The Mentorship Experience

 

During this year, I was a mentor to Alice Mason. Alice is a first year ACES student studying for neuroscience. However, Alice plans to go to grad school to study veterinary medicine. She is from Akron, Ohio. Alice is involved with several student organizations at Ohio State including CHAARG, Brain Club and Pen Pals as well as volunteering with blood drives and helping in a research lab. Even though we have very different career aspirations and are involved in different student organizations, I always looked forward to talking to Alice about them. I found that we had many similarities among our differences. For example, the research lab that Alice assists with involves her working with children. I have always loved working with children as I used to teach sunday school and have volunteered in various ways that involve children. So, I loved talking to Alice about the kids that she worked with in her lab. Also, though we do not share any student organizations besides ACES, I found that we both had similar experiences. I found my sense of belonging and community at Ohio State through an organization called Cru while Alice found hers in CHAARG. It was really cool to see a change in Alice from first to second semester that I think CHAARG had a lot to do with. Alice became much more confident and I could tell that she was enjoying herself a lot more. She had become a part of a tight knit community and made lots of new friends whose interests align with hers. At the beginning of the school year, Alice was definitely much more reserved. But I have seen a big change in her and she has opened up to me a lot more. It was also really great to see Alice become more confident in her career path. When she first started at Ohio State, she was unsure about vet school and her major. But, now she is happy to be in neuroscience and she is sure that she wants to go to vet school.

I was pretty nervous about being a mentor at the beginning of the school year. I was concerned about my mentee not liking me or me not having enough experience to help them through situations that they would come to me about. I was also nervous because at first it seemed like Alice and I had very little in common, but as we continued to get to know each other, it became clear that we actually shared a lot of qualities, experiences and interests. So, once I actually started meeting with Alice, I had no more qualms about the program and my role in it. I have also grown a lot during this experience. I have gained a lot of leadership experience and it has been really rewarding to watch Alice grow. I think that it is very important for older students to build relationships with younger ones because it can be very beneficial to share our experiences. I have loved being able to give Alice advice and help her through such a big transition in her life. Also, this program is a great way to build friendships. Whenever Alice and I would spend time together to complete our requirements for the program, it never felt like an obligation, it just felt like we were two friends spending a day together. During our interviews we would often get sidetracked talking about other topics and it would take us forever to finish the interview because we were talking about other things!

In summation, I am so grateful for the mentor program. During my time in the program, both as a mentor and mentee, I have grown tremendously while also helping others through this big transition in life. It has also been wonderful to pass on things that I learned from my mentor onto Alice. And hopefully Alice will pass on lessons learned from me and my mentor onto her mentee. This process makes me feel like I will still be very connected to the ACES program even though I have graduated and will not be as involved as I have been in the past couple of years. The mentorship program has also taught me a lot about the importance of finding commonalities. Even when someone at first appears to have very different interests and experiences than you, you can almost always find a few things that you have in common. Mentoring Alice has definitely shown that even though we appear to be very different at first, we have so many similarities and so many things to learn from each other!

Second Semester Explore Columbus

 

My mentee Alice and I went to the Eat Purr Love Cat Cafe in Clintonville. To get there we took the COTA bus. Alice and I discussed how we seem to grow in understanding of how to take the COTA as time goes on. The bus ride took a fairly long time but eventually we arrived at the Cat Cafe. When discussing where to go for our explore Columbus, we both agreed on the cat cafe really quickly. Because Alice wants to be a veterinarian and because I love cats, we were both super excited to go together. While we were waiting for our time slot to begin, we played UNO and talked about the semester. We discussed multiple things like her new roommate, living in Smith-Steeb, and CHAARG, a student organization that she is involved with. It just so happened that we both had formals for student organizations that weekend so we talked about that as well. We also talked about how tough general chemistry is as we both took the course. Another topic we discussed was ACES- including how we got our service hours. While I get most of my service hours with Buckeyethon, Alice talked about how she sometimes volunteers at an animal shelter in Columbus to get hers. We then transitioned into talking about the ACES events that we attended this semester.

