Welcome to my Honors & Scholars e-Portfolio

Hello, my name is Alice Davies! This blog is designed to be a showcase of my accomplishments and goals both in the STEM EE scholars program as well as my career at OSU. There will be content relating to STEM events as well as my overall experiences at OSU. These posts will be designed to inform the reader of what it means to be a STEM EE scholar. Additionally, I hope to use this blog to enumerate my future plans in STEM fields and perhaps be a connecting factor for research opportunities in the fields of biochemistry and mathematics.

Year in Review

[ “Year in Review”  is where you should reflect on the past year and show how you have evolved as a person and as a student.  You may want to focus on your growth in a particular area (as a leader, scholar, researcher, etc.) or you may want to talk about your overall experience over the past year.  For more information, go to: http://honors-scholars.osu.edu/e-portfolio. Delete these instructions and add your own post.]

Career

[“Career” is where you can collect information about your experiences and skills that will apply to your future career.  Like your resume, this is information that will evolve over time and should be continually updated.   For more information, go to: http://honors-scholars.osu.edu/e-portfolio. Delete these instructions and add your own post.]

About Me

alicesenior My name is Alice Davies. I grew up in Kingston, New York, right in the center of the Hudson River Valley. I lived there with my parents and my younger brother Henry. I attended Kingston High School and graduated with honors in 2015. I am currently enrolled at the Ohio State University, set to graduate in 2019, and am I member of the STEM EE scholars program. I am super excited to expand my education in the fields of biochemistry and mathematics at OSU. After earning bachelor’s degrees in both biochemistry and mathematics at OSU I hope to continue on to graduate school and earn a PhD in both of these topics. From there I would like to participate in research and analysis of drug trials either for a pharmaceutical company of the Food and Drug Administration.
Ever since I was little I have had an affinity toward math and science. First I fell in love with paleontology, then chemistry, then algebra, then biology, then calculus, and then statistics. All of these topics interest me and I’ve often fought with myself about which is the one that I should major in. Ultimately, this has lead me to major in both biochemistry and mathematics, combining three of my interest in one grand plan. Despite my love of multiple sciences and math I had always detested the classical humanities classes. I would struggle to connect and pay attention to those classes simply because I thought there was nothing that I could possibly be interested about in the realm of humanities. This changed when I was in my junior year of high school when my AP US History teacher assigned us a ten page paper. We could write about anything as long as it could be somehow related to US history. I decide to write about the formation of the FDA and how drug trials were carried out in the US. This lead to me becoming someone obsessed with the statistic of drug trials failing and the ethics regarding who was allowed to participate in these trials. I decided then that I wanted to pursue a career that would somehow be related to experimental drug research. Ultimately, I hope to participate in the research behind drug trials both because mathematically and scientifically these trails are interesting, and because it could give me an opportunity to improve the quality of life for people.
Although I have always been primarily interested in STEM fields I do enjoy other things. One of my most memorable experiences during my high school career was my time spent at the Harvard Model UN (HMUN) conference during February of both my junior and senior year of high school. HMUN was a time for me to break out from my science and math focused studies and simply enjoy debating world issues for other high school student from around the world. For example, in my senior year at HMUN I represented Rwanda on the Security Council. I worked with delegates representing other countries to draft and ultimately pass resolutions that would help stabilize the Democratic Republic of Congo via the use of MONUSCO peacekeeping efforts. One of the most interesting thing in debates at HMUN is that the resolutions you have to fight to pass may not necessarily be what you, as an individual want; you have to think as though you are a part the country you are representing that may have interests you do not agree with. Through HMUN I was able to gain an appreciation of events occurring across the globe that are not always talked about in the average classroom setting. Additionally, HMUN allowed me to realize just how much I enjoyed debating issues, ultimately leading me to rethink where I was going with my education and career goals.
Outside of school I enjoy many things. In high school I was first chair tuba in both in our wind ensemble and our marching band. Through marching band I was able to experience firsthand how a group of people can come together and produce something amazing. As our band competed in the New York State Field Band Conference first in the Large School 3 and later Large School 2 divisions there was something completely magically about watching hours and hours of rehearsals in the blistering heat all culminate in one near perfect performance for judges at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, NY. Another activity that I enjoyed in high school was darkroom photography. Through film photography is an art that for most people is obsolete, I always found solace in the methodical process of developing, enlarging, and printing film. Though darkroom and band I learned that somethings take time; sometimes it is necessary to wait and practice things again and again in order to get the desired outcome.
As I start my education at OSU I cannot wait to pursue my love of science and math. I hope to one day be able to participate in biochemical research both at OSU and in a professional setting. My overarching goal is to work toward getting a PhD in a math or science field and do research work for either the FDA or a pharmaceutical company. I think that through drug trail research I will be able to help people and society as a whole as well as combine many of my personal interests.