Mentee First Semester Interview

Recently I conducted an interview with my mentee Pratik Banala about how his experience at OSU is going. I asked Pratik the following questions: “How do you like to study? Have you found a good place to study on campus?”, “What kind of involvement are you interested in on campus?”, “Why did you choose ACES?”, “What do you plan to do after graduation, join a workforce or grad school?”, and “What has surprised you about Ohio State?”. After answering these questions, I learned a lot about Pratik. Pratik loves to study while listening to music and has found some solid study spots around OSU. Pratik is often at Thompson Library studying or in his room. He also reaches out to classmates and studies in groups at 18th Avenue library. I was very proud of Pratik for already having set up various places and people to study at and with. As a freshman I struggled with finding a place to effectively study but Pratik is handling this aspect of college very well. Pratik has not found the time to fit in involvement at OSU quite yet but really wants to once he gets the hang of his schedule. As a mentor I want to help him find places and encourage him to make the time to go to meetings for different clubs he mentioned being interested in. Some of these clubs include the College Democrats and Boo Radley Society. I encouraged Pratik to find time to go to at least one meeting to check out the clubs and see if they are something he thinks he would enjoy. Pratik finds involvement very important which is why he chose ACES as his scholar’s program. At home Pratik did a lot of volunteer work at hospitals and with children with disabilities. Pratik was also very involved at school with different organizations and leadership roles. ACES to him seemed like a good fit because it is a scholars group that is very active with its’ community service and engagement. Pratik had mentioned he also looked at the political science scholars group, as it is something he is highly interested in, but liked the emphasis on community in ACES. Knowing this, I really encouraged him to look into clubs that would allow him to have an outlet for discussing politics and meeting others who also enjoy this topic. As of now Pratik is still undecided in his major, which I assured him is totally okay. He wants to takes classes to truly figure out what he likes best before committing to anything. As of right now Pratik is leaning to do something with econ as he really enjoys that class and the business world. Pratik knows that he definitely wants to go to Graduate School and receive at least his master’s degree. Even though Pratik is not completely sure what he wants to do after graduation he at least knows he wants to be in school for a while and that he really enjoys business and economy. I encouraged Pratik to find people who are currently in this major and to ask them more about it so that he can gain a better understanding for what it is like to major in these areas. Lastly when I asked Pratik about what surprised him about OSU he said it was definitely the community that Ohio State has. Pratik is from New jersey, and coming to a big school out of state was exciting but intimidating, he wasn’t sure if it would be easy to find his “place” in the university. Quickly Pratik saw how important community and togetherness is to the buckeye family and that together our school really does come together as one. Pratik loves the energy of Game days and how united the whole school feels and he was not expecting it to be such a positive and exciting environment. I think this just really goes to show how people can make such a big school really feel small as networks are built and communities are formed. Pratik is a very proud member of ACES and is loving his first year at OSU. As a mentor I hope to continue to help him with finding ways to keep getting involved as well as help be a source of information about different opportunities on campus as he loves to try new things.