Once we got in to the room with the cats we were in love! Our favorite cat we met was named Jimmy Steve. He was only 2 years old but really big! He was very loving and he really enjoyed laying in the sunshine. While we were petting Jimmy Steve, we discussed the pets that we would like to have when we got older, we both want cats and dogs! We looked for a cat for my parents to adopt but unfortunately we left empty handed even though we wanted to adopt every cat there. The cafe was set up in a very interesting way. In one room it was like a normal cafe with tables and a counter with coffee, tea, hot chocolate and pastries. Then, in the other room were all of the cats! When you go in, they have plenty of couches and tables that you can sit at while visiting with the cats. They had lots of cat themed decor and fish tanks to keep the cats entertained. They also give you a container of treats to give to the cats when you go in. They have about 10 cats in the room so there are plenty of furry friends to choose from. They even had tons of toys that you could use to play with the cats.

Afterwards we were both hungry so we stopped at the counter and both got banana chocolate chip muffins and continued our conversation. We talked about housing for next school year and I told her about the process of finding off campus housing. She is living in Smith Steeb again next year but has her housing figured out for the year after. Then, we took the bus back home. During the half hour bus ride, we made great conversation and joked around with each other.

The day that we completed our explore Columbus adventure just so happened to be the same day as the ACES Banquet. We both talked about how excited we were to celebrate the year and spend time with our fellow ACES. We even talked about the dresses that we were going to wear to the banquet.

The Explore Columbus Assignments have been so much fun. I really enjoy being able to get out of the campus bubble and go to places in Columbus that I wouldn’t normally go! Throughout my time in the mentorship program, as both a mentor and mentee, I have gotten to try new restaurants, ice cream shops and of course, the cat cafe! I think that going to school in Columbus presents us with a unique opportunity to live in a big city. Since I hope to live in Columbus one day, I think it is very beneficial for me to get to know places in the city. Alice and I also discussed where we’d like to live after graduation and we have differing opinions. While I would love to live in Columbus, she said that she wouldn’t want to live in a city that big.

It has been really wonderful to get to know her this year. I think that the mentorship program is really beneficial for both the mentor and the mentee. Without this program I don’t know that I would have taken the time to get to know Alice.

Mentor/Mentee Second-Semester Interview Assignment

Mentor/Mentee Second-Semester Interview Assignment

Questions:

  1. What class on your current schedule do you think will be the most challenging and why?
  2. How have you gotten involved on campus?
  3. How was your first semester in ACES?
  4. Have your career plans changed since your first semester? Why or why not?
  5. What is your favorite memory from last semester?

My mentee is Alice Mason, she is a first year student studying neuroscience. When we met, we had a great conversation that started off by talking about how her semester is going in general. She said that she is really enjoying her second semester. Now that she is all settled in and has become accustomed to university life, she is having a great semester. I found out that she received a new roommate who is also named Rachel! Alice said that the two of them are getting along very well and that she really likes her. Then, we started to talk about academics in which she told me that her most challenging course this year is Chemistry 1220, which is General Chemistry II. I empathized with Alice as I took General Chemistry I my first semester at Ohio State and really struggled with it and I know that General Chemistry II is much more difficult. Because I had taken Chemistry 1210 before, we shared our experiences with the course and we agreed that the course is one of the most difficult general education courses at Ohio State.

We then started to talk about Alice’s involvement here on campus. Besides ACES, Alice is involved with CHAARG, a health and fitness focused student organization, the Pen Pal Program, a research lab in which they are studying the effects of imitation on children with autism, the Brain Club, and volunteering with the blood drives. I was really interested in talking to Alice about CHAARG because one of my roommates is also involved with this organization. So, we chatted about her small group and how she is enjoying it. I also asked her about the research that she is helping with. I found the topic extremely interesting and we chatted about the possibility of her doing her own research in the future. She told me that she would like her research to be more focused on the brain rather than psychology, like the research that she is helping with now.

After discussing her involvement at OSU, we talked about how she is enjoying ACES. She is really enjoying the program and loves that she is held accountable to participate in community service. We discussed the various ways that we complete our service hours. She completes many of her hours through her volunteering at the blood drives, Pen Pals, and at a local animal shelter. I was really interested in hearing about her time in the animal shelter as I know that she aspires to be a veterinarian. She was so excited as she told me all about volunteering there. I then shared that I get a lot of my volunteer hours through Buckeyethon and various ACES events.

Since we were talking about her time in the animal shelter, we transitioned into talking about her career aspirations. I asked her if her career plans had changed since first semester. She replied by saying that while she still plans on going to vet school and becoming a veterinarian, she decided that she wants to continue with her neuroscience major instead of switching to animal science. She explained that she believes that an undergraduate degree in neuroscience would lead to more job opportunities than a major in animal science.

