About Me

Ruth Davies is currently a first year from Mason, Ohio, majoring in Nursing at The Ohio State University. She plans to obtain her BSN and go back to school to become a Nurse Practitioner and then specialize in Pediatric Oncology. Ruth enjoys participating in theatre and serving in her local church through mission trips and as a regular Sunday School Teacher. In high school Ruth was involved with student government as a member for all four years, and led the Service Committee as chair for two years. In her first year at Ohio State, Ruth plans to continue serving others through the Mount Leadership Society Scholars. Please feel free to contact Ruth if you have any questions!

Year in Review

My freshman year was full of growth and challenges. My first semester in college was dedicated to getting acquainted to campus and classes- to figure out how to get through college. My first semester classes were very easy, leaving me with tons of time to do things because I didn’t have to study often. My second semester of classes has been harder, but I have begun to learn how to study and effectively balance more on my plate. When second semester came around I knew I wanted to join one more club, so I joined the Scientific Thinkers which is a group that travels to a local school to teach science experiments. Along with being in Scientific Thinkers, I am still heavily involved in Cru and Mount Leadership. Both of these programs have helped me continue to build relationships and grow as an individual. This semester, I am expecting to study hard to maintain my 4.0 GPA, specifically to help me get into nursing school.

G.O.A.L.S.

My interests and activities are very closely aligned with the GOALS that OSU Honors and Scholars set to accomplish. The part of the GOALS that I can most relate to accomplishing is Service Engagement. This year, for my scholars program Mount Leadership, I am serving at “Broad Street Food Pantry” once or twice a week. Serving within the community has been an amazing way to hear peoples stories and learn from their experiences. This has also been a way to dive deeper into the privilege I have from being an educated college student. I have been surprised how open the people are who come through the pantry. I don’t even have to ask and they begin to share their stories and struggles with me. This makes me feel very welcome in an environment I am not necessarily used to.

Through my scholars program, Mount Leadership, I have also been engaged in leadership development. Mount prepares us to lead by making us aware of our strengths and weakness and how to use that self knowledge in group settings and working with others who are different from you. We spend a lot of time looking at personality results- Meyer-Briggs, StrengthsQuest, and True Colors. These tests have personally helped me discover my type of leadership. This discovery allows me to work more efficiently with others because of my known strengths and weaknesses. It also allows me to see where others differ, and how I can still learn to collaborate with them. Many personalities can be difficult to work with if they clash with your own, but Mount has helped teach strategies on how to work with each type of personality.

I hope to accomplish the other part of GOALS throughout the rest of my college career and beyond. I am a nursing major, and love to learn. This desire to learn has helped me begin to accomplish academic enrichment by not only taking rigorous classes in college, but striving to learn outside information such as through others knowledge and through traveling. I have begun to accomplish global awareness through traveling to Nicaragua, Belize, and emerging myself in diverse cultures. My hope for my future is that I would eventually be able to travel as a nurse and do medical missions around the world. This would deepen my appreciation for other cultures and individuals who have had different experiences than I have growing up the the United States.

To conclude, I am very excited to work towards accomplishing my goals throughout college and later in life. OSU has given me so many opportunities to do so, and I look forward to continuing to take advantage of those opportunities locally and globally.

Career

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My top five Clifton strengths are Restorative, Discipline, Learner, Strategic, and Arranger. Restorative means that I love to solve problems and I have seen this strength come out while working as a gymnastics coach. We had to come up with our own lesson plans and figure out how to explain skills to kids in a way that was individualized to them. As I nanny I was able to learn creative ways to communicate and keep kids busy. It helped me practice my bedside manners of asking questions, taking care of someone, and learning to communicate with all types of emotions. My other strengths include being organized, a leader, and responsible.

In high school, I was able to participate in two internships. The first was 2 weeks long and consisted of observing multiple sections in a hospital. My favorites were nursing and speech therapy. This internship allowed me to learn to communicate with all different hierarchies in the hospital and also allowed me to see how important it is to work as a team in the healthcare system. I was able to apply this to my life by applying communication to everything I do. The second was focused on speech therapy and ran for 2 months. During this time, I was able to organize patients, and shadow a speech therapist. This allowed me to interact with different patients and learn how to teach in a way that patients would want to learn.

From both my past internships and work experience I have learned valuable skills that I can apply to a job. Everything I learned will help me become more aware of my strengths and weaknesses, a better co-worker, and a better team member.

 

Artifacts

This past summer I was able to travel to Belize on a medical mission trip. This trip helped me further my career as a future nurse and remind me of exactly why I wanted to become a nurse. During this trip, I was able to shadow under physicians and nurse practitioners. They let me practice vital signs on each and every patient and helped me learn the signs and symptoms of the most popular conditions and diseases in Belize. My time in Belize also helped me develop an appreciation for other cultures. I really enjoyed trying new foods, visiting their homes, and learning more about what their normal day looked like. I also learned a lot about patience, as the community would wait in line for hours just to seek medical care. It really shows the need they have for improvements in their healthcare system.

As I become a nurse I will always keep this trip in the back of my mind. I hope that one day I will be able to travel back here and help the community once again. Moving forward, I will continue to reflect on ways to improve healthcare systems, in the US and globally. I hope I will be able to gain knowledge on ways to help as I dive deeper into my career.