My name is Clare Coons and I am a first year at The Ohio State University. I am from a small family of three in Centerville, OH. My high school class was about 630 people and it was very competitive. The school had tons of opportunities that made me very thankful to be able to go there. Currently I am an undecided major, but I am looking into health professions and medical fields. The body interests me because it is so complex and many things are still unknown about it.
In high school I ran cross country which taught me a lot about hard work and dedication. I ran with a team of around 70 girls who taught me how to care about other people. I can in as a very shy, scared freshman who didn’t talk much, but cross country showed me that a simple act of asking how a person’s run went could change their day. It taught me that a small act of kindness and motivation can really help a person. Furthermore, the sport was definitely not easy and fun all the time. I learned that to succeed you must put in lots of hard work. You have to go through hard times to get to the good times. Not only did cross country make me physically stronger, but also mentally. I learned to push through the tough times were times got hard. It taught me to push through because there is more left in you than you believe.
Throughout high school I tried to challenge myself by taking difficult math and science courses. I spent many long nights studying and doing homework. I have always enjoyed math and science throughout school. A person who has really inspired my excitement and interest in STEM is my chemistry teacher junior year. This teacher really made chemistry interesting and made me want to learn more. Even though the class was difficult and a lot of work, it set me up for success. I felt like I really learned the material and was provided opportunities to enhance my learning experience. My teacher explained the content very thoroughly and she was so passionate about the subject that she was inspiring.
I wanted to become a STEM EE scholar because I knew I enjoyed science and mathematic subjects. I knew that STEM was a growing field except I wasn’t exactly sure what STEM was. I thought that this program would help me expand my knowledge of the STEM field and maybe help aid me in choosing what I was passionate about. Also, I thought that it would help to know people that were interested in similar topics as me and to be able to share our experience with each other. Overall, I am very excited to be a STEM EE scholar and explore the subjects of STEM.
Strengths
My top 5 strengths from the Gallup StrengthsFinder test are restorative, harmony, consistency, developer, and responsibility. Restorative plays a role in my life because I want to do better than what I am at currently doing. In school, I set goals for myself but once I achieve them I want set higher goals. I am a realistic thinker so I set goals that are difficult but still in reach. I analyze what I did wrong to hopefully learn from my mistakes. For example, if I do badly on an exam, I think about how I studied and how to improve for next time. But also in life, I analyze when I had a fight with a friend or family and look at ways to improve or solve the problem. I hope that setting high goals for myself will influence people around me and encourage them. Harmony applies to my life I am a very practical thinker. In life, I think in a systematic way and about the actual task beforehand. In my academics, I am very focused on what has to be done and I approach my assignments in a logical way. Looking into the future of the next few days, I organize what tasks have to be done each day and when I should set time aside to complete the tasks. Consistency applies to my life because I like routine and schedule. Throughout the week, I like to know where I am supposed to be at certain times and I like to find a schedule that works. I like to know that there is a certain time set aside for certain tasks such as time to exercise or do homework. I am also more enthusiastic about certain aspects of life than others. I like to treat people as equally as possible and enjoy when other people succeed. Developer relates to my life because I enjoy helping other people and I like the way other people think. I appreciate how other people think differently than me and find it interesting how other approach different scenarios. The strength of responsibility applies to my life because I like commitments and knowing that actions are going to act upon. I feel really bad when I do not do something correctly or forget to do something that I said I would do.
Knowing my strengths helps support my future goals. My future goals include going into a career in maybe the medical or health field where science will be very involved. Science fields require a lot of problem solving and approaching problems with new perspectives and my strengths connect to these characteristics, which relates to the strength of restorative. Also in science fields, it is important to be able to work in groups, which applies to developer. My strengths support this future career goal because I appreciate what people have to say and add to the conversation. I also think my strengths support my future goals because I want to be passionate and committed to what I do in the future, which connects to restorative and responsibility. Science fields and any other career require lots of hard work and I think my strengths will help me achieve my goals.
In the future, my strengths will help me achieve my future goals personally and professionally. In the future, I want to have a career that I am passionate about and I am able to think practically to solve a problem, which restorative applies to. I am focused on actually accomplishing a task and get frustrated when I leave a project unfinished. I think being responsible and reliable will help me in my future goals. My strengths will help me achieve these goals because I enjoy thinking about problems in different ways. My strengths will also help my future goals to be able to work with a team of people to think about problems. From developer, I enjoy seeing how different people approach different problems and I think appreciating other people’s idea is very important in life. I think my strength of consistency will help me achieve my goals because it allows me a way to keep myself organized and make sure everything gets completed. I think recognizing my strengths and building upon my strengths will help me achieve my goals in life and be successful.