Lastly, we discussed how her transition to college was last semester. When I asked about her favorite memory from last year, she told me that while she did not have a specific memory in mind, she really enjoyed her first semester. She loved the new atmosphere and meeting new people the most. We also talked about football games, though she wasn’t able to get tickets for this year, she is really excited to get tickets for next year! I really enjoyed catching up with Alice and I was really happy to hear that her second semester is going well.

 

ACES Explore Columbus

 

Word Count: 762

My mentee and I went to Ethyl and Tank for a late lunch for our Explore Columbus. Since Alice works a lot of hours at her job at a sandwich shop, we were tight on time. So, we decided to explore a restaurant that is very close to home. Even though Ethyl and Tank is right across the street from the Ohio Union, this was my first time going. We chose Ethyl and Tank because of its proximity to campus and because neither of us had ever been. I was very excited to try it because I had heard great reviews on the food. My roommate Kendall actually went there for her Explore Columbus with her mentee last year.   The restaurant has a variety of foods, including brunch, Mexican food, and traditional American food like hamburgers and mac n cheese. We both ended up getting the same thing-tacos! They were the best deal on the menu.

 

Our journey to our location was brief and rather uneventful. We just talked and continued to get to know each other better. The walk only took about three minutes. When we got there, we were seated right away. Since we got there early in the afternoon on a week day, there were very few people there and we got great service. Conversation flowed easily between us. We talked about several topics. When I asked her how her semester was going, she got very excited. She said that choosing to go to Ohio State was definitely the right choice and I definitely agree with her! We also talked about how we both considered Wittenberg University. Wittenberg is in my hometown and we talked about her visit there. We both agreed that Wittenberg was too small of a school for us. She is also feeling confident that she wants to pursue a career with animals, though she still isn’t sure whether she wants to be a vet or work in animal behavior. We also discussed living in Smith Steeb and roommates. She remembered my roommate because they both really like whales. We joked about opening a petting zoo for whales. I said that I could handle the business and she could take care of the whales, but we weren’t sure about how to open up this business legally. We also talked about her job at a sandwich shop near campus. Even though she is working a lot, she seems to be enjoying it.

 

I absolutely would like to go back to Ethyl and Tank. While the tacos tasted fantastic and were priced more than fairly, I am excited to try their other food. I have heard really great things about their brunch food. Since breakfast food is one of my favorites, I’m sure I would love it! Alice and I also talked about where we would like to go for our next Explore Columbus assignment. Since we both love cats, we would like to go to the cat cafe on Indianola. We wanted to go to the cat cafe this semester but unfortunately it did not work out. But, hopefully next semester we’ll have more time so we can go. Maybe we can even have some other ACES join us!

 

From this assignment, I learned that there are always new things to discover in this city. Ethyl and Tank is so close to campus, yet I had not tried it even though I have been on campus for over a year. I love how many things there are to do and try in Columbus. It was so difficult to pick something to do for this assignment. There were so many restaurants and activities that I wanted to try! I also learned that I need to go out of my comfort zone and try restaurants and activities that I have not tried yet. I tend to go to the same few restaurants when I go out to eat, and I want to get out of that habit. I hope to live in Columbus after graduation and I am so excited to live here because of all of the opportunities that I can experience here.

 

It was really cool to check in with Alice later in the semester. At the beginning of the year, she wasn’t timid but she was a bit more reserved than she is now. It is very exciting to see her enjoying Columbus and Ohio State. I am so excited that I can share this experience with her. I hope that we can remain friends outside of our mentor/mentee relationship during our time at Ohio State.

 

Mentor/Mentee First Semester Interview Assignment

Rachel Copes

Mentor/Mentee First Semester Interview Assignment

Word Count: 758

 

Questions:

Academics- How do you like to study? Have you found a good place for studying on campus?

Involvement- What kind of involvement are you interested in on campus?

ACES- Why did you choose ACES?

Careers- What do you plan to do with your major after graduation? Graduate or professional school? Enter the workforce?

Miscellaneous- How will you balance academics and involvement?

