Through my scholar’s group, Advocates of Communities and Education, I was able to meet my mentee, Natalie Seeman. Natalie and I connected for the very start due to our energetic and loud attitudes. I knew from the start that I would love to be Natalie’s mentor. Recently, Natalie and I met up in the Ohio Union to get to know more about each other. I got the chance to get to know general information about her, how she is adjusting in her classes so far, the type of involvement she is interest in at OSU and ACES, and how her college transition is going so far.

Natalie likes many things including volleyball, eating various types of food, and socializing with others. One of the questions I asked Natalie was what she was mostly looking forward in ACES and she said the social events. Because of her outgoing personality, Natalie wants social events that will allow her to meet more people in ACES who aren’t living on her floor. Also, the social events sound fun to her. I can totally relate with Natalie with trying to meet more new people because I also have a very outgoing personality. As well, I find it interesting to talk to various people and listen to their different ideas. Not only is Natalie excited about her involvement in ACES, she is excited to join other clubs on campus. The type of involvement that Natalie is interested is athletic clubs. Currently, she is planning to join club volleyball next semester, but in the meantime, she is in a group chat with other freshmen who are interested in playing volleyball on their free time. Also, Natalie wants to join a service club hat volunteers at the homeless shelters. I told Natalie that she could volunteer at the Star House which helps the homeless youth. As well, Natalie loves dogs therefore she may be joining OSU 4 Paws for Ability sometime this year.

Natalie and I also discussed about her academics. I asked Natalie what her most challenging course was so far, and she responded microeconomics. When I learned that Natalie was struggling in microeconomics, I started helping her out by telling her about resources such as the Dennis Learning Center that will allow her to connect with someone who has experience with this course and can aid her. As well, I told Natalie to start reaching out and discussing with her professors when she is struggling with course material. In addition to receiving help from her professors, Natalie can start making connection with them and later ask these professors to write her letters of recommendations for graduate school or potential jobs. Since Natalie’s brother is taking the course as well, Natalie plans on having him study with her and helping her out. At the moment Natalie is undecided and therefore does not know what future careers she would like to go into at this time. Yet, when asking about her dream job, Natalie responded with being the coach for the U.S. Women’s National Volleyball Team because she is passionate about volleyball and she enjoys teaching the sport to other people.

Upon asking Natalie what the most surprising aspect of OSU was since arriving to campus, Natalie responded that she started to find the campus not as big once she started living in Smith-Steeb Hall as a student. As a student, she felt that the sense of community here at OSU is very supportive. I absolutely agree with Natalie. I remember feeling daunted about the size of OSU but after a couple of weeks I slowly started to memorize where the locations of North Campus, the Ohio Union, Evans Laboratory, etc. Also, I told Natalie to make sure to use the Ohio State app because that is a very useful tool. When I was a freshman, the app helped me a lot trying to find the building that all my classes took place, various c-stores on campus, how many swipes I had left, etc.

Overall, Natalie is such an amazing mentee and I am very excited to get to know her more throughout this year. Also, I am very excited to help her with her transition to college. I believe Natalie will do great things and her time at OSU will be successful!