My first semester at Ohio State was not as difficult as I thought it would be. The transition from high school to college was definitely easier than I thought and my academic experiences during my first semester were a good test run for the rest of my college career. Because of this experience in my first semester I now have a better idea of what I want and what will work for me next semester. In addition, by getting a job about halfway through the semester, I found a more efficient way to spend my time outside of class while meeting new people. I found that many of my fears from the beginning of the year I got over pretty easily, especially my worry about navigating campus. One of the things that was the hardest about coming to college was being apart from my family and it was definitely really hard in the beginning but the more time I spend at Ohio State, the easier it gets being away from them. I also found some great friends through humanities scholars, while still keeping in touch with my friends from home. I’ve really enjoyed my experience with humanities scholars this semester, particularly in seminar and working on the film project. I still want to stay involved with humanities scholars over the next few years and I want to become involved with even more activities with this scholars program.

Sofia Baena is a freshman at Ohio State, whom I’ve had the privilege of knowing since I was twelve years old and is now one of my best friends. When I asked her “what is your story”, she replied, “My parents moved to the US because of my dad’s job after marrying in Colombia. I would say my story starts there.” She continued, “I remember growing up and at times being ashamed of their accents or worrying about not ‘fitting’ into the American culture around me. We moved a lot while growing up, living in Texas, California, Barcelona, and Ohio. Although these were amazing experience for a lot of reasons, I look back and see a scared girl, unsure of herself and attempting to fit in. Eventually, I reached the age where I became confident in who I am and proud of where I come from. I hope one day the world becomes a place where no one ever has to feel ashamed of who they are.”

During my first week at Ohio State I was definitely most worried about getting lost easily on such a big campus and looking like an idiotic freshman. But, I soon found out that that fear of mine was meritless because navigating the campus was very easy especially with the help of the OSU app. One of my other worries about starting college at OSU was making a transition from high school to college, which so far has not been easy. The structure of classes and my general lifestyle at college has been very different and difficult to acclimate myself to.While I was worried about these things, I was also excited to experience a new city and a new school with different and interesting classes. I was also excited about making new friends and experiencing  new things with some of my old friends. My week was a lot easier than I thought it would be. It was pretty easy to find things to do and people to do them with and I didn’t have as much trouble with the content of my classes as I thought I would.

Upon my acceptance into the Humanities Scholars program I became much more excited about coming to Ohio State because it eliminated another one of my worries—feeling lost amongst so many students. I was worried about coming to a school as large as Ohio State because I saw the scholars community as a way to make a school this large a little bit smaller by connecting with people that have similar interests to me. I expect that my experience at Ohio State and with the Humanities Scholars program will be a very important part of my life and a transformative aspect of my experience as a college student.

[Artifacts are the items you consider to be representative of your academic interests and achievements. For each entry, include both an artifact and a detailed annotation.  An annotation is a reflective description of the artifact that attempts to communicate its significance.  For more information, go to: http://honors-scholars.osu.edu/e-portfolio. Delete these instructions and add your own post.]