 

My mentee is Alice Mason. Her major is neuroscience and she will be adding an animal science major to that in the near future. She is double majoring because once she graduates with her undergraduate degree she would like to go to vet school to become a veterinarian. However, if she doesn’t get into vet school she would like to pursue a career in animal behavior. Because I was not familiar with animal behavior I asked Alice about what a career in animal behavior would look like. She explained to me that she would train animals, preferably cats and/or dogs. After getting sidetracked talking about our pets and our mutual love for animals, I continued to ask her about this career path. She explained further that she would like to train these cats and dogs in various ways, including as therapy animals.

This conversation about the future led us to discuss academics. When I asked her about her studying habits, she told me that her favorite way to study is to study alone while verbally repeating her notes. Though this study tactic is very different from my own, I found it very intriguing and made sure to make a note of it for when exams come around. Alice also told me that her favorite place to study is on the steps outside of the psychology building. I then inquired about where she would study when the weather gets gloomy and cold and she said that she wasn’t sure where she would study and asked me for suggestions. Though my favorite place to study is in my room, I know that most people prefer to study outside of their dorm. So, I suggested that she try the study rooms in Smith-Steeb. I loved that I didn’t have to go far to study and I thought they would be a good fit for her since she prefers to verbalize her notes.

I found out that we both decided to join ACES for very similar reasons. Though we are pursuing completely different degrees, we both were attracted to the community service aspect. Alice would love to get involved with some animal-based service as it would be beneficial to her future career as well as her inclination to help others. We also agreed that we would like to round ourselves out as people. Choosing a scholars program that goes hand in hand with our major could lead to us putting our identity in our studies and we would like to be well rounded citizens that care about more than just our field of study.

We then began to discuss involvement at Ohio State. She told me that she is involved with a couple of neuroscience organizations as well as ACES. Alice would also like to get involved with service organizations on campus as she spent a lot of time in high school giving back to her community. One of her favorite places to volunteer was at a therapeutic horse farm that helped kids in her community. She then asked what organizations I partner with to get my service hours. I told her about my experience with Buckeyethon and she was very interested. I also began to talk about some of the other organizations that I am involved with such as Cru and Undergraduate Business Women’s Association. She seemed interested in Cru as well and began to talk about some Cru events that she attended at the beginning of the year.

I then asked her about how she plans to balance her academics and involvement in such a chaotic time in her life. She told me about how she scheduled her classes with this in mind. She planned her classes in a way that she gets out of class early in the day so that she can do her schoolwork and then attend her meetings for the various organizations that she is involved with. I was very impressed that she planned ahead this summer.

I had a great time getting to know Alice and I am very excited for the year to come. I hope that she can benefit from my guidance and that I can be a helpful resource for her. We discussed what she would like to do for the Explore Columbus assignment as she is not from the Columbus area. I was thrilled to hear that she would like to go to the Cat Café as I have been wanting to check it out myself! It was so great to see how much we have in common despite our differences.

 

 

 

Mentor/Mentee First Semester Interview Assignment

Rachel Copes

Mentor/Mentee First Semester Interview Assignment

Word Count: 758

 

Questions:

Academics- How do you like to study? Have you found a good place for studying on campus?

Involvement- What kind of involvement are you interested in on campus?

ACES- Why did you choose ACES?

Careers- What do you plan to do with your major after graduation? Graduate or professional school? Enter the workforce?

Miscellaneous- How will you balance academics and involvement?

 

My mentee is Alice Mason. Her major is neuroscience and she will be adding an animal science major to that in the near future. She is double majoring because once she graduates with her undergraduate degree she would like to go to vet school to become a veterinarian. However, if she doesn’t get into vet school she would like to pursue a career in animal behavior. Because I was not familiar with animal behavior I asked Alice about what a career in animal behavior would look like. She explained to me that she would train animals, preferably cats and/or dogs. After getting sidetracked talking about our pets and our mutual love for animals, I continued to ask her about this career path. She explained further that she would like to train these cats and dogs in various ways, including as therapy animals.

This conversation about the future led us to discuss academics. When I asked her about her studying habits, she told me that her favorite way to study is to study alone while verbally repeating her notes. Though this study tactic is very different from my own, I found it very intriguing and made sure to make a note of it for when exams come around. Alice also told me that her favorite place to study is on the steps outside of the psychology building. I then inquired about where she would study when the weather gets gloomy and cold and she said that she wasn’t sure where she would study and asked me for suggestions. Though my favorite place to study is in my room, I know that most people prefer to study outside of their dorm. So, I suggested that she try the study rooms in Smith-Steeb. I loved that I didn’t have to go far to study and I thought they would be a good fit for her since she prefers to verbalize her notes.

