding included a lot of statistics as well and went into detail about how NASA affects the economy and US markets which I found to be more relatable and convincing since it dealt with a topic that personally affects me.
Another project I looked at was on voter registration reform and it went into great detail about the different systems of voter registration and how effective they have been on increasing registration rates, which is the biggest barrier to voting. This kind of information particularly interests me because one of the topics I am passionate about is voting and getting others to vote. One of the big points in this article that I found inspiring was that people need to vote to cause any sort of change in society. As a whole, this project was inspiring to me and gave me a few ideas for my own advocacy project that I will complete next year.

In America, voter participation is very low and compared to voter turn out across the world, America has one of the lowest rates. Several factors play in to why eligible voters do not vote. For a lot of people, they find it hard to find time to vote when they work during Election Day. The process at the polls also can take a lot of time and people can’t always commit that much time to waiting to vote. A lot of times, eligible can’t make it to the polls because they have no means if transportation to get there. These people could vote by absentee ballot but maybe people do not know about those ballots or how to get one. Another reason people do not vote is due to voter identification laws since not every person has a valid drivers license or state ID.

In an attempt to increase voter participation, the election process could be changed in ways that benefit the people. Election Day could be declared a national holiday so people can get out and vote, or some form of secure online voting could be made available with proper safeguards. Another change to the process could be more workers at the polls to help speed up the process so people don’t have to wait as long to vote. Also, there should be more information available to people so they can more easily get absentee ballots if they still can’t make it to the polls. If people are not voting due to the voter identification laws, those can be loosened so more people could vote if they are eligible. All of these changes could help increase voter participation and reduce barriers to voting

In the picture above is my mentor, Beth Ann Powers, and myself. Beth Ann is a second year student who is originally from Dayton, Ohio and is majoring in political science with a minor in society and environmental issues and is planning to go to law school once she finishes her bachelors of science. She is very passionate about the environment and wants to be a part of the changes that are occurring surrounding environmental concern. Due to this, she plans to be an environmental lawyer and be active within her community. Service means a lot to Beth Ann, so she gives blood as often as possible, participates in Buckeyethon, and works with her sorority, Alpha Gamma Delta, and a program called fighting hunger. She also spent some time advocating for organ donation during one of her more memorable classes. Being involved and giving back were some of the main reasons she joined the sorority Alpha Gamma Delta, which she loves being a part of. Besides service, Beth Ann loves to play soccer, she was actually on the club team for a while, and she runs on her own time. She also wants to be a resource for others on campus, which is part of the reason she is a PSL mentor and is part of the STEP program. Even with all of her involvement, Beth Ann is still very focused on her academics and is taking several classes this semester that will prepare her for her future as an environmental lawyer.

The picture above is a solution after a titration I participated in during my senior year of high school. The blue precipitate in the solution is dyed starch in an acid solution.

This picture is important to me because it represents what made me like biochemistry and made me want to pursue a career in the field. The experiment taught me more about how things in the lab work and deepened my love for science. I consider my participation in this experiment and others a proud achievement of mine that was meaningful for the nexts steps in my life. Now and in the future, I will be doing more labs that will continue to drive my curiosity and love for science and it all started in the labs during an experiment like the one above.