My second year at Ohio State has certainly been an interesting year. There have been plenty of ups and downs that have defined each semester. My fall semester, I took on the challenge of taking honors courses for the first time at Ohio State. After stumbling out of the gate in these courses, I was able to regain steady footing. Academically, after regaining the steady footing, things were much more like the first year, and were smooth sailing.
Professionally, this fall was unlike any other I had previously experienced at Ohio State. This fall, I embarked on the internship search for the first time in my college career. Walking into my first career fair was pretty daunting as I did not know what to expect, nor was I perfectly confident that I had prepared the right way. After a few discussions with recruiters, I was able to gain the confidence necessary to start performing very well with the recruiters I really wanted to talk to. While it was disheartening to hear on a fairly consistent basis that they are not looking for sophomore accountants to fill any internship positions, I was still able to find success. I believe my failure to land an internship interview at the career fair led me to receive the two opportunities I will have this summer. This upcoming summer, I will be a finance/accounting intern for UPS down in Atlanta. In addition, I have been invited to partake in Crowe Horwath’s Learn2Lead program, which is a major stepping stone to getting an internship with them the following summer. The greatest help I feel I received in this was actually by going through mock interviews at Fisher following my struggles at the career fairs. While I cannot recall the name of who helped me at the moment, I am extremely thankful for their help.
Personally, I enjoyed my fall semester at Ohio State incredibly and felt myself grow more as a person, as I lived off campus and did not have a meal plan. This made me feel as if I was truly living independently for the first time, as I did not have the dining halls to fall back on for each and every meal.
This spring semester, however I have seen the largest growth in myself since moving to Ohio State. By studying abroad, I have been forced to become truly and fully independent, as unlike at Ohio State, here, I knew no one. I had to go out and meet new people from all over the world, and adapt to tons of different cultures on the fly. Overall, this has been an incredible experience and it has truly changed my outlook on the world. I feel I will be coming back to OSU and the United States feeling as if the things in life that felt like they were flying at me are not moving as fast anymore. Now, instead of getting overwhelmed and stressed at everything I have to do, I feel much calmer even when the most daunting tasks hang over my head. Now, I take a much more methodical and rational approach to everything and it has helped me remain calm, cool and collected rather than running around like I was blind. I cannot wait to be able to implement this new style at Ohio State as I feel it will translate very well.