I found out that we both decided to join ACES for very similar reasons. Though we are pursuing completely different degrees, we both were attracted to the community service aspect. Alice would love to get involved with some animal-based service as it would be beneficial to her future career as well as her inclination to help others. We also agreed that we would like to round ourselves out as people. Choosing a scholars program that goes hand in hand with our major could lead to us putting our identity in our studies and we would like to be well rounded citizens that care about more than just our field of study.

We then began to discuss involvement at Ohio State. She told me that she is involved with a couple of neuroscience organizations as well as ACES. Alice would also like to get involved with service organizations on campus as she spent a lot of time in high school giving back to her community. One of her favorite places to volunteer was at a therapeutic horse farm that helped kids in her community. She then asked what organizations I partner with to get my service hours. I told her about my experience with Buckeyethon and she was very interested. I also began to talk about some of the other organizations that I am involved with such as Cru and Undergraduate Business Women’s Association. She seemed interested in Cru as well and began to talk about some Cru events that she attended at the beginning of the year.

I then asked her about how she plans to balance her academics and involvement in such a chaotic time in her life. She told me about how she scheduled her classes with this in mind. She planned her classes in a way that she gets out of class early in the day so that she can do her schoolwork and then attend her meetings for the various organizations that she is involved with. I was very impressed that she planned ahead this summer.

I had a great time getting to know Alice and I am very excited for the year to come. I hope that she can benefit from my guidance and that I can be a helpful resource for her. We discussed what she would like to do for the Explore Columbus assignment as she is not from the Columbus area. I was thrilled to hear that she would like to go to the Cat Café as I have been wanting to check it out myself! It was so great to see how much we have in common despite our differences.

 

 

 

ACES Pillars Film Project

ACES Pillars Film Project pdf-19mmzlu

This year, I participated in a group project for my scholar seminar class. For this project, I collaborated with my group to watch a documentary and evaluate the film by comparing aspects of the documentary to the four pillars of Advocates for Communities and Education Scholars as well as other elements of the film. My group evaluated the documentary, Stuck, which is a film that emphasizes the flaws in the international adoption system. This project added to my experiences of collaboration and bettered my communication and teamwork skills. This project also made me aware of a problem in this country as well as others and helped me understand the foundation of my scholars program.

G.O.A.L.S.

Service Engagement

In my opinion, service engagement should be the goal of any considerate citizen. Participation in community service not only helps those receiving the aid, but also improves the lives of those that are taking part in the service. Through my experiences with community service, I have received many benefits as well as learned many valuable lessons that have shaped me into the person that I am today. Through service, I have learned how to put others above myself, collaboration skills, and the value of hard work, along with many other meaningful values. I have also become more involved in my community through service. By serving alongside my peers, I have formed many friendships with people whose values align with my own. It is my hope that participating in a service-oriented scholars program that I will continue to learn about my values and form further friendships while also helping people in my community.

Year in Review

In the past year, I have had many wonderful experiences and opportunities. I have grown in many areas of my life including faith, friendship and scholarship. However, I feel that I have grown the most in leadership. During my senior year I had the opportunity to hold many leadership positions. I served as the president of my school’s chapter of National Honor Society. In my presidency I led and planned meetings and set up and participated in community service outings as well as other responsibilities. I also was the captain of the varsity cheerleading team and, involved in drama club leadership and the senior class vice president. In addition, I was invited to represent my school at the Josten Renaissance leadership conference. Through Josten Renaissance I was a student ambassador for Taco Bell’s Grad 4 Más program. Lastly, I had the privilege of helping with Sunday school for kindergarten students at First Christian Church as well as lead worship music and dance for children of ages ranging from 5 to 8. All of these positions helped to sculpt my leadership skills. The skills that I refined in my senior year will follow me throughout college and my employment in the future.

 

Pictured above is me with another NHS member volunteering at COSI day

Pictured above is me cheerleading and serving as captain

Pictured above is me with another member of drama leadership before the school musical, Anything Goes

Pictured above are the seniors who were invited to the Josten Renaissance Conference with the speaker from the event

Pictured above is me with a few of my Sunday school students